Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution

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.

Table of Contents:
Frans B. M. de Waal Introduction 1. Anne E. Pusey Of Genes and Apes: Chimpanzee Social Organization and Reproduction 2. Frans B. M. de Waal Apes from Venus: Bonobos and Human Social Evolution 3. Karen B. Strier Beyond the Apes: Reasons to Consider the Entire Primate Order 4. Craig S. Stanford The Ape's Gift: Meat-eating, Meat-sharing, and Human Evolution 5. Richard W. Wrangham Out of the Pan, Into the Fire: How Our Ancestors' Evolution Depended on What They Ate 6 Richard W. Byrne Social and Technical Forms of Primate Intelligence 7. Robin I. M. Dunbar Brains on Two Legs: Group Size and the Evolution of Intelligence 8. Charles T. Snowdon From Primate Communication to Human Language 9. William C. McGrew The Nature of Culture: Prospects and Pitfalls of Cultural Primatology Notes

About the Author :
Frans B. M. de Waal is C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Psychology Department and Director of Living Links, part of the Yerkes Primate Center, Emory University. Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. William C. McGrew is Professor of Anthropology and Zoology at Miami University, Ohio. Craig Stanford is Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at the University of Southern California. Karen B. Strier is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Richard W. Wrangham is Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

Review :
Human behavior today is so unfathomable and complex that it's hard to relate it to influences from the remote past. But if you want a source that cogently discusses human intelligence in the context of the behavior of other primates, Tree of Origin is the place to turn. The last few decades have seen enormous progress in the study of primate behavior. Nine of the world's leading experts team up to tell us what it all means, throwing new light on human evolution. In Tree of Origin, primatologists speak out about the evolution of human behavior. After decades of hard work - all those hours in the sun, all those days of stomping though forests, all those years of watching monkeys and apes - they have come to provocative conclusions about how the behavior of our closest relatives informs our own lives. This book is the bridge between our past and our present. Are we so separate from our nearest relatives that studying apes' behavior has nothing to teach us about ourselves? Or does watching how apes interact socially give us clues about our own evolution? The authors come down solidly on the side of the applicability of primate studies to the study of humans. Growing from a 1997 conference on human evolution, this selection of nine essays by working primatologists include speculations about the origins of human social evolution from the perspective of their studies on other primates...All of the essays are accessible to the general reader. [An] enlightening discussion of how scientists' ideas about human forebears have been shaped--and perhaps led astray--by extrapolations from intensive study of a few primates. Whether you are interested in human origins or in how other animals live their lives, [this book] is a superb synthesis of current thinking and research about our closest nonhuman relatives. A fascinating bunch of essays...They re-examine human social evolution from the perspective of naturalistic observations of non-human primates, and then extrapolate to humans. De Waal's is just one of a fascinating bunch of essays by primatologists in Tree of Origin. They re-examine human social evolution from the perspective of naturalistic observations of non-human primates, and then extrapolate to humans.