Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social EvolutionFrans B. M. de Waal How did we become the linguistic, cultured, and hugely successful apes that we are? Our closest relatives--the other mentally complex and socially skilled primates--offer tantalizing clues. In Tree of Origin nine of the world's top primate experts read these clues and compose the most extensive picture to date of what the behavior of monkeys and apes can tell us about our own evolution as a species. It has been nearly fifteen years since a single volume addressed the issue of human evolution from a primate perspective, and in that time we have witnessed explosive growth in research on the subject. Tree of Origin gives us the latest news about bonobos, the make love not war apes who behave so dramatically unlike chimpanzees. We learn about the tool traditions and social customs that set each ape community apart. We see how DNA analysis is revolutionizing our understanding of paternity, intergroup migration, and reproductive success. And we confront intriguing discoveries about primate hunting behavior, politics, cognition, diet, and the evolution of language and intelligence that challenge claims of human uniqueness in new and subtle ways. Tree of Origin provides the clearest glimpse yet of the apelike ancestor who left the forest and began the long journey toward modern humanity. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Chimpanzee Social Organization and Reproduction | 9 |
Bonobos and Human Social Evolution | 39 |
Reasons to Consider the Entire Primate Order | 69 |
Meateating Meatsharing and Human Evolution | 95 |
How Our Ancestors Evolution Depended on What They Ate | 119 |
6 Social and Technical Forms of Primate Intelligence | 145 |
Group Size and the Evolution of Intelligence | 173 |
Other editions - View all
Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution Frans B. M. De Waal No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
ability adult African aggression anthropologists Australopithecus australopiths babbling baboons behavior bipedal bonding bonobos brain calls Cambridge University Press captive capuchin monkeys chimpan chimpanzees chimpanzees and bonobos cognitive colobus complex cooperation copulations cotton-top tamarins culture dispersal dominance Dunbar ecology evidence evolutionary evolved Exam Copy Figure foraging forest fossil Frans de Waal genetic Gombe Goodall gorillas grooming habitats hominid Homo Homo erectus human evolution hunters hunting individuals infanticide infants intelligence interactions Journal of Primatology language learning living macaques Mahale male chimpanzees mammals mating McGrew meat million years ago models monkeys and apes mountain gorillas muriquis neocortex nonhuman primates offspring orangutans panzees patterns percent populations predation primates Primatology pygmy marmosets range receptivity relationships relatives reproductive Robin Dunbar savanna sexual sharing Snowdon social grooming social groups societies Sociobiology species structure studies Taï tamarins tion tool traditional vocal Waal wild chimpanzees woodland apes World monkeys Wrangham