About this title: How Humans Evolved by Robert Boyd and Joan B. Silk provides a comprehensive college-level introduction to the study of biological anthropology. Rather than simply providing a list of facts, How Humans Evolved encourages students to think critically about the process of human evolution by engaging students in theoretical discussions and debates and by asking them to wrestle with larger questions, such as how humans acquired language, why we age and eventually die, why only women nurse babies, and why human morphology differs across geographical regions. The text is also accompanied by an outstanding ancillary package for instructors.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.
About the Author
Robert Boyd has written widely on evolutionary theory, focusing especially on the evolution of cooperation and role of culture in human evolution. His book, Culture and the Evolutionary Process, received the J. I. Staley Prize. He has also published numerous articles in scientific journals and edited volumes. He is currently co-director of the MacArthur Preferences Network and professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Joan B. Silk has conducted extensive research on the social lives of monkeys and apes, including extensive fieldwork on chimpanzees at Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania and baboons in Kenya and Botswana. She is also interested in the application of evolutionary thinking to human behavior, especially adoption and friendship. She has published over sixty papers in scientific journals and scholarly edited volumes, and is currently professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Table Of Contents
Preface
Prologue
Part One: How Evolution Works
Adaption by Natural Selection
Explaining Adaptation before Darwin
Darwin's Theory of Adaptation
Darwin's Postulates
An Example of Adaptation by Natural Selection
Reading: Studying Evolution in Darwin's Finches
Individual Selection
The Evolution of Complex Adaptations
Why Small Variations Are Important
Why Intermediate Steps Are Favored by Selection
Rates of Evolutionary Change
Darwin's Difficulties Explaining Variation
Genetics
Mendelian Genetics
Cell Division and the Role of Chromosomes in Inheritance
Mitosis and Meiosis
Chromosomes and Mendel's Experimental Results
Linkage and Recombination
More on Recombination
Molecular Genetics
Genes Are DNA
The Chemical Basis of Life
DNA Codes for Protein
Not All DNA Codes for Proteins
Reading: Deciphering DNA
The Modern Synthesis
Population Genetics
Genes in Populations
How Random Mating and Sexual Reproduction Change Genotypic Frequencies
Genotypic Frequencies After Two Generations of Random Mating
How Natural Selection Changes Gene Frequencies
The Modern Synthesis
The Genetics of Continuous Variation
How Variation Is Maintained
Reading: DNA is Digital
Natural Selection and Behavior
Constraints on Adaptation
Correlated Characters
Disequilibrium
Genetic Drift
Local versus Optimal Adaptations
Other Constraints on Evolution
The Geometry of Area-Volume Ratios
Speciation and Phylogeny
What Are Species?
The Biological Species Concept
The Ecological Species Concept
The Origin of Species
Allopatric Speciation
Parapatric and Sympatric Speciation
Reading: Evolution is Not Always So Slow
The Tree of Life
Why Reconstruct Phylogenies?
The Role of Phylogeny in the Comparative Method
How to Reconstruct Phylogenies
Problems due to Convergence
Problems due to Ancestral Characters
Reconstructing Phylogenies Using Genetic Distance Data
Phylogeny Reconstruction Using Genetic Distance
Taxonomy---Naming Names
Part Two: Primate Ecology and Behavior
Introduction to the Primates
Two Reasons to Study Primates
Primates Are Our Closest Relatives
Primates Are a Diverse Order
Features That Define the Primates
What's in a Tooth?
Primate Biogeography
A Taxonomy of Living Primates
The Prosimians
Reading: Orangutan Conservation
The Anthropoids
Primate Conservation
Primate Ecology
The Distribution of Food
Reading: Monkeys Can be Picky Eaters
Dietary Adaptations of Primates
Activity Patterns
Ranging Behavior
Predation
Primate Sociality
Forms of Social Groups Among Primates
The Distribution of Females
Dominance Hierarchies
The Distribution of Males
Primate Mating Systems
The Language of Adaptive Explanations
The Evolution of Reproductive Strategies
Reproductive Strategies of Females
Sources of Variation in Female Reproductive Performance
Reproductive Tradeoffs
Sexual Selection and Male Mating Strategies
Intrasexual Selection
Intersexual Selection
Male Reproductive Tactics
Investing Males
Male-Male Competition in Nonmonogamous Groups
Reading: Dangers of Dispersal
Infanticide
Paternal Care in Nonmonogamous Groups
Female Mate Choice
The Evolution of Social Behavior
Kinds of Social Interactions
Altruism: A Conundrum
Kin Selection
Group Selection
Hamilton's Rule
Evidence of Kin Selection in Primates
How Relationships Are Maintained
Reciprocal Altruism
Reading: How Do We Study Primates?
Primate Intelligence
What Is Intelligence?
Why Are Primates So Smart?
Hypotheses Explaining Primate Intelligence
Testing Models of the Evolution of Intelligence
Knowledge about the Ecological and Social Domains
The Ecological Domain
Social Knowledge
Examples of Deception in Nonhuman Primates
Reading: What Do Chimpanzees Think About Seeing?
Theory of Mind
Examining Theory of Mind in Children, Monkeys, and Apes
The Great Ape Problem
The Value of Studying Primate Behavior
Part Three: The History of the Human Lineage
From Tree Shrew to Ape
Continental Drift and Climate Change
The Methods of Paleontology
The Evolution of the Early Primates
The First Anthropoids
Facts That Teeth Can Reveal
Missing Links
The Emergence of the Hominoids
Reading: The World of the Ancient Apes
From Hominoid to Hominid
At the Beginning
Ardipithecus ramidus
Reading: Toumai, Child of a Dry Season
Orrorin tugenensis
The Hominid Community Diversifies
Australopithecus
A. anamensis
A. afarensis
A. africanus
A. garhi
A. habilis/rudolfensis
Paranthropus
Chemical Clues About the Diet of Paranthropines
Kenyanthropus
Hominid Phylogenies
Evolution of Early Hominid Morphology and Behavior
The Evolution of Bipedality
Early Hominid Subsistence
Early Hominid Social Organization
Reading: Walking Through Time
Oldowan Toolmakers and the Origin of Human Life History
Ancient Toolmaking and Tool Use
Complex Foraging Shapes Human Life History
Why Meat Eating Favors Food Sharing
Evidence for Complex Foraging by Oldowan Toolmakers
Archaeological Evidence for Meat Eating
Reading: An Oldowan Challenge
Hunters or Scavengers?
Domestic Lives of Oldowan Toolmakers
Back of the Future: The Transition to Modern Human Life Histories
From Hominid to Homo
Hominids of the Lower Pleistocene: Homo ergaster
Morphology
Tools and Subsistence
Hominids of the Early Middle Pleistocene (900 to 300 kya)
Reconstructing Ancient Climates Using Deep-Sea Cores
Eastern Asia: Homo erectus
Reading: The Story of the First Missing Link
Africa and Western Eurasia: Homo heidelbergensis
Hominids of the Later Pleistocene (300 to 50 kya)
Eastern Eurasia: H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis
Western Eurasia: The Neanderthals
Africa: The Road to Homo sapiens?
The Sources of Change
The Muddle in the Middle
Homo sapiens and the Evolution of Modern Human Behavior
Modern Homo sapiens
Archaeological Evidence for Modern Human Behavior
Upper Paleolithic Technology and Culture
Reading: When Lions Ruled France
Origin and Spread of Modern Humans
The Multiregional Hypothesis
Genetic Data
Mitochondrial Eve
Evidence from Fossils and Tool Kits
Modern Human Behavior: Revolution or Evolution?
The African Archaeological Record during the Later Pleistocene
How Modern Human Behavior Evolved
Arcy-Sur-Cure and the Causes of Modern Human Behavior
The Evolution of Language
Language Is an Adaptation
Speech Production and Perception
Grammar
Reading: Happily Blinkered Humans
Language Capacities Are Derived
How Language Evolved
When Language Evolved
Did Language Arise Early?
Did Language Arise Late?
Part Four: Evolution and Modern Humans
Human Genetic Diversity
Explaining Human Variation
Variation in Traits Influenced by Single Genes
Causes of Genetic Variation within Groups
Calculating Gene Frequencies for a Balanced Polymorphism
Causes of Genetic Variation among Groups
Variation in Complex Phenotypic Traits
Genetic Variation within Groups
Genetic Variation among Groups
The Race Concept
Reading: Human Diversity
Evolution and the Human Life Cycle
Maternal-Fetal Conflict during Pregnancy
Why There Is Parent-Offspring Conflict
Spontaneous Abortion
Blood Sugar
The Evolution of Senescence
Two Evolutionary Theories of Senescence
Evidence for the Theories
Reading: Got Milk?
The Evolution of Menopause
The Evolution of Menstruation
Evolution and Human Behavior
Why Evolution Is Relevant to Human Behavior
Evolutionary Psychology
The Logic of Evolutionary Psychology
Reasoning about Reciprocity
Clerical Problem
Bartender's Problem I
Bartender's Problem II
Evolutionary Psychology and Human Universals
Inbreeding Avoidance
Why Inbred Matings Are Bad
Evolution and Human Culture
Culture Is a Derived Trait in Humans
Reading: Cultural Diversity and Human Universals
Examples of Culture in Other Animals
Culture Is an Adaptation
Human Behavioral Ecology
Human Mate Choice and Parenting
The Psychology of Human Mate Preferences
Some Social Consequences of Mate Preferences
Kipsigis Bridewealth
Nyinba Polyandry
Raising Children
Child Abuse and Infanticide
Adoption
Family Size
Is Human Evolution Over?
Reading: The Relationship Between Science and Morality
Epilogue
Appendix
Glossary
Credits
Permissions Acknowledgments
Index
Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Great textbook, February 23, 2003 Overall, it's a great book and very informative.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Now in its Fourth Edition, April 18, 2006
Any textbook that makes it to four editions has to be a good one, in use at a lot of places and one that fits the current collected wisdom of the subject. I say this bit about the current wisdom because all of the sciences are moving forward at an extremely rapid rate. New theories, new discoveries make science change.
This book is rare, if not unique, in how it presents controversy. Some scientists believe this, some believe that. Most authors tend to have beliefs that lean one way or the other. In this book the tendency is instead to present both views and give the evidence for each. This approach is more adapted to how science really works, but it is unusual, especially in a book intended for undergraduate use.
This book is somewhat of a combination between anthropology and evolutionary biology. As such it brings a better understanding of how human beings became what they are today, one slow step at a time. It also presents all of the known evidence from both field observations and laboratory testing. It shows a picture of Lucy's bones, and it goes into DNA and gene theory. It is complete a text as you are goign to find.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Superior text, September 28, 2003
There's plenty of undergrad textbooks on the subject of physical anthropology, of varying quality. This, however, is by far the most theory-oriented, detailed, and clear. Thanks Boyd and Silk!
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