The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture

Although researchers have long been aware that the species-typical architecture of the human mind is the product of our evolutionary history, it has only been in the last three decades that advances in such fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and paleoanthropology have made the fact of our evolution illuminating. Converging findings from a variety of disciplines are leading to the emergence of a fundamentally new view of the human mind, and with it a new framework for the behavioral and social sciences. First, with the advent of the cognitive revolution, human nature can finally be defined precisely as the set of universal, species-typical information-processing programs that operate beneath the surface of expressed cultural variability. Second, this collection of cognitive programs evolved in the Pleistocene to solve the adaptive problems regularly faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors--problems such as mate selection, language acquisition, cooperation, and sexual infidelity. Consequently, the traditional view of the mind as a general-purpose computer, tabula rasa, or passive recipient of culture is being replaced by the view that the mind resembles an intricate network of functionally specialized computers, each of which imposes contentful structure on human mental organization and culture. The Adapted Mind explores this new approach--evolutionary psychology--and its implications for a new view of culture.

Table of Contents:
J. Tooby and L. Cosmides: Introduction PART I: Theoretical Framework 1: J. Tooby and L. Cosmides: The Psychological Foundations of Culture 2: D. Symons: On the Use and Misuse of Darwinism in the Study of Human Behavior PART II: Cooperation 3: L. Cosmides and J. Tooby: Cognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange 4: W. C. McGrew and A.T.C. Feistner: Two Non-human Primate Models for the Evolution of Human Food-Sharing: Chimpanzees and Callitrichids PART III: The Psychology of Mating and Sex 5: D. Buss: Mate Preference Mechanisms: Consequences for Partner Choice and Intrasexual Competition 6: B. Ellis: The Evolution of Sexual Attraction: Evaluative Mechanisms in Women 7: M. Wilson and M. Daly: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Chattel PART IV: Parental Care and Children 8: M. Profet: Pregnancy Sickness as Adaptation: A Deterrent to Maternal Ingestion of Teratogens 9: J. Mann: Nurturance or Negligence: Maternal Psychology and Behavioral Preference among Preterm Twins 10: A. Fernald: Human Maternal Vocalizations to Infants as Biologically Relevant Signals: An Evolutionary Perspective 11: M.J. Boulton and P.K. Smith: The Social Nature of Play Fighting and Play Chasing: Mechanisms and Strategies Underlying Cooperation and Compromise PART V: Perception and Language as Adaptations 12: S. Pinker and P. Bloom: Natural Language and Natural Selection 13: The Perceptual Organization of Colors: An Adaptation to Regularities of the Terrestrial World? R.N. Shepherd 14: I. Silverman and M. Eals: Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities: Evolutionary Theory and Data PART VI: Environmental Aesthetics 15: G.H. Orians and J.H. Heerwagen: Evolved Responses to Landscapes 16: S. Kaplan: Environmental Preference in a Knowledge-Seeking, Knowledge Using Organism PART VII: Intrapsychic Processes 17: R. M. Nesse and A.T. Lloyd: The Evolution of Psychodynamic Mechanisms PART VIII: Understanding Evolutionarily New Cultural Forms 18: J.H. Barkow: Beneath New Culture Is Old Psychology: Gossip, Class, and the Environment

Review :
"There are two kinds of landmark publications in science: those that open a new era, like Darwin's Origin of Species, or those that mark an important waypoint in a scientific revolution that has already begun. The Adapted Mind is an example of the latter, comprising as it does a collection of eighteen papers by twenty-five authors which sum up and illustrate much of the best of our knowledge in the field of evolutionary psychology." --Christopher Baddock, London School of Economics, ESS Newsletter "It is not often that the coal-face of science can be reached even by educated bystanders. Discoveries are usually hidden down long tunnels of jargon and complication, and the layman must wait for interpreters to bring garbled news of them to the surface. This book is a rare exception, a volume of fresh and original research of momentous significance that is written in such a way that ordinary mortals can immediately join the debate." --The Economist "A fascinating book which deserves a wide audience." --European Medical Journal "There are two kinds of landmark publications in science: those that open a new era, like Darwin's The Origin of Species, or those that mark an important waypoint in a scientific revolution that has already begun. The Adapted Mind is an example of the latter, comprising as it does a collection of eighteen papers by twenty-five authors which sum up and illustrate much of the best of our knowledge in the field of evolutionary psychology." --Christopher Badcock, London School of Economics, ESS Newsletter "A wonderful book. An excellent compendium of ground breaking theory and research in evolutionary psychology."--Professor Stephen Colarelli, Central Michigan University "I have rarely come across a book with such a fiery message. this is without doubt a critically important book, one that anybody concerned with the human mind should study. With evident passion, the editors dare to propose a new agenda for the whole of the social sciences...It is an agenda that has much to offer and will provide great insights into human behavior."--Journal of Anthropological Research