Does Biology Inform Our Understanding of Empire?

It's All in the family.

Empires are an extremely common feature of civilization, having arizen more or less independently hundreds of times. Their common characteristics are striking. Centralized power and institution, a multinational and multicultural membership, and a course of growth, decay, and dissolution.

Naturally, I have a theory about that. The fundamental unit of human society is the family, extended in hunter gather bands. Larger units of society, including empires, are modeled on the extended family. Member states and member cultures play the role of the family members. As in a family, some will strive for supremacy, and must be suppressed. More cooperative members must be rewarded because we will need allies in the next contest. Outsiders are a threat to our resources and their resources are a temptation to us.

As with hunter gather bands, outsiders are not wholly alien. We are related to them as well, but they may be either enemies, allies, or target of our greed.

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