Robert L. Carneiro
Encyclopedia
Robert Leonard Carneiro (born in New York City on June 4, 1927) is a prominent American
anthropologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History
. Carneiro earned a Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan
in 1957.
One of the most important social evolutionists
of the present (see, e.g., Sanderson, S. K. 2007. Evolutionism and its Critics: Deconstructing and Reconstructing an Evolutionary Interpretation of Human Society. Boulder, CO: Paradigm. P.161-171), he is especially known for his theory of the state formation ("Carneiro's Circumscription Theory
") that explains how the constraints of the environment interact with population
pressures and war
fare to form states
(Carneiro, R. L. 1970. A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169: 733–738). He has also made important contributions to the general theory of cultural evolution. He claims that in primitive war if the losers get away far enough then everything is quite fine. As seen with Ancient Egypt, when an area conquered along the Nile, the people can not just run off into the desert, therefore they are bound to their area, as seen with China, Iraq, etc.
Carneiro, R. L. "Process vs. Stages: A False Dichotomy in Tracing the Rise of the State." In Alternatives of Social Evolution. Ed. by Nikolay Kradin
, Andrey Korotayev, Dmitri Bondarenko
, Victor de Munck, and Paul Wason, pp. 52–58. Vladivostok: Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000.
Carneiro, R. L. The Muse of History and the Science of Culture. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000
Carneiro, R. L. "What Happened at Flashpoint? Conjectures on Chiefdom Formation at the Very Moment of Conception." In Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas. Ed. by Elsa M. Redman, pp. 18–42. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998.
Carneiro, R. L. "Human History: A Domain of Competing Perspectives." Europaea 3, no. 2 (1997): 9-32.
Carneiro, R. L. "Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History" Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2003.
Carneiro, R. L. The Evolution of the Human Mind From Supernaturalism to Naturalism An Anthropological Perspective. New York: Eliot Werner Publications, Inc., 2010.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
anthropologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
. Carneiro earned a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in 1957.
One of the most important social evolutionists
Evolutionism
Evolutionism refers to the biological concept of evolution, specifically to a widely held 19th century belief that organisms are intrinsically bound to increase in complexity. The belief was extended to include cultural evolution and social evolution...
of the present (see, e.g., Sanderson, S. K. 2007. Evolutionism and its Critics: Deconstructing and Reconstructing an Evolutionary Interpretation of Human Society. Boulder, CO: Paradigm. P.161-171), he is especially known for his theory of the state formation ("Carneiro's Circumscription Theory
Carneiro's Circumscription Theory
Carneiro's Circumscription Theory is an influential theory of the role of warfare in state formation in political anthropology, created by anthropologist Robert Carneiro .-Outline of the theory:...
") that explains how the constraints of the environment interact with population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
pressures and war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
fare to form states
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
(Carneiro, R. L. 1970. A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169: 733–738). He has also made important contributions to the general theory of cultural evolution. He claims that in primitive war if the losers get away far enough then everything is quite fine. As seen with Ancient Egypt, when an area conquered along the Nile, the people can not just run off into the desert, therefore they are bound to their area, as seen with China, Iraq, etc.
Recent significant publications
Carneiro, R. L. "The Transition From Quantity to Quality: A Neglected Causal Mechanism in Accounting for Social Evolution." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97 (2000): 12926-12931.Carneiro, R. L. "Process vs. Stages: A False Dichotomy in Tracing the Rise of the State." In Alternatives of Social Evolution. Ed. by Nikolay Kradin
Nikolay Kradin
Nikolay Nikolaevich Kradin is a Russian anthropologist and archaeologist. Since 1985 he has been a Research Fellow of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok...
, Andrey Korotayev, Dmitri Bondarenko
Dmitri Bondarenko
Dmitri Bondarenko , born 1968 in Moscow, is a Russian anthropologist, historian, and africanist. He has conducted field research in a number of African countries and in Russia...
, Victor de Munck, and Paul Wason, pp. 52–58. Vladivostok: Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000.
Carneiro, R. L. The Muse of History and the Science of Culture. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000
Carneiro, R. L. "What Happened at Flashpoint? Conjectures on Chiefdom Formation at the Very Moment of Conception." In Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas. Ed. by Elsa M. Redman, pp. 18–42. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998.
Carneiro, R. L. "Human History: A Domain of Competing Perspectives." Europaea 3, no. 2 (1997): 9-32.
Carneiro, R. L. "Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History" Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2003.
Carneiro, R. L. The Evolution of the Human Mind From Supernaturalism to Naturalism An Anthropological Perspective. New York: Eliot Werner Publications, Inc., 2010.
External links
- A critical assessment of Carneiro's theory of the origins of the state
- http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/carneiro_robert.html Faculty Page at Minnesota University.
- Robert Carneiro is a member of Social Evolution & HistorySocial Evolution & HistorySocial Evolution & History is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the development of human societies in the past, present and future. In addition to original research articles, Social Evolution & History includes critical notes and a book review section. It is published in English twice a...
journal