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Baboon Perspectives on Early Human Ancestors brings together the most recent information on the behavior and ecology of Papio baboons and early hominins. Building on a long tradition and integrating recent developments, it discusses the ways that baboon behavior can enhance our understanding of our early ancestors. This approach augments interpretation of the archeological record and provides hypotheses for the gaps in the record and for the millions of years before the record began. Baboon behavior complements the widely used chimpanzee models, but also generates competing hypotheses. Among the many topics covered in the book are foraging and predator defense; multi-level societies and male-female relationships; social and ecological cognition; and communication and the roots of language.

This book reviews the evolutionary forces behind sex differences in fear responses and, crucially, delves into the mechanisms through which sexual selection might have driven sex differences in connection with fear. Fear is an evolved mechanism that helps us stay alive, but is also an emotion experienced more intensely, more frequently, and longer in women than in men. This book therefore asks the following question: Why might evolution have made women more motivated than men to avoid danger? It provides an overview of the brain areas underpinning the experience of fear and evaluates the evidence that these areas manifest sex-specific differences in their structure and function. Given its scope, the book will be essential reading for anyone interested in an evolutionary perspective on psychological sex differences.

The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Parenting provides a comprehensive resource for state-of-the-art research on how our evolutionary past informs current parenting roles and practices. Featuring chapters from leaders in the field, the Handbook is designed for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and professionals in psychology, anthropology, biology, sociology, and demography, as well as many other social and life science disciplines. It is the first resource of its kind that brings together empirical and theoretical contributions from scholarship at the intersection of evolutionary psychology and parenting.

‘Brilliant, eye-opening, and absolutely inspiring – and a riveting read.'Cass Sunstein, author of How Change Happens and co-author of Nudge What is the secret to humanity's evolutionary success? Could it be our strength, our intellect… or something much nicer? From the authors of New York Times bestseller The Genius of Dogs comes a powerful new idea about how ‘friendliness'is the key factor in the flourishing of our species. Hare and Woods present an elegant new theory called self-domestication, looking at examples of co-operation and empathy and what this can tell us about the evolutionary success of Homo sapiens…

What happens now that human population has outpaced biological natural selection? Two leading scientists reveal how we became who we are—and what we might become.When we think of evolution, the image that likely comes to mind is the iconic, straight-forward image of a primate morphing into a human being. Yet random events have played huge roles in determining the evolutionary histories of everything from lobsters to humans. However, random genetic novelties are most likely to'stick'in small populations. It is mathematically unlikely to happen in large ones. With our enormous and seemingly inexorably expanding population, humanity has fallen under the influence of the famous (or infamous) “bell curve.” This revelatory new book explores what the future of our species could hold, while simultaneously revealing what we didn't become—and what we won't become. A cognitively unique species, our actions fall on a bell curve as well. Individuals may be saintly or evil, narrow-minded or visionary. But it is possible not just for the species, but for a person to be all of these things—even in a single day. We all fall somewhere within the giant hyperspace of the human condition that these curves describe. The Accidental Homo Sapiens shows readers that though humanity now exists on this bell curve, we are far from a stagnant species. Tattersall and DeSalle reveal how biological evolution in modern humans has given way to a cultural dynamic that is unlike anything else the Earth has ever witnessed, and that will keep life interesting—perhaps sometimes too interesting—for as long as we exist on this planet.

Born to Choose is John H. Falk's compelling account of why and how we make the endless set of choices we do, every second of every day of our lives. Synthesizing research from across the biological and social sciences, Falk argues that human choice-making is an evolutionarily ancient and complex process. He suggests that all our choices are influenced by very basic and early evolving needs, and that ultimately each choice is designed to support survival in the guise of perceived well-being. This engaging book breaks new intellectual ground and enhances our understanding not just of human choice-making but human behavior overall.

Die Literaturwissenschaft widmet sich seit einigen Jahren verstärkt dem Zusammenhang von Kognition und Dichtung. Dass die menschliche Kognition ihrerseits im Rahmen der biologischen Evolution zu betrachten ist, ist in den kognitivistischen Literaturstudien weniger präsent. Karl Eibl hat sich diesem Defizit bereits 2004 in seinem Buch Animal poeta zugewandt, indem er die anthropologischen Grundlagen aus den neueren Entwicklungen in Soziobiologie und Evolutionärer Psychologie für einen literaturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisbedarf adaptierte und weiterentwickelte. Nach einer Folgestudie zum biologischen Kulturbegriff, die 2009 unter dem Titel Kultur als Zwischenwelt erschien, wendet Eibl sich mit diesem Buch nun spezifischer literarischen Phänomenen zu. Der einleitende Teil des Buches rekapituliert die Rahmentheorien für eine biologische Perspektive auf Sprache, Kultur und Ästhetik. In mehreren Kapiteln zu literarischen Formen und Figuren werden dann grundlegende Strukturphänomene erörtert, die sich aus biologisch verankerten Dispositionen ableiten lassen. So wird anschaulich gemacht, wie aus dem induktiven Erfahrungslernen die Möglichkeit zu metaphorischer Bildlichkeit hervorgeht und wie sich universale Plots auf kognitive Gestalterwartungen zurückführen lassen. Auch die Autorposition wird aus biologischer Perspektive betrachtet und als notwendige Instanz im menschlichen Kommunikationsverhalten mit den literaturtheoretischen Positionen zur Autorfrage vermittelt. Der letzte Teil des Buches setzt an bei einer Spezifik menschlicher Kognition, die als ›Weltoffenheit‹ oder ›kognitiver Imperativ‹ bezeichnet werden kann. Als emotionale Disposition Angst steuert sie menschliche Bewältigungsarbeit in Form von Mythos, Religion und Dichtung. Eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit gilt hier der Lyrik als unmittelbarster Form des ritualisierten Umgangs mit dem kognitiven Imperativ.

A Wall Street Journal Favorite Read of the YearA Guardian Top Science Book of the YearTool-making or culture, language or religious belief: ever since Darwin, thinkers have struggled to identify what fundamentally differentiates human beings from other animals. In this much-anticipated book, Michael Tomasello weaves his twenty years of comparative studies of humans and great apes into a compelling argument that cooperative social interaction is the key to our cognitive uniqueness. Once our ancestors learned to put their heads together with others to pursue shared goals, humankind was on an evolutionary path all its own.“Michael Tomasello is one of the few psychologists to have conducted intensive research on both human children and chimpanzees, and A Natural History of Human Thinking reflects not only the insights enabled by such cross-species comparisons but also the wisdom of a researcher who appreciates the need for asking questions whose answers generate biological insight. His book helps us to understand the differences, as well as the similarities, between human brains and other brains.”—David P. Barash, Wall Street Journal

The Measure of All Things is the final volume in a trilogy about man as related to the genesis of the world, to metaphysics, and to the ontological vicissitudes of the human species. This book reviews the condition of man and his relationship with the forces of evolution, in both a biological and a spiritual sense. It is, therefore, an innovative excursion into the present day arguments between the evolutionist and creationist regarding the fate of man.

Innovation and creativity are two of the key characteristics that distinguish cultural transmission from biological transmission. This book explores a number of questions concerning the nature and timing of the origins of human creativity. What were the driving factors in the development of new technologies? What caused the stasis in stone tool technological innovation in the Early Pleistocene? Were there specific regions and episodes of enhanced technological development, or did it occur at a steady pace where ancestral humans lived? The authors are archaeologists who address these questions, armed with data from ancient artefacts such as shell beads used as jewelry, primitive musical instruments, and sophisticated techniques required to fashion certain kinds of stone into tools. Providing'state of art'discussions that step back from the usual archaeological publications that focus mainly on individual site discoveries, this book presents the full picture on how and why creativity in Middle to Late Pleistocene archeology/anthropology evolved. - Gives a full, original and multidisciplinary perspective on how and why creativity evolved in the Middle to Late Pleistocene - Enhances our understanding of the big leaps forward in creativity at certain times - Assesses the intellectual creativity of Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens via their artefacts

The Ontogeny of Human Bonding Systems takes an interdisciplinary look at the phenomena of human bonding. The authors draw upon behavioral genetics, molecular genetics of behavior, cognitive and affective neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, human ethology, behavioral ecology, and the study of attachment processes within developmental psychology. The topics will emphasize human reproduction, and fertility-related behavior in particular, and the evolutionary origins and neural underpinnings of such behavior. This book is for anyone interested in the evolutionary origins, neural underpinnings, and psychological structure involved in human relationships.

Converging evidence from disciplines including sociobiology, evolutionary psychology and human biology forces us to adopt a new idea of what it means to be a human. As cherished concepts such as free will, naïve realism, humans as creation's crowning glory fall and our moral roots in ape group dynamics become clearer, we have to take leave of many concepts that have been central to defining our humanness. What emerges is a new human, the homo novus, a human being without illusions. Leading authors from many different fields explore these issues by addressing a range of illusions and providing evidence for the need, despite considerable reluctance, to relinquish some of our most cherished ideas about ourselves.

In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the social scenarios in which selection pressure led to religious practices becoming an evolved human trait, i.e. an adaptive answer to the conditions of living and surviving that prevailed among our prehistoric ancestors. This aim is pursued by a team of expert authors from a range of disciplines. Their contributions examine the relevant physiological, emotional, cognitive and social processes. The resulting understanding of the functional interplay of these processes gives valuable insights into the biological roots and benefits of religion.

In the past two decades, an explosion of research has generated many compelling insights--as well as hotly debated controversies--about the evolutionary bases of human nature. This important volume brings together leading proponents of different theoretical and methodological perspectives to provide a balanced look at 12 key questions at the core of the field today. In 43 concise, accessible chapters, followed by an integrative conclusion, the contributors present viewpoints informed by human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and gene-culture coevolutionary approaches. Topics include the strengths and limitations of different methodologies; metatheoretical issues; and debates concerning the evolution of the human brain, intellectual abilities, culture, and sexual behavior.

What is it to be human? How do we relate to the world, to each other and to our self in a human – in everyday life and when faced with life's big questions? In this book, the author develops a general theoretical model that might be able to offer a better understanding of the human condition and of the underlying principles of human behavior. The author shows that general psychology, bridging the natural sciences and the social sciences, can make a significant contribution to a general anthropology.