“This book is dedicated to an exciting and important topic for any person - awareness of oneself as part of society and consideration of the very phenomenon of society under the lens of evolutionary processes in the animal world. Mark Moffett compares human society to the social formations of social insects, and these comparisons are quite apt. And his subsequent interest in the structure of social systems in a wide range of vertebrates, from fish to apes, is not accidental. As an evolutionist, his interests are related to identifying the causes and factors influencing transformations of social behavior in different taxa, the role of ecology in complicating social relations, and searching for connections between morphological and psychological transformations that ultimately led to the emergence of our species. Homo sapiens, unique in his development of speech, culture, technology and art. Unique in its desire to understand the secrets of the vast universe... But continuing to remain defenseless in a world of conflict and violence, generated by itself.” (M. L. Butovskaya) “Despite the fact that humanity has moved from small societies to huge ones, we have retained the supernatural ability to understand who corresponds to them and who does not. For better or worse, for reasons I hope to make clear, the distinctive features remain, along with equally stark and often destructive differences that exist within societies themselves. How we approach similarities and differences determines the nature and future of societies.” (Mark Moffett) PDF A4 format retains the publisher's design.