bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
On Roads Not (Yet) Taken
Authors: Lynn Andrew 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter places the faith and work movement within a broader backdrop of various orientations toward the economic sphere within the American Protestant religious landscape. Four major strands of theology or movement are surveyed: sectarian Protestantism, Dominionism, Prosperity Gospel, and Communitarian theology. Each strand is also surveyed for its relationship to the faith and work movement. This chapter concludes with an assessment of the future of the faith and work movement. The rise and continual growth of political evangelicalism is identified as the factor most likely to shape the future of American evangelicalism’s orientations to work and economics.
Introduction
Authors: Desmond Hugh , Ramsey Grant 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Claims that our species is an “evolutionary success” typically do not feature prominently in academic articles. However, they do seem to be a recurring trope in science popularization. Why do we seem to be attracted to viewing human evolution through the lenses of “success”? In this chapter we discuss how evolutionary success has both causal-descriptive and ethical-normative components, and how its ethical status is ambiguous, with possible hints of anthropocentrism. We also place the concept of “success” in a wider context of biological thought, contrasting it with two other value-laden concepts: evolutionary progress and human uniqueness. Claiming the human species to be an evolutionary success is ostensibly grounded in metrics such as the dominance or the size of the human population, but the claim often goes beyond this, suggesting that humans are a unique species or the pinnacle of evolutionary progress.
Human Success as a Complex of Autonomy, Adaptation, and Niche Construction
Authors: Rosslenbroich Bernd 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The emphasis of the present chapter lies on a neglected feature that can be found throughout evolution. Evolutionary change is to be characterized not only in terms of adaptations to given environments, but also in terms of changes in the degree of autonomy of individual organisms. This is especially evident during the major transitions in animal and human evolution. During the major transitions, organisms increased in stability, robustness, self-regulation, homeostasis, and flexibility. In birds and mammals, this brought about the potential for more flexible and self-determined behaviors. Humans have a special and far-reaching combination of features of autonomy, which serves as the basis for versatility and creativity. The feature of autonomy connects humans to the prehuman history, but at the same time allowed the evolution of human cultural characteristics. Against this backdrop it is proposed that human success cannot be defined only in terms of survival and reproduction, but must include references to autonomy, independence, individualization, and to what is experienced as human freedom.
The Origin and Evolution of Human Uniqueness
Authors: Vermeij Geerat J. 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Humans are unique among animals in cognition and economic power. Besides some anatomical features that distinguish Homo from other primates, the primary differences that underlie our uniqueness derive from aspects of our exceptional sociality: the use of external energy sources, including the services of other species; a social organization characterized by cooperation among strangers, group identity, and division of labor; the distinctiveness and contributions of named individuals to society; and combinatorial language and music. Our social nature has catapulted humans to planetary monopoly, but it has also allowed the spread of disease and dangerous ideas. Human uniqueness was strongly favored in ecosystems such as those in Africa and Asia, where competition from megafauna was more intense than elsewhere. Human adaptation was initially more strongly influenced by genes, but genetic influences have given way to cultural factors.
Culture as a Life History Character
Authors: Grove Matt 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Relative to other primates, humans are a uniquely successful species in terms of population size, biomass, and geographical extent. This contribution suggests that the particular constellation of traits that characterizes human uniqueness evolved in concert with our increasing reliance on cultural relative to biological means for dealing with environmental challenges. Ceteris paribus, slower life histories generate less genetic variation per unit time; this leads to the potential for reduced rates of genetic evolution, which in some species leads to a compensatory increase in reliance on the cultural system of innovation and social learning. It is argued that there exists a cognitive continuum, corresponding to a considerable degree to the fast/slow life-history continuum, between animals that reproduce rapidly, have small brains, and rely primarily on the genetic system to track environmental change, and those animals that reproduce slowly, have large brains, and rely primarily on the cultural system to track environmental change. To the extent that Homo sapiens can be regarded as successful, that success stems from an evolutionary trajectory that has positioned our species at the cultural extreme of this continuum.
A Gene-Culture Coevolutionary Perspective on Human Success
Authors: Demps Kathryn , Richerson Peter J. 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Humans are the last remaining species of hominin, having successfully bested our last human competitors about 50,000 years ago. Big brains and stone tools long predate this success, so why has our recent explosion in biomass happened so recently? This chapter proposes that cultural adaptations, changes in our social organization, and increasing population density led to further developments in cumulative complex culture. In the past 10,000 years, a process of runaway environmental mutualism between humans’ population size, technological complexity, and subsistence productivity has led us through demographic transitions toward an increasing reliance on culture to manage environmental variation. Will our current trajectory lead us to predictable boom-and-bust cycles of population growth or to some sustainable equilibrium? Or will our fleeting success turn out to leave but a thin layer of marine sediments rich in anthropogenic detritus investigated by horseshoe crabs? Perhaps it is too soon to tell.
Anthropocene Patterns in Stratigraphy as a Perspective on Human Success
Authors: Zalasiewicz Jan , Williams, and Mark , Waters Colin 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The human species has deeply impacted the geology of our planet, our current environmental conditions now being very different from the stable interglacial conditions of the Holocene Epoch, in which human civilization flowered. Hence, a new epoch has been proposed, the Anthropocene, starting in tandem with the mid-20th-century Great Acceleration of population, industrialization, and globalization. One of the clearest measures of human impact on our planet is energy use, as reflected by rapidly increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Through this lens, the large-scale historical patterns of human activity show not gradual change but sudden and massive linked changes to geology and ecosystems. This has been driven by growth of the technosphere, a quasi-autonomous and emergent sphere of human-driven processes that interacts with the other Earth spheres. Consequences include the rapid accumulation of unrecycled waste, increasingly threatening the success of this development and hence of humans too.
Utter Success and Extensive Inequity
Authors: Fuentes Agustín 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Contemporary Homo sapiens’s ecological and geographic range, population growth, and adaptability in the face of micro- and macroenvironmental challenges are substantial. Humans have such an impact at a global scale that the most recent epoch has been dubbed, by many, “the Anthropocene.” There is no question that under the basic measures of standard evolutionary theory Homo sapiens is among the most successful, if not the most successful, large-bodied mammal. However, standard evolutionary theory might not offer the most comprehensive assessment framework for measuring or conceptualizing evolutionary success in the 21st century. This chapter offers examples and details as to how and why considering evolutionary success via the extended evolutionary synthesis and a dynamic anthropological approach enables a frame of reference that is more in tune with the actual range of evolutionarily relevant processes at play in the contemporary human niche.
Future Human Success
Authors: Desmond Hugh 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
In one vision of human success, future human evolution lies in enhancing our bodies and especially our minds in order to achieve new levels of cooperation, morality, and well-being. In unadulterated form, this vision combines a pessimism in the human evolutionary heritage with an optimism in what technological enhancement can offer. This chapter points to a crucial blind spot: the role the social and cultural environment has played and continues to play in human evolution. In particular, the chapter emphasizes how enhancement technologies are co-opted in the competition for social status. When this is taken into consideration, the vision of techno-libertarian success seems both less appealing and less plausible. Two desiderata for the concept of human success in the future are identified.
The Defense Industry’s Contribution to National Security
Authors: Vestner Tobias 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter examines the global defense industry’s function in light of states’ national security. It retraces the global context and dynamics of the defense industry. It identifies, applies, and discusses three mechanisms by which the defense industry serves national security. First, the industry provides access to military goods, technologies, and services. Second, when exporting weapons, the industry creates dependencies and interdependencies with the importing states. Third, the industry can enhance status and national pride. The chapter finds, however, that most states’ defense industries struggle to significantly contribute to national security, the U.S. industry being a notable exception. The chapter argues that there is an ethical dimension to this because, even when defense industries contribute to national security to a limited degree, they still profit by producing tools to kill. To address this issue, the calls for a renewed research agenda on how the defense industry contributes to security.
Kush under the Dynasty of Napata
Authors: Emberling Geoff 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
Centered along the Nile River in what is now northern Sudan, Kush was one of the earliest, longest-lived, and most extensive polities in Africa. Although it is often said that Kush remains little known, this has more to do with the ways in which this ancient culture has been obscured by the long history of racism in scholarship. First appearing in the historical record around 2000 bc, Kush persisted for more than two millennia, finally collapsing after ad 300. Kush reached its largest territorial extent and made its greatest impact on the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East during its Napatan period (ca. 1069–270 bc). Kings of Kush conquered and ruled over Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (ca. 750–664 bc), when they also came into contact with the Assyrian Empire and left their trace in the Bible. Throughout its long history, Kush maintained contacts with Egypt to the north and with regions of Africa to the west, south, and east, although its wider African connections remain poorly defined. This chapter provides an essentially political history of Kush during the Napatan period, summarizing the long history of research on Napatan Kush and highlighting recent finds, interpretations, and debates. It identifies gaps in knowledge—particularly emphasizing the scarcity of excavations of settlements and associated studies of subsistence practices—and suggests priorities for new research that would make Kush more readily comparable to other ancient states and empires.
Babylonia from Nebuchadnezzar I to Tiglath-pileser III
Authors: Nielsen John P. 
Published: March 2023

AbstractBetween the collapse of the Kassite Dynasty in the mid-twelfth century bc and the assumption of the Babylonian throne by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 728 bc, Babylonia endured a prolonged phase of political decline and decentralization, punctuated by brief periods of dynastic continuity and the rule of strong kings at Babylon. During these centuries, Assyrian power gradually waxed, and while Babylonia occasionally enjoyed the upper hand over its northern neighbor or was at peace with Assyria, by the eighth century bc, the Assyrian Empire was dominant and capable of extending its hegemony over Babylonia. Domestically, Babylonia was destabilized by the appearance of new tribal groups in southern Mesopotamia, most notably the Arameans and Chaldeans, whose members competed with the residents of Babylonia’s traditional urban centers for land and resources, but also allied with some of these cities against Assyria; Chaldean chieftains who claimed the Babylonian crown would organize some of the most effective resistance to Assyrian encroachments. In spite of these tumultuous conditions, or perhaps in response to them, the traditions of cuneiform scholarship and Babylonian culture were maintained and even flourished. The god Marduk’s position as head of the Babylonian pantheon was advanced during these centuries, and literary works such as The Poem of Erra and Ishum, which contemplated Marduk’s supremacy in light of the turmoil that plagued Babylon, were composed.
The Iron Age States of Central Anatolia and Northern Syria
Authors: Weeden Mark 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the history of southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria from ca. 1180 to the middle of the sixth century bc, covering those states that emerged in the aftermath of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age Hittite Empire and that, for the most part, consisted of single cities and their hinterland. The chapter explores how the various sources available today, from archaeological evidence to texts (principally the Assyrian royal inscriptions and various local evidence written in Anatolian hieroglyphic or West Semitic alphabetic script), inform attempts to reconstruct the history of this region. In distilling and combining this information, the chapter attempts to disentangle the different perspectives that emerge from these sources. The aim is to offer a historical narrative that is not told solely from the perspective of the major powers of the day.
The Southern Levant and Northern Arabia in the Iron Age
Authors: Tebes Juan Manuel 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The chapter provides an overview of the societies that inhabited the arid regions of the southern Levant and northern Arabia during the first half of the first millennium bc. This period was a turning point in the history of the local populations, since they organized themselves for the first time into independent polities of differing levels of social complexity. Commonly studied through the written records of the contemporary Near Eastern empires, the chapter focuses on the local epigraphic and archaeological evidence of the emergence and collapse of these polities, including the tribes and tribal confederacies of the Syro-Arabian desert and the Negev, the oasis towns in the northern Hejaz (Tayma, Dedan), and a chiefdom in the southern Transjordanian plateau (Edom). It also addresses the environmental factors that impacted the local societies—most importantly aridity—and the evidence for economic exploitation of the environment, which was mostly based on nomadic semi-pastoralism and limited agriculture. The first millennium bc also witnessed the incorporation of the southern Levant and northern Arabia into the Near Eastern economic system, particularly through the extension of the commercial networks to obtain mineral resources (copper from Wadi Arabah) and precious aromatics (incense from South Arabia). The chapter highlights how the neighboring Near Eastern states, and particularly the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires, strove to dominate the regional trade routes and to co-opt the tribal groups that controlled them, not always successfully.
The Satrapies of the Persian Empire in Asia Minor
Authors: Klinkott Hilmar 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
The administration of Asia Minor within the Persian Empire was delegated to satraps who governed and controlled a specific area of jurisdiction, of administrative and military responsibility, and of official action, dubbed “satrapies” in the Greek literary sources. The satraps of Lydia, Hellespontine Phrygia, Greater Phrygia, and Caria (including Lycia and Cappadocia) were high-ranking imperial officials whose political influence and importance depended on the economic power of the areas they governed, as well as their personal closeness to the Persian king. The positions of the Lydian and the Hellespontine satraps were the most prestigious offices in Asia Minor, traditionally combined with additional imperial powers, in particular of a military nature. The need to safeguard the empire’s stability made regional adjustments necessary in order to check the increasing power of individual satraps, and this led to the creation of new satrapies (Caria and Lycia). It is generally challenging to outline the exact topography and administrative definition of the individual satrapies. The details of the internal administrative structures of the satrapies are almost entirely unknown, particularly as local particularities, be they cultural or political, continued and were supported under Persian imperial rule. What is beyond doubt, however, is that the satrapies of Asia Minor were important and dynamic hubs for the Persian Empire’s diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military activities on its western border, oriented toward the Aegean and the Black Sea.
Muslim Dynasties on the Indian Subcontinent
Authors: Matthiesen Toby 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter expounds on the Muslim dynasties in the Indian Subcontinent. It highlights how Sunnism and Shiism also flourished on the Indian subcontinent. Competing dynasties espousing Sunnism or Shiism supported separate Sunni and Shii revivalisms, which resulted in wider traction of debates that allowed them to resonate beyond the Indian subcontinent. Moreover, the religious policies of the Indian Muslim rulers are multifaceted, since most of them embraced Sufism in one form or another. In the context of Nurbakshis, people following Shii and Ahl al-Bayt were fewer in number. The chapter considers the networks of the British Empire after it extended its control over the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.
Reform and Reinvention in the Eighteenth Century
Authors: Matthiesen Toby 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter covers the reform and reinvention in the 18th Century. The 18th century witnessed massive political and economic transformations, such as the collapse of several Muslim Empires, the rise of European powers, and the rejection or adoption of sectarian identity by some rules and movements. The growing European economic, political and military penetration led Muslims to argue that Islam needed to reinvent itself to counter the Western presence. The chapter considers various arguments, such as Sunni-Shii unity or renewed focus on the scriptures and early Islam history. It explains how early modern rulers identified with an interpretation of Islam and used the aforementioned interpretation to legitimise themselves while accommodating new territories and populations.
The Muslim Response
Authors: Matthiesen Toby 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter explains the Muslim response to the growing European political, economic, and cultural influence. It cites how political Islam emerged as an alternative language of politics. Pan-identities, such as pan-Arabism and pan-Islam, further contended that there were more important supra-national loyalties apart from national loyalties. Moreover, dominant groups often saw the confessional identity as overlapping with national identity. The chapter highlights the diversity and stretch of Arab nationalism. Despite the efforts of Rashid Rida and others, Pan-Islam remained a powerful idea but failed to unite Muslims in one state, so it did not become a central religious authority after the end of the Caliphate.
Export and Containment of Revolution
Authors: Matthiesen Toby 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter tackles how the Iranian revolution transformed Shiism, Sunnism, and Sunni-Shii relations. It cites how local factors shaped how local elites perceived Iran and to what extent this antagonism became violent or not. Opposition to the revolution took many forms, such as Sunni Arab nationalists like Iraq’s Saddam Hussain and global Salafi networks and the anti-Shia ideologues and movements in South Asia. The history of Sunni-Shii relations involves the history of the Iranian revolution and reactions towards the conflict between export and containment. Most Middle Eastern politics focus on the Sunni-Shii divide that ranges between the rivalry between Iran and Sunni-led countries and the shift of many Sunni Islamic movements from a pan-Islamic vision to an anti-Shii stance.
Does thinking cause atheism?
Authors: Jong Jonathan 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
This chapter tells the story of an experiment published in one of the most prestigious journals in the world. The original experiment found that participants who were shown images of Rodin’s famous sculpture The Thinker reported lower levels of religiosity than those who were shown images of the ancient Greek sculpture of the Discus Thrower. Since it was published in 2012, other teams of scientists have tried to repeat the experiment and failed to replicate the finding: but journals seem reluctant to publish such failures to replicate. This story is a cautionary tale, but also carries hope that scientists can work together to improve one another’s research.
Is God like Superman?
Authors: Jong Jonathan 
Published: March 2023

Abstract
For centuries, theologians—including Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians—have noticed that, despite official religious teachings, people are prone to “anthropormorphize” God, thinking of God like a human person. This chapter looks into Justin Barrett’s research that applied classic methods from cognitive psychological research on memory to study this tendency, discovering that people often hold contradictory views about God in their own minds. Methodologically, the noteworthy thing about the approach taken here is the use of stories featuring supernatural characters, as such stories are cross-culturally commonplace vehicles of religious teaching. The chapter ends with a brief reflection on the early history of the cognitive science of religion.