Best of
Evolution

1981

After Man: A Zoology of the Future


Dougal Dixon - 1981
    Looking 50 million years into the future, this text explores the possible development or extinction of the animal world through the eyes of the time-traveller.

Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind


Donald C. Johanson - 1981
    Bursting with all the suspense and intrigue of a fast paced adventure novel, here is Johanson’s lively account of the extraordinary discovery of “Lucy.” By expounding the controversial change Lucy makes in our view of human origins, Johanson provides a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of the history of pealeoanthropology and the colorful, eccentric characters who were and are a part of it. Never before have the mystery and intricacy of our origins been so clearly and compellingly explained as in this astonighing and dramatic book.

An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology


Nicholas B. Davies - 1981
    In this edition, new examples are introduced throughout, many illustrated with full color photographs. In addition, important new topics are added including the latest techniques of comparative analysis, the theory and application of DNA fingerprinting techniques, extensive new discussion on brood parasite/host coevolution, the latest ideas on sexual selection in relation to disease resistance, and a new section on the intentionality of communication. Written in the lucid style for which these two authors are renowned, the text is enhanced by boxed sections illustrating important concepts and new marginal notes that guide the reader through the text. This book will be essential reading for students taking courses in behavioral ecology. The leading introductory text from the two most prominent workers in the field. Second colour in the text. New section of four colour plates. Boxed sections to ilustrate difficult and important points. New larger format with marginal notes to guide the reader through the text. Selected further reading at the end of each chapter.

The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology


Peter Singer - 1981
    But if evolution is a struggle for survival, why are we still capable of altruism? In his classic study "The Expanding Circle," Peter Singer argues that altruism began as a genetically based drive to protect one's kin and community members but has developed into a consciously chosen ethic with an expanding circle of moral concern. Drawing on philosophy and evolutionary psychology, he demonstrates that human ethics cannot be explained by biology alone. Rather, it is our capacity for reasoning that makes moral progress possible. In a new afterword, Singer takes stock of his argument in light of recent research on the evolution of morality.

The Woman That Never Evolved


Sarah Blaffer Hrdy - 1981
    Surprising to those feminists who mistakenly think that biology can only work against women. And surprising to those biologists who incorrectly believe that natural selection operates only on males.In The Woman That Never Evolved we are introduced to our nearest female relatives competitive, independent, sexually assertive primates who have every bit as much at stake in the evolutionary game as their male counterparts do. These females compete among themselves for rank and resources, but will bond together for mutual defense. They risk their lives to protect their young, yet consort with the very male who murdered their offspring when successful reproduction depends upon it. They tolerate other breeding females if food is plentiful, but chase them away when monogamy is the optimal strategy. When promiscuity is an advantage, female primates--like their human cousins--exhibit a sexual appetite that ensures a range of breeding partners. From case after case we are led to the conclusion that the sexually passive, noncompetitive, all-nurturing woman of prevailing myth never could have evolved within the primate order.Yet males are almost universally dominant over females in primate species, and Homo sapiens is no exception. As we see from this book, women are in some ways the most oppressed of all female primates. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is convinced that to redress sexual inequality in human societies, we must first understand its evolutionary origins. We cannot travel back in time to meet our own remote ancestors, but we can study those surrogates we have--the other living primates. If women --and not biology--are to control their own destiny, they must understand the past and, as this book shows us, the biological legacy they have inherited.

Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process,


Charles J. Lumsden - 1981
    Charles Lumsden and Edward O. Wilson thereby argue compellingly that human nature is neither arbitrary nor predetermined. They identify mechanisms that energize the upward translation from genes to culture and assess the properties of genetic evolution of mind within emergent cultural patterns." Lumsden and Wilson explore the rich and sophisticated data of developmental psychology and cognitive science in a fashion that, for the first time, aligns these disciplines with human sociobiology. The authors also draw on population genetics, cultural anthropology, and mathematical physics to set human sociobiology on a predictive base, and so trace the main steps that lead from the genes through human consciousness to culture.

The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution


A.E. Wilder-Smith - 1981
    But proof exists to dispute that theory as a hoax. Dr. Wilder-Smith gives one proof after another disputing the evolutionary philosophy of life. Every theory surrounding evolution is discussed and examined in length, and then compared with the undisputed truth that we are all created by God.

He Who Thinks Has to Believe


A.E. Wilder-Smith - 1981
    E.

Symbiosis in Cell Evolution


Lynn Margulis - 1981
    The author offers insights into the genetic and metabolic interactions of the bacterial comunities that became protocists. Among these diverse organisms, the earliest eukaryotes, including some that are fossilized in the Proterozoic record, are those that then evolved to become animals, plants and fungi. The book presents a perspective on evolution during the Archaen and Proterozoic eons of pre-Phanerozoic time, with consequences for taxonomy. A single dipartite phylogenetic tree includes all major groups of organisms.

The Rise of Western Rationalism: Max Weber's Developmental History


Wolfgang Schluchter - 1981
    It was the grand theme of his two world historical studies, Economy and Society and The Economic Ethics of the World Religions. His studies of the relationships among economy, polity, law, and religion are lasting scholarly achievements. In this book Wolfgang Schluchter presents the most systematic analysis and elaboration ever attempted of Weber's sociology as a developmental history of the West.