Product Description
Is there a Darwinian explanation for the evolution of human nature? The great debates about human origins, cultural history, and human nature confront us with two opposing, often irreconcilable images of human beings: biology vs. culture. Now Kuper reframes these debates and reconsiders fundamental questions of anthropology. 21 halftones. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A subtle, well written introduction to social anthropology
This is, without doubt, probably one of the best introductions to anthropology produced in recent years.Firstly, style: the author is witty and uncondescending.He treats the reader with respect.Secondly,content: the book is a work of synthesis but it is, simultaneosly, a workof great originality.Kuper links social anthropology to evolutionaryanthropology in important and subtle ways.Recent trends in culturalanthropology - in particular the postmodern variety - have presented humanbeings in such a rarified way you would wonder sometimes if the planetitself was necessary for their existence.Culture has been conceived bythis misguided trend as some kind of evanescent noosphere with noconnection with materiality.Kuper is a wonderful antidote to this.Onthe other hand, his work is equally a powerful critique of the misguidedtrend known as `sociobiology'.In short, a wonderful subtle journeybetween the Scylla of biological reductionism and the Charbadis of idealistrelativism.I very strongly recommend this book to all: specialists andgeneral reader alike.It is yet another text in what is turning intosomething of renaissance of `Social' anthropology (one thinks of the workof Carrithers and Ingold as well. ... Read more

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Product Description
Primate Dentition provides a comparative dental anatomy of living non-human primates that brings together information from many disciplines to present the most useful and comprehensive database possible in one consolidated text. The core of the book consists of comparative morphological and metrical descriptions with analyses, reference tables, and illustrations of the permanent dentitions of 85 living primate species to establish a baseline for future investigations. The volume also discusses dental microstructure and its importance in understanding taxonomic relationships between species, data on deciduous dentitions, prenatal dental development and ontogenetic processes, and material to aid age estimation and life history studies. ... Read more

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An award-winning study of the relationship of humans to nature argues that humans have become so domesticated by and dependent on technology they can no longer truly relate to nature and are more prone to damage their environment. IP. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Very Disappointing
I was really looking forward to reading this book, based on its premise, and the other reviews.I hoped it would expand and enlighten my own unarticulated thoughts on the human animal, and its disconnect from the natural world.I was so disappointed that the book, in my opinion, failed to really explore and run with this large and very important issue.I found the writing difficult, and it often seemed that Livingston was writing for an academic journal, and was mainly interested in discussing and rebutting esoteric points with his fellow ecologists, rather than exploring a larger and broader view of his subject for the general audience to whom the book was intended.I found the book tedious and repetitive, and a chore to read.The infrequent moments when the author did actually write clearly about his larger theme of humans as a species cut off from nature tended to be sarcastic quips against society, which I thought diminished the points he was trying to make.

harsh truths.will your soul cry?
this is an excellent book.

it expresses truths that most humans would rather not acknowledge about their own ancestry, psychology, and place on earth and in the universe.

it takes courage to digest this book and to evaluate it critically.

nice companion to The Naked Ape.

not for the weak-minded or weak-at-heart.

KNOW THYSELF--even if it scares you or gets you a bit depressed, this book will likely make an impact.

think carefully before embarking on this journey.it might be easier just to eat some nachos and watch TV.

Buy this while it's still available
Livingstone was a brilliant original thinker who was decades ahead of his time.The environmental community ignored him, because he was a robust critic of their ideology.This book does the best job that I have seen of describing humankind's transition from ordinary animals into domineering monsters.It's a crucial book for those who are seriously trying to understand ecological history.

Human Domesticates
The backbone of this book is the idea that human beings were/are the first domesticated species, and the ONLY evolved (being product of our biological and cultural history) domesticates.Human domestication was caused by dependence on a technology centered ideology that eventually led to the rationale frequently employed today of, "If we can do it, we should do it" (the people become servants of the tool as opposed to the tool serving those who employ it).Livingston explains that being a domesticate means being completely dependent upon something (one's handler) for survival; in the case of humans, the dependence is an ideology based on "storable, retrievable, transmissable technique."It is an exploration of how we (humans) got here and what it means to be the first domesticate, the only evolved one at that; he goes on to critique some of the aspects of present day civilization in light of the ideology of technology that it is founded on.

It's a marvelous book that anyone who is interested in evolution, ecology, social problems, ideology, or why humans are the way they are in general should enjoy reading.A very very great book; it's one of those rare pieces of scholarly writings that anyone can pick up, read, and understand. Like the other reviewer, I wasn't always in complete agreement, but that's only because the book was so thought provoking.

An Interesting Collection of Ideas
This is one of the very few books that ever changed the way I look at things. I don't agree with all of the author's opinions (and he doesn't ask me to), but after reading this I doubt I'll ever look at humanity's relation to "Nature" - or even the idea of seperation of the two - the same way again. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Great book! Well written and amusing
Got this book for a physical anthropology class for college. I found it to be entertaining and well-written, although later chapters get slightly repetitive.

Meaningless uneducated droolings
My first huge issue is that the authors demonstrate throughout the book that they have no clue what The Theory of Evolution is.

Given that Sussman claims to be a primatologist and that he claims to be working on preservation of endangered species in various parts of the world, we might, for example, expect something a bit beyond the following on the topic of the coevolution of predators and prey, "In other words, if prey evolve a new way to elude predators, predators evolve in the direction of overcoming the new strategy. Any major destabilization in the balance of predators and prey comes
about because the prey have evolved some new way to elude predation; the predator then has to counteradapt or give up eating the newly elusive prey." (This he claims to cite from an expert in the first edition on page 40)

A vague understanding of the Theory of Evolution shows this cannot be true. If a random mutation arose in a predator that enabled it to catch prey more easily it would obviously be selected FOR by evolution regardless of when it arose; the animal that carried that mutation would on average have more surviving descendants and would be "more fit" than other conspecifics. Mutations are random. Nothing says they will arise in prey before they arise in predator. Additionally, species obviously evolve to enter new environmental niches and exploit them, becoming predators of new prey.

Even the most simple grasp many grade school kids have of The Theory of Evolution would allow a person to see that the statement above is complete nonsense and could not be believed true, unless we reject the Theory of Evolution completely.

This was a funny one: "Should we then not worry that too many chimpanzees might be obliterated by their natural predators? Absolutely not. Any substantive and long-term drop in numbers of prey will arise from a lack of resources." Huh. So all those flightless birds just happened to lack resources at the same time that cats and rats were introduced to their island homes? I suppose that one can argue these were not their "natural" predators, but species have invaded new habitats millions of times naturally. One gets a picture from this book of a world where species are in some magical "Disneyland" stasis, one would be very shocked to learn that 99% of all species that have
ever existed are now extinct. And again, one would have to either reject or be completely ignorant of the Theory of Evolution to have the author's views. Evolution does not know if a species is predator or prey when it offers up a random mutation.

They also have odd views about what others believe like: "Conventional wisdom would picture predators formulaically thinning the size of their prey populations-mountain lions eating just the right number of deer to keep the deer, in turn, from overpopulating." (pg. 39) Perhaps, amongst all of the people who know nothing about evolution...?

Then the authors have lots of problems keeping their story straight. On page 232 (original edition)we see the authors attacking the idea that "early humans were in a stage of transition, intermediate in their locomotor abilities between arboreal apes and modern, fully terrestrial humans." On the very next page walking upright is a "preadaptation" that arose in the trees (pg 233). So far so good...but then just four pages later (pg 237), our ancestors "never were tropical forest beings." Huh. How did they preadapt to bipedalism in the trees when they were never living in trees?! Then by page 244 we have "this creature was adept at using both the trees and the ground." But...bipedal walking was only selected for in the trees? How did that happen so exclusively when we, according to them, were busy going back and forth from ground to tree branch/never lived in trees at all? Would we not evolve adaptations for both environments? Yes, we would, and if they had the wiff of a clue about what evolution was they would know that.

Even the "big" words needed to discuss bipedalism are beyond the authors; on page 232 they engage in a rant about the scientists who have examined the "efficiency" of the bipedal walking our ancestors engaged in: "Modern humans have only been around for less than 200,000 years, so maybe we should'nt be so quick to judge the efficiency of our ancestors. (whom they note to have been around far longer)" In their ignorance they seem never to have noticed that "efficiency" here is used as a scientific term denoting the amount of energy required to walk. A. aferensis used more energy, as far as we can tell without a living one, than we do to travel the same distance. Therefore it is not judgemental to call it inefficient, it is stating the scientific facts so far as we know them to date based on computer modeling using the bones we have found. How can they even have an opinion, let alone dare to publish it in a book, when they do not even understand the terminology used by science to discuss the topic?

Let me note some other side splitters. The assertion that language evolved from warning calls is hilarious. Pack rats do the same thing, as do many other animals, and none of them evolved language. Hilarious. That our singular mental prowess evolved from trying to outsmart predators, as they assert, is also just whacky fun. They spend most of the book saying that we had the same predators at the same rate of predation as many other primates and even deer and other herd species; how and why then did only humans select for intelligence to deal with the same environmental challenges? And why did predation remain at the same levels, as they state was the case, as we got smarter? For selection to occur in evolution, a trait has to increase the fitness of the individual posessing it. If we kept getting eaten at the same rates for millions of years, where is the selection? The predators remained pretty much the same; big cats and such with similar size brains and so on. Sometimes larger and sometimes a bit smaller, but always big enough, and the predators size should not matter if we are outsmarting it. Again, the authors seem to have heard of evolution, but they have no clue at all what the term means.

Then they get to hunting, claiming that "hunting could not have been the main food procurement venture for early hominids." And also that our ancestors two million years ago had teeth that were not the "teeth of a carnivore." Sure, but they are the teeth of an omnivore, which includes hunting. And the authors admit that hunting is "common" amongst primates. A behavior does not become common in an entire biological order if there is not an important fitness benefit, and if there is an important fitness benefit then evolution will select for adaptations that make the species better at, in this case, hunting. All known human groups hunt. Most related species hunt. Pretty damned likely our ancestors hunted. Whether or not it was the "main" source of food two million years ago is meaningless. I also will go out on a limb and guess that every non-plant species that weighs 60lbs and lives around large predators gets hunted by them, whether that species hunts themselves or grazes. So what if our ancestors were hunted? It is meaningless.

Speaking of meaningless, the whole book can be included. What our ancestors ate or were eaten by two million years ago when their brains were a third the size of our own is important why, exactly? The authors seem to agree that their whole book is pointless: "And furthermore, research seems to indicate that the neurophysiology of aggression between species is quite different from the spontaneous violence linked to intraspecific aggression by humans (that is, murder)." (Page 211 in original) Right, we hunted because we were hungry and needed protein (in our ancestral environment it was hard to come by). War and murder are mostly not caused by being hungry or needing protein. What is their point here? Are they asserting we should all be vegetarians? Nothing in the book tells us anything at all about whether humans are predisposed to war, or about aggression, or whether we are good or evil or peaceful or psychopaths (is it supposed to?). If you want to know any of those things, these two authors do not have the first clue to be able to tell you anyway.

I have serious issues with their straw-man industry, with their contempt for the truth, with the unstated political purposes I believe they have for their entire book. But why read a book from authors who are completely clueless about evolution and who fail even to grasp the terms of the discussion?

From hominids to tribes
A probably futile attempt at brevity may unbalance this somewhat toward the negative, so I'll say at the outset that I found Man the Hunted rewarding.It is dedicated to being boldly contrarian, and in order to manage that it resorts to straw men and either/or situations where it seems to me both/and would be better.Either hunter or hunted is the primary example:"Instead of Man the Hunter, we contend that Man the Hunted is a more accurate snapshot"(32).The question is why an oversimplified snapshot of any kind.Our species since the early Bronze Age tribes and Iron Age dynasties has waged wars aplenty, one in the middle of the last century that disposed of 50 million people.Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans, in just one small corner of the globe, were enough to send any curious scientist looking for genetic susceptibility to violence.Saying that chimps sometimes act wacky and that we "often act badly, maliciously, cruelly" by choice but not "as bipedal primates" doesn't get us very far.Cooperative, altruistic behavior within a group goes hand in hand with hostility toward other groups. "Sloppy science" and original sin aren't to blame for anthropology's interest in human aggression.Human aggression is.

That puny hominids were hunted we can take for granted, and being hunted does promote social cooperation.Being hunted also raises nightmares and paranoid fear, however, and these can turn preemptively aggressive.Hence group friendliness and outward hostility.We have heard quite a few times of late, "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here," which means "kill them before they kill us."That's not an unusual rhetorical tactic.It was the source of some genocide even on the North American continent, and it still seems to be venerated in the divinely commanded slaughter of Canaanites.

Both hunter and hunted then surely.A more balanced study would have dwelled more on the circumstances that prompt them, and to that end where the advantage lies is crucial.Small hominids in the vicinity of large quadrupeds were naturally prey because they were easily overpowered.Stone-age tribal members armed with spears and other weapons became another story altogether.If genetic preparation for hunting and making war are necessary to explain that, then genetic preparation there was.Marking that shift in tools and the symbol user's social order would have undercut the "Wows" and "Whoas" the authors use to overstate the case.

One example typical of the use of straw men is the brief account of Richard Dawkins and the selfish gene.If the authors are to be believed, Dawkins and squadrons of misled scientists use the selfish gene as an "umbrella explanation for every single thing that animals do-all behavior serves selfish ends" (205).Perhaps in some cases, but there's usually more to it than that.Assigning species change to the genetic level doesn't prevent the cooperation of different genes in an organism or of organisms in packs and societies.The bibliography lists only the one Dawkins book, which dates back to 1975.He's written a bit more than that, coined the word "meme" for packaged cultural influences, and never in any book resembles the biological behaviorist the authors caricature.


Misrepresenting scholars isn't the only popularizing shortcut this book takes.It also falls into non sequiturs, as in arguing that since many animals kill we shouldn't make chimpanzee aggression special.It is valid to say that chimpicide has been overestimated.It is not valid to say that the existence of other aggressive primates makes it insignificant.What actually happened in prehistory will always be in doubt because fossil and midden evidence isn't conclusive, but we do know that hominid life contained both hunting and gathering.We also know that when the advantage shifted, we remained the hunted, but within historical time hunted more by fellow humans than by wolves and grizzlies. ... Read more

Product Description
This critical review of behavior patterns in nonhuman primates is an excellent study of the importance of female roles in different social groups and their significance in the evolution of human social life.

"A book that properly illuminates in rich detail not only developmental and socioecological aspects of primate behavior but also how and why certain questions are asked.In addition, the book frequently focuses on insufficiently answered questions, especially those concerned with the evolution of primate sex differences.Fedigan's book is unique . . . because it places primate adaptations and our explanation of those patterns in a larger intellectual framework that is easily and appropriately connected to many lines of research in different fields (sociology, psychology, anthropology, neurobiology, endocrinology, and biology)--and not in inconsequential ways, either."--James McKenna, American Journal of Primatology

"This is the feminist critique of theories of primate and human evolution."--John H. Cook, Nature ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Feminist paradigms
"Primate Paradigms" was first published in 1982. A new edition was printed in 1992.

Although the author never explicitly calls herself a feminist, the book does give a feminist perspective on the science of primatology. Primates in general, and baboons and chimpanzees in particular, have often been used as models for human evolution. These models have been blatantly androcentric and patriarchal. Male dominance, aggression and promiscuity have been seen as "natural" and "adaptive", and derived from our primate ancestors. The political agenda is obvious: since patriarchy is a biological fact, the women's liberation movement is utopian, destructive or worse. Hence, it must be stopped. Sociobiology has been the main seedbed of this kind of male chauvinism, dressed up as "a new scientific synthesis".

Unfortunately for the male chauvinists, anthropology has disproved the notion that all human societies are patriarchal, hierarchic or aggressive. Even more damning, scientific studies of apes, monkeys and prosimians don't offer much comfort either. This is what makes "Primate paradigms" such an interesting read.

Linda Marie Fedigan begins by pointing out that concepts such as aggression, dominance or sexual dimorphism are complex, and not always easy to define. The interaction between nature and nurture is also very complicated. In a section on anthropomorphisms, Fedigan points out that expressions such as "selfish", "competitive", "rape" or "harem" (often used by sociobiologists when describing animal behaviour) are just as anthropomorphic as expressions such as "sweet" or "jealous", which everybody roundly condemns and criticizes. Frans de Waal makes a similar observation in one of his books, sarcastically pointing out that animals seem to have many "enemies" but no "friends" - the latter expression is condemned as anthropomorphic, but not the former! Other methodological mistakes includes using metaphors as if they were statement of fact, using animals in captivity to generalize about their behaviour in the wild, or projecting human behaviour onto animals of one's choice, and then using the projection as proof that humans are indeed naturally aggressive, etc.

Fedigan is particularly critical of the "baboonization model" of human evolution (now quietly forgotten). Baboons were ostensibly selected as models for human evolution because they were social creatures living on the African savannah, and hence might have resembled our hominid ancestors. Fedigan believes otherwise. At the time, baboons were seen as patriarchal, aggressive hunters. Also, their sexual dimorphism is obvious. These were the real reason why they were choosen as models. The baboons seemed to confirm the theory of "Man the Hunter". Another savannah-living monkey, the vervet, has less dimorphism, is less aggressive and the females usually don't defer to the males, yet there has never been a "vervetization model" of human evolution. (It should be noted that neither baboons nor vervets are particularly closely related to humans.)

The most interesting part of "Primate paradigms" describes the behavioural patterns of different species of primates. It turns out that primates are very variable. Different species may have vastly different social organizations, and there might also bee variation within the species. This makes it risky to choose one particular species or population as a "model" for human evolution. In fact, primates are even more variable than indicated by the author. The book was published at a time when studies of the bonobo were still relatively unknown outside a small circle of specialists. Today, we know that bonobos, also known as pygmy chimpanzees, behave in ways diametrically opposed to the chimp stereotype. It turns out that bonobos are matriarchal, peaceful and bisexual vegans! This obviously calls into question the "chimpanzee model" of human evolution, a model based on the common chimpanzee rather than the bonobo. Naturally, this model emphasizes the aggressive behaviour and co-operative hunting of common chimpanzee males.

One fascinating fact mentioned by the author is that most species with "harems" actually have strong bonds between the females, with the male being somewhat aloof. Rather than the male "owning" the females, it seems that a single male has attached himself to a clan of bonded females. Who is owning who? The only primate with a real harem seems to be the bizarre Hamadryas baboon, something of a celebrity in sociobiological circles. The author also points out that the only nonhuman primate species where something akin to rape exists is the orangutan, and that such rapes virtually never lead to conception. (Perhaps this is why sociobiologists prefer to explain rape among humans using insect models, specifically the scorpio fly?)

Perhaps I must also point out that this book is written in a scholarly and somewhat detached language, quite unlike my militant feminist speeches here on Amazon!

Ironically, I actually read this book for a somewhat "anti-feminist" reason. Another customer reviewer, who is more feminist than Andrea Dworkin, suggested that human fathers lack parental instincts, while such instincts do exist among human mothers. He also believed this to be true of mammal in general. Apparently, this hypothesis doesn't work either. There are primate species where the fathers are uninterested in their offspring, and probably don't even know which infants are theirs. However, there are also primate species where both sexes take care of the infants. Most of these are monogamous, but at least one is a "promiscuous" species, the Barbary macaque. In captivity, male rhesus monkeys have also been seen to take care of infants if the mother is removed.

But this was a side point. The main thrust of "Primate paradigms" is directed at androcentrism. Once again, androcentric sociobiology has been disproved by solid science.
... Read more

Product Description
Studies of brain evolution have moved rapidly in recent years, building on the pioneering research of Harry J. Jerison. This book provides state-of-the-art reviews of primate (including human) brain evolution. The volume is divided into two sections, the first offers new perspectives on the developmental, physiological, dietary, and behavioral correlates of brain enlargement. However, it has long been recognized that brains do not merely enlarge globally as they evolve, but that their cortical and internal organization also changes in a process known as reorganization. Species-specific adaptations therefore have neurological substrates that depend on more than just overall brain size. The second section explores these neurological underpinnings for the senses, adaptations, and cognitive abilities that are important for primates. With a prologue by Stephen J. Gould and an epilogue by Harry J. Jerison, this is an important new reference work for all those working on primate brain evolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great summary/introduction to "brain size vs. organization" debate
I'd taken a class called Brain and Evolution at my university and our professor, Dr. Buxhoeveden (himself very influential in the study of minicolumns), required this book for the course.It is a very readable book with 14 chapters devoted to the ontogenetic and phylogenetic findings with minicolumns, axonal connections and brain size between primates.Chapter two, entitled "Neocortical expnasion and elaboration during primate evolution: a view from neuroembryology" is worth the book alone, giving a detailed an much neglected view (compared to the rest of modern neuroscience) on how minicolumns and the neurons/connections within develop in humans and other primates.Great book, though pricey.You can probably find some used copies online.

Good summary of research trends
This is a short, very readable book, consisting of a series of brief reviews of various aspects of primate cortical evolution.There are two main sections, "The evolution of brain size," and "Neurological substrates of species-specific adaptations," each with a very helpful introductory/summary essay.A fascinating epilogue is by Harry Jerison, in whose honor this volume was written, showing how the pioneers in a field can still stay on the cutting edge of things.Two of the articles I found most illuminating were by Todd Preuss, who shows how the idea of a canonical mammalian cortical circuit diagram is a gross oversimplification, and Katerina Semendeferi, who contests the received truth that human frontal lobes are greatly expanded; in fact her work shows they are of the expected volume for a primate of our size.Pasko Rakic also presents his view of how cortical expansion could have occurred (by simply expanding the number of cell cycles in the ventricular zone), which he has presented elsewhere, but here with some new data on the role of apoptosis.However, there is not much coverage of recent advances in the understanding of regulatory molecules involved in brain development (e.g. the hox genes).The book is also a priced a bit too high in my opinion.But for those interested in this area, it is a must read, and an enjoyable one. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good little book!
Even though this book is very small, it's packed with information.I just wanted to answer some questions i had about human behavior and this book more than answered my questions.I think for anyone who hasn't studied anthropology (like me) this book is fascinating.Although, I imagine that if you had studied it a lot it would probably be pretty basic. ... Read more

Product Description
Why do people find monkeys and apes so compelling to watch? One clear answer is that they seem so similar to us-a window into our own minds and how we have evolved over millennia. As Charles Darwin wrote in his Notebook M, "He who understands baboon would do more toward metaphysics than Locke." Darwin recognized that behavior and cognition, and the neural architecture that support them, evolved to solve specific social and ecological problems. Defining these problems for neurobiological study, and conveying neurobiological results to ethologists and psychologists, is fundamental to an evolutionary understanding of brain and behavior.

The 'neuroethological' approach envisioned by Darwin, pioneered by the European ethologists, and refined by modern neurobiologists and biologists, has provided rich insights into the minds of several nonhuman animals such as bats, electric fish, and songbirds. In stark contrast, studies of the function and structure of primate brains too often focus on more general cognitive processes and neural measures (e.g., brain size), while neglecting species-typical behaviors. A more promising, and biologically plausible, approach to understanding our place in nature would be to move beyond such coarse approaches and investigate the anatomy and physiology of particular brain systems as they relate to species-typical behaviors.That is, we must develop a neuroethology of primate behavior and cognition.

The goal of this book is to do just that. It collects, for the first time in a single book, information on primate behavior and cognition, neurobiology, and the emerging discipline of neuroethology. Here leading scientists in several fields review work ranging from primate foraging behavior to the neurophysiology of motor control, from vocal communication to the functions of the auditory cortex. The resulting synthesis of cognitive, ethological and neurobiological approaches to primate behavior yields a richer understanding of our primate cousins that also sheds light on the evolutionary development of human behavior and cognition. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Professor hates it
terrible. the professor even hates it. The book mostly repeats its insightful lines a dozen or more times throughout the chapter. Buy this book if you want to read "Smaller populations are more in danger of extinction than larger ones" twenty times in a chapter. ... Read more

Product Description
Drawing on over 50 years of combined experience, The Laboratory Nonhuman Primate provides a quick reference source for technicians working with non-human primates in biomedical research. It details basic information and frequently used procedures such as duties of animal husbandry, facility management, regulatory compliance, and technical procedures involved in research.Valuable to both experienced individuals and to those without extensive training, the text includes management practices and technical procedures on a variety of topics including restraint, intubation, tuberculin skin testing, blood, urine, and bone marrow collection, canine disarming, and much more. The Laboratory Nonhuman Primate presents procedures in a clear, easy-to-follow format so you can easily incorporate them into facility standard operating procedures. ... Read more

Product Description
Biologists and anthropologists in Japan have played a crucial role in the development of primatology as a scientific discipline. Publication of Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior under the editorship of Tetsuro Matsuzawa reaffirms the pervasive and creative role played by the intellectual descendants of Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani in the fields of behavioral ecology, psychology, and cognitive science. Matsuzawa and his colleagues-humans and other primate partners- explore a broad range of issues including the phylogeny of perception and cognition; the origin of human speech; learning and memory; recognition of self, others, and species; society and social interaction; and culture. With data from field and laboratory studies of more than 90 primate species and of more than 50 years of long-term research, the intellectual breadth represented in this volume makes it a major contribution to comparative cognitive science and to current views on the origin of the mind and behavior of humans. ... Read more

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Offers a multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspective.this anthology offers a collection of 33 readings on primate behavior, ecology, and conservation — originally published in Natural History Magazine. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Perfect for undergrads and beginners in primatology
This book is a wonderful introduction to primate behavior, ecology and conservation.A collection of articles originally published in Natural History magazine, this book provides a perfect balance of the above topicsin primatology.If you are just getting started in the field or you aresimply curious about our primate cousins this book is great.If you are aseasoned primatologist, this is a fun weekend read!

An excellent collection of skillfully introduced papers.
Natural History magazine has published a wealth of information about primates, written by leading experts in field research. Students of primatology, and anyone interested in animal behavior and ecology, will find this anthology relevant and informative. These studies demonstrate the diversity of our closest animal relatives and the intricacies of their lives and relationships amongst themselves and with other species.

The writings of field scientists such asChristophe Boesch, Robert Harding, Dawn Starin, Thomas Struhsaker and Patricia Wright cover wide taxonomic and geographic ranges. The editors' glue that effectively binds these essays together is the excellent prefacing overview accompanying each section (Behavior, Community Ecology, Diet, Reproduction and Conservation). These writings demonstrate the skills of biologists in translating field observations into literate and eminently readable images of their primate subjects.

This anthology provides valuable testimony tothe contributions of field studies in understanding our primate kin-- their context in nature, and the strategies they employ for coping with daily life and the encroachments of mankind.

Phillip T. Robinson - Society for the Renewal of Nature Conservation in Liberia, West Africa

... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensive guide to the evolutionary history of the world's prosimians, monkeys, and apes--and of humankind's interactions with them. This account of 65 million years of adaptation and evolution concludes with a chapter on the threat that HOMO SAPIENS now pose to the survival of the world's nonhuman primates. 42 photos. 72 drawings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Love primates?BUY!
As a primate owner and caregiver, I can say that this book is a lovely addition to any primate enthusiast's collection!Simply beautiful. ... Read more

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"A fascinating monograph on the conditions of human evolution and the conditions required by it . . . .This is first-rate scientific speculation -- lucid and straightforward." -The New Yorker"This is an excellent analysis, and though it goes to the heart of issues in genetics and anthropology, it is eminently accessible for the general reader." -ALA Booklist ... Read more

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For more than three decades Frans de Waal, the author of best-sellers such as Chimpanzee Politics and Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, has studied monkeys and apes in zoos, research parks, and field settings. Photographing his subjects over the years, de Waal has compiled a unique family album of our closest animal relatives. To capture the social life of primates, and their natural communication, requires intimate knowledge, which is abundantly present here, in the work of one of the world's foremost primatologists. Culled from the thousands of images de Waal has taken, these photographs capture social interaction in bonobos, chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, baboons, and macaques showing the subtle gestures, expressions, and movements that elude most nature photographers or casual observers.

De Waal supplies extended captions discussing each photograph, offering descriptions that range from personal observations and impressions to professional interpretation. The result is a view of our primate family that is both intensely moving and personal, also richly evocative of all that science can tell us of primate society. In his introduction, de Waal elaborates on his work, his mission in this volume, and the particular challenges of animal action photography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

We alll must be related to the author... It's rather OUR family album
The author has made the best of the opportunity to see, record, and tell he has had thanks to his work of many years.

Great photographs are accompanied by text written in plain, in the sense of non-scholar, language.
Anyone with curiosity about "human" and other primates' behavior and/or a taste for photography will enjoy this book.

Seeing the album and some not-very-intelligent recent events makes me think some humans actually represent a DESCENT from monkeys.

The book is elegantly presented and diagramed. It seemed to me there were a few "typos", but may be it's because I am not a native English speaker. No big deal any way. I would buy it again.

Wonder Between The Covers
The book's format is essentially a picture a page, with a paragraph to describe it.

There are nine species of primates featured in this book, most prominently bonobos and chimpanzees. There are also macaques, capuchins, and baboons (among others) shown as well.

The photos capture candid, sometimes poignant moments, in the lives of our evolutionary cousins. The caption paragraphs often offer a humorous or anecdotal story about the featured primate.

My only complaint is that other apes (orangutans, gorillas, gibbons) weren't featured at all, but Frans de Waal didn't do extensive studies of those species, and so it makes sense he didn't have the opportunities to photograph them.

The book is what it is, not a scientific work, but more of an art project. I'd imagine kids would enjoy looking at these pictures quite a bit. I know my inner child sure did.

A beautiful work of portraiture
"My Family Album" catalogs 30 years of de Waal's black and white photographs of both wild and captive primates.The bulk of the shots are of chimps and bonobos, but a third are of monkeys and there are striking photographs all around. While the principle effect of the book is to get across the intelligence, complexity and beauty of these fellow animals, there are enough funny faces for the book to work on that level.

A loving photographic tribute
Noted primatologist Frans de Waal has put together a beautifully printed pictorial tribute to primates.In high quality black-and-white photographs, he documents similarities and differences among non-human primates in areas as diverse as play, confrontation, sex, familial ties, and social activities.The accompanying text describes not only the meaning behind the pictures but also, in true de Waal form, how they relate to human behavior.Although de Waal is a scientist, this concise and clearly written book is meant for the lay reader.

De Waal's specialty is the study of non-human primates in captivity, so the majority of these photographs do not show monkeys and apes in their native habitat.Instead, you'll find remarkable close-ups of expressions and interactions that capture moments of the individual lives.Although de Waal is best known for his study of chimpanzees and bonobos, he includes photographs of macaques, capuchins, baboons, and snow monkeys.

This book is a real treat.I recommend it highly for anyone who has an interest in animal life.

They're not like us, they're unique
Frans de Waal's collection of primate portraits covers various species of monkeys in many social situations. Long hours spent with his subjects means that Waal had their total trust when photographing them. Thus, his subjects have a natural, unforced manner that allows their true nature to shine through. Waal's accomplishment, in this occasionally hilarious, frequently touching, but always fascinating collection of photographs is that he transcends the notion that the value of primates lies in how much they are like humans. His texts and pictures reveal them not as inferior versions of homo sapiens, but simply as @what they are: intelligent, sensitive, highly socially evolved creatures. This is a beautiful and fascinating book. ... Read more

Product Description

Primate locomotion has typically been studied from two points of view. Laboratory-based researchers have focused on aspects like biomechanics and energetics, whereas field-based researchers have focused on (locomotor) behaviour and ecology. Unfortunately, to date, there is relatively little scientific exchange between both groups. With a book, which will be the result of a symposium on the 2008 Meeting of the International Primatological Society in Edinburgh, we would like to bring together laboratory and field-based primate locomotion studies. We are convinced this will be beneficial for both research lines. For example, biomechanists might wonder how frequently the locomotor style they study in the lab actually occurs in nature, and field workers might use calculated costs of locomotion to understand why certain locomotor behaviours are favoured under specific conditions. Thus, on the one hand, an established link between both groups may help interpret the results by using each other’s findings. On the other hand, recent technological advances (e.g. portable high-speed cameras) make it possible to bridge the gap between lab-based and field-based research by actually collecting biomechanical data in situ. Again, communication between both groups is necessary to identify the specific needs and start up achievable and successful research projects in the field. In order to generate a wide interest, we have invited biomechanists, ecologists, and field-based researchers who combine both disciplines, and we hope their combined contributions will facilitate lasting cooperation between the mentioned disciplines and stimulate innovative research in Primatology.

We are convinced that the most appropriate format to publish the different symposium contributions is a conference volume within an existing book series. Firstly, the chapters will not only contain new data but will also review existing data and elaborate on potential future work – more so than can be done in a journal article.

Secondly, the combination of chapters will form an entity that is more valuable than the sum of the separate chapters and therefore they need to be presented together. Lastly, this volume will benefit from the typically long "shelf life" of a book in a renowned series, allowing it to be used as reference book for both researchers and students.

Product Description

Indonesia possesses the second largest primate population in the world, with over 33 different primate species. Although Brazil possesses more primate species, Indonesia outranks it in terms of its diversity of primates, ranging from prosimians (slow lorises and tarsiers), to a multitude of Old World Monkey species (macaques, langurs, proboscis moneys) to lesser apes (siamangs, gibbons) and great apes (orangutans). The primates of Indonesia are distributed throughout the archipelago.

Partly in response to the number of primates distributed throughout the Indonesian archipelago, Indonesia is classified as the home of two biodiversity hotspots (Wallacea and Sundaland). In order to be classified as a hotspot, an area must have a large proportion of endemic species coupled with a high degree of threat including having lost more than 70% of its original habitat. Two areas within Indonesia meet these criteria. The tremendous diversity of primates in Indonesia, in conjunction with the conservation issues facing the primates of this region, created a need for this volume.