Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-340) and index.

The question of the origin of human society -- Primatology and the evolution of human behavior -- The uterine kinship legacy -- From biological to cultural kinship -- The incest avoidance legacy -- From interactional regularities to institutionalized rules -- Levi-Strauss and the exogamy configuration -- Exogamy out of the evolutionary vacuum -- The building blocks of exogamy -- The ancestral male kin group hypothesis -- The evolutionary history of pair-bonding -- Pair-bonding and the reinvention of kinship -- Biparentality and the transformation of siblingships -- Beyond the local group : the rise of the tribe -- From male philopatry to residential diversity -- Brothers, sisters and the founding principle of exogamy -- Filiation, descent, and ideology -- The primate origins of unilineal descent groups -- The evolution of human descent -- Conclusion: Human society as contingent.

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