Human adaptation /

The authors of the four essays in this collection examine genetic, physiological, behavioral, and cultural adaptation in Homo sapiens. In the first two essays on genetic and physiological adaptation M.A. Smith and G.A. Harrison introduce a range of very cursory explanations for human adaptation at both the proximate and ultimate levels of evolutionary analysis. They both pay special attention to the problem of measuring whether a particular trait or characteristic represents, in an evolutionary sense, an adaptation. Subsequent essays provide a sociobiological lens to examine both behavioral and cultural adaptation. R.I.M. Dunbar applies kin selection, reciprocal altruism, and evolutionary strategy theories to human ecological conditions and to human mating and parental investment strategies, while H. Morphy examines the interrelationships among culture, environment, and social organization in hunter-gatherer and pastoral peoples. Dunbar's and Morphy's examples of human adaptation are much more comprehensive and explicit than those in the preceding essays. Editor Harrison makes no attempt to link the information on the forms of human adaptation; therefore he maintains the division between biology and culture. As a result, the volume fails to account for the interaction between nature and nurture. The comprehensive bibliographies included with the essays make this book particularly useful. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. N. Krusko; Beloit College