| Description |
1 online resource (236 pages : illustrations.) : |
| Series |
Key questions in anthropology.
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| Contents |
Chapter 1 Introduction 17 -- Rudiments of Culture 18 -- Cognition and Behavior 20 -- Marriage as a Cultural Practice 21 -- Marriage as a Cultural Idea System 23 -- Disconnect Between Ancestral Primate and Human Societies 24 -- Continuity in Process, Discontinuity in Effect 26 -- From Ancestral Primate to Hunter-Gatherer Forms of Social Organization 28 -- Hunter-Gatherers: The Real People 29 -- Cultural Kinship and Real People 30 -- Change from Face-to-Face to Relational Systems of Interaction 30 -- Nineteenth Century Evolutionists 31 -- Chapter 2 The Primate Beginning Point 35 -- Baseline Pattern for Social Organization 36 -- Biological Kin Selection and Female Social Organization 40 -- Emergent Forms of Social Organization 42 -- Grooming, Social Organization and Neocortex Ratio 45 -- Summary 50 -- Chapter 3 The Hunter-Gatherer Ending Point 55 -- Simple Versus Complex Hunter-Gatherer Societies 57 -- Heterogeneity of Hunter-Gatherer Societies 58 -- Expansion of Hierarchical Levels: Widening of the Social Field 60 -- The How Side of Adaptation: Implementing Traits 62 -- Culture as an Implementing Trait 64 -- Biological Population: Reproduction Within a Species as an Information Boundary 66 -- Cultural Population: Kinship Based Social Interaction as an Information Boundary 68 -- Kinship Conceptual Basis for a Social Boundary 70 -- Kin Term Maps 73 -- Ownership and Sharing of Resources 83 -- Egalitarian Hunter-Gatherer Societies 87 -- Summary 92 -- Chapter 4 The Chimpanzee Middle Point 95 -- Performative Versus Ostensive Forms of Social Organization 97 -- Variation in Social Organization among the Lesser and Greater Apes 98 -- Variation in Chimpanzee Social Organization at the Species Level 99 -- Variation in Chimpanzee Social Organization and Behavior at the Community Level 99 -- From Old World Monkeys to Chimpanzees 104 -- From Chimpanzees to Humans 117 -- Summary 134 -- Chapter 5 Transition to Relational Systems of Social Organization 137 -- Forms of Social Behavior and Forms of Social Organization 138 -- Cognitive Basis for Constructed Systems of Symmetric Social Interaction 145 -- Formal Representation of Dyads and Relations 145 -- From Individual Relations to a System of Relations 152 -- Part 1 From Theory of Mind Projection to a Precursor of Genealogical Kinship 155 -- Part 2 From Theory of Mind Projection to Stable Symmetric Social Interaction 162 -- Coordination Through Enculturation and an Expanded Social Field 166 -- Predicted Modal Size of the Expanded Social Field 169 -- Summary 178 -- Chapter 6 Conclusions 183 -- Odyssey Beginning Point: Old World Monkey Societies 183 -- Odyssey Endpoint: Hunter-Gatherer Societies 183 -- Odyssey Midpoint: Chimpanzees 185 -- Social Complexity Through Individualistic Behaviors 185 -- Kinship Terminologies as a Complex Whole 186 -- Cognitive Basis for the Expansion of the Social Field 187 -- Implications of Evolutionary Change in Social Systems 188 -- Cultural Idea Systems as Group-Level Properties 190 -- Shift from Individual to Organizational Evolution 193 -- Risk and Group-Level Selection 196 -- Summary 199 |
| Summary |
What separates modern humans from our primate cousins-are we a mere blink in the march of evolution, or does human culture represent the definitive evolutionary turn? Dwight Read explores the dilemma in this engaging, thought-provoking book, taking readers through an evolutionary odyssey from our primate beginnings through the development of culture and social organization. He assesses the two major trends in this field: one that sees us as a logical culmination of primate evolution, arguing that the rudiments of culture exist in primates and even magpies, and another that views the human transition as so radical that the primate model provides no foundation for understanding human dynamics. Expertly synthesizing a wide body of evidence from the anthropological and life sciences in accessible prose, Read's book will interest a broad readership from experts to undergraduate students and the general public |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-221) and index |
| Notes |
Description based on print version record |
| Subject |
Primates -- Evolution.
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Human evolution.
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Social evolution.
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Cultural Evolution
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Human evolution
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Primates -- Evolution
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Social evolution
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9781315427232 |
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1315427230 |
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