The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

Darwin, Charles

ISBN 10: 0691023697 / ISBN 13: 9780691023694

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1981

First paperback edition. Book is clean and tight without inside markings, front outside top corner slightly bumped, back outside top corner bumped with a couple of pages. In the current resurgence of interest in the biological basis of animal behavior and social organization, the ideas and questions pursued by Charles Darwin remain fresh and insightful. Seller Inventory # TBM244282

Synopsis:

In the current resurgence of interest in the biological basis of animal behavior and social organization, the ideas and questions pursued by Charles Darwin remain fresh and insightful. This is especially true of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin's second most important work. This edition is a facsimile reprint of the first printing of the first edition (1871), not previously available in paperback.

The work is divided into two parts. Part One marshals behavioral and morphological evidence to argue that humans evolved from other animals. Darwin shoes that human mental and emotional capacities, far from making human beings unique, are evidence of an animal origin and evolutionary development. Part Two is an extended discussion of the differences between the sexes of many species and how they arose as a result of selection. Here Darwin lays the foundation for much contemporary research by arguing that many characteristics of animals have evolved not in response to the selective pressures exerted by their physical and biological environment, but rather to confer an advantage in sexual competition. These two themes are drawn together in two final chapters on the role of sexual selection in humans.

In their Introduction, Professors Bonner and May discuss the place of The Descent in its own time and relation to current work in biology and other disciplines.

About the Author: John Tyler Bonner and Robert M. May are Professors of Biology at Princeton University.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Descent of Man, and Selection in ...
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton
Publication Date: 1981
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: 1st Edition