The application of Darwin's core principles—variation, heredity, and differential survival—explicitly to communities as super-organisms. It argues that
environmental pressures (climate, war, economic competition) naturally select for communities with the most adaptive bundles of institutions, technologies, and social norms. Communities that fail to adapt
disintegrate or are absorbed. This frames history as the
natural selection of social organisms.
Community
Natural Selection Theory Example: Ancient Mesopotamian city-states that developed writing and codified law (adaptive traits) outcompeted and absorbed neighboring tribal societies that relied on oral tradition. Their social "organism" was more fit for complex
administration and trade. This Community
Natural Selection led to the dominance of a new, more complex community form.