Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Lucid and provocative.--Bryce Christensen"Booklist" (11/01/2010)
It is an entertaining as well as informative read.--Rosalie West"Portland Book Review" (06/01/2011)
An eclectic collection of essays on humanity and evolution with something for everyone. Dunbar explains, among other things, why monogamists need big brains, why it is worth buying a new suit for an interview, how to interpret an advert in a lonely hearts column, the perils of messing with evolution and, of course, how many friends one person needs (150 as it happens, aka "Dunbar's number"). He speaks with authority and seduces us as only a master storyteller can.--Kate Douglas, New Scientist
Entertaining and informative...Covering an impressive breadth of topics and disciplines, Dunbar explores the ways in which our brains control every aspect of our social lives (surprise, we are less complicated than we think). Our needs, preferences, and commonalities are a function of what--not who--we are...Full of interesting facts and Dunbar's winning personality, his effort reads like a fascinating lecture that most readers would be all-too-happy to attend.-- (01/24/2011)
[A] fascinating volume that ranges widely across time, space and human practices...Tossing off light-hearted examinations of such fairly innocent topics as why we kiss and why all babies look very much alike, Dunbar is unafraid to tackle sensitive and controversial issues as well. These essays deal with race, gender, intelligence, class, and nationality in dispassionate and unflinching ways that do not seek to cushion hard facts with mealy-mouthed sanctimony...Far from being a catalogue of gloom and doom, this book leaves the reader marvelling at how far homo sapiens has come, and how far we might yet ascend.-- (03/03/2011)
For the past thirty years [Dunbar] has conducted research designed to uncover the workings of our ancestral hardware: to decode the scripts that drive much of our behavior and make us what we are as a species. Although Dunbar emphasizes the value of kin, he is anything but a sentimentalist. In this book, he chases after averages and patterns, after predictive links between current behavioral and physical traits and what, in the Pleistocene or Neolithic past, would most likely have been mating or survival advantages...In general, understanding the Darwinian back-story of our species is arguably a way to short-circuit the infelicities of our gut responses: a way to combat gut-level racism, sexism, beauty/symmetry biases, height biases, ageism, and the many variants of tribalism and jingoism...Dunbar shows that, if we go far enough back in our family trees, we are all the product of a tangled skein of heroes and villains, of conquering populations and conquered ones, of dominant and minority races, of in-groups and out-groups. Whether we as individuals call ourselves one or the other is often just a matter of how far back in time we set our stakes combined with the limits of our instruments for probing ourselves. Knowledge such as this may well be the only way out of the ancestral cave.-- (05/24/2011)
How Many Friends Does One Person Need? by Robin Dunbar is a fascinating examination of human evolution, revealing why we gossip, how many Facebook friends we should have and how our distant past influences our current behaviour.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
£ 2.61
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_GOOD. Good condition ex-library book with usual library markings and stickers. Seller Inventory # 00062511226
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: USED_GOOD. No Jacket. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.2. Seller Inventory # G0674057163I3N10
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: USED_VERYGOOD. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.2. Seller Inventory # G0674057163I4N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Roundabout Books, Greenfield, MA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Condition Notes: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders. Seller Inventory # 1599035
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Irish Booksellers, Portland, ME, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 0674057163-R
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Very Good condition. Shows only minor signs of wear, and very minimal markings inside (if any). 1.2. Seller Inventory # 353-0674057163-vrg
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Book Deals, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
Condition: Fair. Acceptable/Fair condition. Book is worn, but the pages are complete, and the text is legible. Has wear to binding and pages, may be ex-library. 1.2. Seller Inventory # 353-0674057163-acp
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Condition: Very Good. Book is in Used-VeryGood condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain very limited notes and highlighting. 1.2. Seller Inventory # 0674057163-2-3
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: GF Books, Inc., Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. 1.2. Seller Inventory # 0674057163-2-4
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Wizard Books, Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: NEW. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0674057163
Quantity: 1 available