The ecological-evolutionary theory, migration, settler colonialism, sociology of violence and the origins of ancient Israel

Abstract

This paper looks at the question of the origins of ancient Israel from the perspective of four social-scientific based approaches. These are the ecological-evolutionary theory developed by Gerhard Lenski, theories of migration and settler colonialism and a sociological approach to violence developed by Siniša Malešević. It shows how the four theories fit together well and provide a comparative framework for interpreting both biblical and archaeological data, rendering it plausible to see early Israel as a settler colonial agrarian frontier society that was considerably based on migration from outside and where violence played a significant part in the formation and development of that society.

Keywords

• ancient israel
• sociological approaches
• historical interpretation
• methodology
• theory construction