Us and them : understanding your tribal mind / David Berreby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berreby, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Group identity.

Social psychology.

Psychology.

Physical Description:

x, 370 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2005.

Summary:

Why do we see these divisions? Why do we care about them so much? Why do we kill and die for them? This is the stuff of news headlines. How has a nation gone from peaceful coexistence to genocide? How does social status affect your health? Why are teenagers willing to kill themselves in hazing rituals in order to belong to a fraternity or social group? How do terrorists learn not to care about the lives of those they attack? Us and Them gets at the heart of these profound questions by looking at their common root in human nature. Politics, culture, and economics play their parts, but its the human mind that makes them possible, and thats the focus of Us and Them. Were not born with a map of human kinds; each person makes his own and learns to fight for it. This is a crucial subject that touches all of our lives in ways both large and small, obvious and subtle. Human-kind thinkingwhether beneficial or destructiveis part of human nature, as David Berrebys brilliant book reveals.

Contents:

"That's our biggest difference"

"There are few questions more curious than this"

Counting and measuring

Birds of a feather

Mind sight and kind sight

Looking for the codes

How mind makes world

Inventing tradition in Oklahoma, or what I did on my summer vacation

Them, we burn

"Our common humanity makes us weep''

No humans involved

Don't be a stranger

Hazings and conversions

The heads on the poles

Species of Darwinism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-362) and index.

ISBN:

0316090301

0316154989

OCLC:

57675739