What is a society and how did it emerged? Basically, it is associated with the increase in population that occurred around 10 000 years ago, that had some psychological and organizational impacts.

1. Theory based
on
Population growth and brain limits
HOW DO SOCIETIES EMERGE?

2. WE ARE SOCIAL BEINGS
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
We are social beings and we live in a collectivity1. It is because we are social
beings and we live in a collectivity that different social tensions, frictions and
conflicts naturally arise.
• The size of the population of a collectivity has an impact on the level of
social tensions, frictions and conflicts.
• The social competencies of the members of a collectivity have an impact on
the performance of the collectivity as it pertains to reducing, solving and
managing those social tensions, frictions and conflicts.
• The leader serves as a neutral third party to solve these conflicts when
citizens can’t achieve this on their own.
1. Collectivity here means the entire set of citizens living within the territory
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3. THE SOCIAL ACTION CONTINUUM
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
Our social nature involves two types of social actions1: Interrelations and
Interactions
Interrelations: emotional relationships, one to one, one to many, many to
many, that citizens have with each other through friendly or familial relations.
Interactions: operational relationships, one to one, one to many, many to
many, that citizens have with each other and the other societal resources,
where the actions emanating from these relations aim to achieve an
operational objective. Citizens are then used as a resource.
1. Both types of social actions create different social tensions, frictions and conflicts.
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4. THE SOCIAL ACTION CONTINUUM
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
These two social actions are part of a continuum.
The process is dynamic1.
1.The Mirror Neurons that seem to play a role in empathy, could also play a role here.
Family Friends AcquaintancesColleagues Others
Interrelations
Interactions
Tensions, Frictions and Conflicts
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5. DESCRIBING COMMUNITIES AND SOCIETIES
Both community and society1 are concepts we humans have invented
to say in one word that:
Voluntarily or not, willingly or not, consciously or not, we citizens are
collaborating together so that we can facilitate our own development
while living together in a way such that the outcome of our social
interrelations and interactions reduces the different social tensions,
frictions and conflicts that naturally arise because we are social beings.
Both words refer to the entire set of citizens living within the territory:
the collectivity.
1. Society has never been clearly defined before. Frisby and Sayer 1986
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016 2015-11-14 5

6. PREVENTING, SOLVING AND MANAGING SOCIAL
TENSIONS, FRICTIONS AND CONFLICTS
Whichever collectivity people live in, they all play a role in
preventing, solving and managing the different social
tensions, frictions and conflicts that naturally arise because
we are social beings.
It is only when they are not able to do this by themselves or
that a decision needs to be taken for the collectivity that the
leader of the community intervenes.
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016 2015-11-14 6

7. HOW DO SOCIETIES EMERGE?
Communities become societies as the population size
increases and in the process of reducing the different
social tensions, frictions and conflicts that naturally arise
because we are social beings, citizens delegate,
voluntarily or not, willingly or not, consciously or not, more
and more of their power to their leader so that he or she
can reduce, solve or manage these social tensions,
frictions and conflicts that arise because we interrelate
and interact or because a decision must be taken for the
collectivity.
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016 2015-11-14 7

8. HOW DID THE 1ST SOCIETIES EMERGE?
( “HYPOTHESIS”)
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
Around 10 000 years ago or so there was an increase in population which
brought us from living in communities, to proto-societies, to societies.
Community: A collectivity with fewer than 150 members(1) who know each
other well. They interrelate more than they interact.
Proto-society: A collectivity with more than 150 members where because of
the disjunction process (see slide 10 ) the level of interactions is increasing
which increases the social tensions, frictions and conflicts.
Society: A collectivity where there are more interactions than interrelations,
thus further increasing the different social tensions, frictions and conflicts that
naturally arise because we are social beings. (Around 750 members)
(1) Numbers are approximations. Dunbar Social brain hypothesis: http://tinyurl.com/7ktnjt2
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9. FOUR IMPACTS ( “HYPOTHESIS”)
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
The growth in the size of the population inside a collectivity had four
impacts:
1. Started a disjunction process between citizens.
2. Increased the process of affiliation between certain citizens
which increased the power of some groups.
3. Forced the leader to delegate part of the authority received
from his or her fellow members towards junior fellow citizens
so that he or she can play his or her role effectively.
4. Increased the attractiveness of collectivities. Thus, making the
collectivity bigger and amplifying the disjunction, the affiliation
and the delegation processes.
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10. DISJUNCTION PROCESS
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
It is a process where the knowledge that citizens have about the other
citizens in their collectivity diminishes as the population grows. This lack
of understanding increase:
• the social tensions, frictions and conflicts, between citizens of the
collectivity which increase the need to develop mechanisms to
prevent, manage and solve them.
According to Dunbar’s social brain hypothesis, our brain would be
connected to facilitate up to 150 social relations. It is therefore likely that
the growth in human population has led citizens to limit their knowledge
of others to a superficial level, creating the process of disjunction.
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11. AFFILIATION PROCESS
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
It is a process which facilitates the creation of groups between citizens who have the same
interest, the same way of perceiving and communicating. As group size and group numbers
increase, they have an impact on the collectivity. This impact can be;
• Positive as it can facilitate the development of the citizens and the functioning of the
collectivity and increase the development of new societal resources or improve
existing one.
• Negative when interactions with individual citizen, other groups or the leader(s) are
conflictual or when the action undermines the development of societal resources or
destroys them.
Since groups became bigger in size and in numbers, and the members of the collectivity were
also affected by the disjunction process, they probably had an impact on behaviors
detrimental to the functioning of the collectivities and increased the demand for management
processes to prevent, manage or resolve conflicts. (ex.: peer pressure, social loafing)
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12. ATTRACTIVENESS
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
Attractiveness is a feeling that a citizen senses when he arrives in a
collectivity that increases his desire to be part of it. It is affected by the
availability of :
• natural resources: food, water, working material to create tools, habitation, etc.
• human resources: citizens, groups of citizens, collectivity.
• abstract resources: language, knowledge and know how, laws, culture, etc.
• transformed natural resources: habitations, infrastructures, tools, etc.
The more a collectivity is attractive, the more it attracts citizens which
increases the disjunctive dysfunction and the number of groups which
accentuates the demands on the leader and intensifies the need to
delegate.
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13. DELEGATION PROCESS
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
At one point these elements were too much for one leader. As he needed to
solve more and more problems, he started relying on other members of the
collectivity:
• To implement solutions once he had decided on what to do.
• To not only manage, but to decide what to do as well, since his
capabilities remain stable even if the population continues to
grow.
It is only when the two levels of delegation are used that our first societal
organizations appeared. It is hypothesized that at this time there were far more
interactions than interrelations..
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14. DEFINING SOCIETIES
A society is thus a collectivity where the size of the
population is such that there are more interactions than
interrelations; this increases the different social tensions,
frictions and conflicts, which then leads to the
development of a hierarchy1 where most citizens are at
least two level of separations away from the leader who is
called upon to solve the conflicts that citizens can’t solve
by themselves.
1. This would be the precursor of governments.
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016 2015-11-14 14

15. END
DENIS PAGEAU © 2011 - 2016
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