Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to attempt a synthesis of complexity theory and Darwinian natural selection theory. It seeks to introduce a complex perspective on the emergence of humankind and focuses on the evolutionary emergence of symbolic reasoning. The book shows how the analysis presented so far can provide a basis for a critique of both modern and postmodern social theory. It argues that the adoption of a nonmodern perspective on the origins of modern humans can offer new insights into the inter-relationship between biology, psychology and culture. Poststructuralists hold that discourse is transcendent over nature as an agent within human affairs, a position that has stemmed from the general postmodern social theoretical interest in unveiling the contingent and discontinuous character of social and cultural life.