For a Fruitful Reconciliation of the Social and Biological Sciences

Abstract Bernard Lahire’s book, dedicated to constructing theoretical foundations for identifying the “fundamental structures of human societies” is one of the most ambitious achievements of this author’s career, whose studies are highly original and fruitful. For his purposes, Lahire explores knowledge from different scientific fields, such as evolutionary biology and archaeology, in order to find the foundations that form the structures of the great diversity of human life forms. From this perspective, the author highlights particularly the profound human dependence, focusing on the sociocultural repercussions of “secondary altriciality,” a key concept in this large-scale interdisciplinary study.