Eurasian Population and Family History

The Eurasia Population and Family History project advances and reaffirms the importance of social action and human agency. Our efforts suggest that the grand narratives of classic behavioral theory overestimate the uniformity of human responses to exogenous forces. Our work bridges the apparent contradiction between two classes of social theory: one that emphasizes universalism and similarity—cognitive psychology, economics, and social biology—and one that emphasizes contingency and difference: anthropology, cultural studies, history. While exogenous forces elicit human responses everywhere, the patterns of response also vary, conditioned by national, regional, and community context as well as by kin, family, and individual circumstances.

Series editor: James Lee, Tommy Bengtsson, & George Alter