https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202024401006
The Driving Forces of Human Society Main Transitions
MPQ, UMR CNRS 7162, Physics Department, University Paris Diderot, 75013 Paris, France
* Corresponding author: jean-claude.levy@univ-paris-diderot.fr
Published online: 15 October 2020
The four main steps of human evolution: hunting-gathering, farming-livestock herding, industrial era and conception era are considered here as distinct phases parted by dynamic phase transitions. Comparing these social phases enables us to deduce the driving forces occurring during these transitions. At each transition the laymen lost some previous advantages, these losses had to be balanced by some counterweights, the transition driving forces. For instance, the first transition is shown to result from an equilibrium between efficiency and power, social partition and religion. Other transitions are similarly analysed with evidence for driving forces leading to deep social reconstructions.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
