Man the Hunted : Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution

by Hart, Donna L.

• ISBN13: 9780813339368
• ISBN10: 0813339367
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Although "Man the Hunter" is a popular description of our ancestry, the central importance of hunting is firmly fixed only in the archeological record of relatively recent human history.Man the Huntedargues that primates, including the earliest members of the human family, have evolved not as hunters but as the prey of any number of predators, including wild cats and dogs, hyenas, snakes, crocodiles, and even birds of prey. Eyewitness accounts, data collected by the authors, and the published reports of naturalists establish the astonishing extent to which living monkeys, lemurs, apes, and even humans fall victim to a wide variety of predators, some of which even specialize in the consumption of primates. Additionally, the fossil record demonstrates that primates have been prey for millions of years, a fact that necessarily shaped the evolution of our earliest ancestors in body and behavior. Skillfully combining information from a number of lines of evidence,Man the Huntedcasts an entirely new light on the natural history of primates and the evolution of fossil and modern humans.

Author Biography

Donna L. Hart has been a longtime professional in wildlife conservation and currently teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Robert W. Sussman, Washington University (St. Louis), is recent editor of American Anthropologist and has served in editorial capacities with numerous other journals in anthropology and primatology.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Preface	xv
1 JUST ANOTHER ITEM ON THE MENU	1	(10)
Fossil Evidence and Living Primates,	5	(4)
Predation and Primate Studies,	9	(1)
An Accurate Appraisal of Predation,	9	(2)
2 DEBUNKING "MAN THE HUNTER"	11	(22)
Will the First Hominid Please Stand Up?	13	(8)
A Messy Bush,	21	(1)
Wanderlust,	22	(1)
Man the Hunter?	23	(5)
Man the Dancer!	28	(2)
We Were Not "Cat Food"!	30	(3)
3 WHO'S EATING WHOM?	33	(24)
A Tale of Two Families,	34	(4)
The Prey Flee, the Predator Pursues,	38	(3)
Who Are These Primate Prey?	41	(4)
The Dichotomy about Death,	45	(1)
The James Carville Approach,	46	(6)
Predation Risk versus Predation Rate,	52	(3)
Who Was Eating Our Hominid Ancestors?	55	(2)
4 LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY!	57	(32)
Choose Your Weapon,	63	(7)
The Long and Winding Road from South Africa to Georgia,	70	(6)
Killing Machines,	76	(1)
Before the Age of Ulcers,	77	(3)
Perfect Primate Predators,	80	(4)
Give Us the Bear Facts,	84	(5)
5 COURSING HYENAS AND HUNGRY DOGS	89	(22)
Wolves at the Door,	90	(5)
No Laughing Matter,	95	(2)
Howls in the Prehistoric Night,	97	(7)
Leaders of the Pack,	104	(7)
6 MISSIONARY POSITION	111	(24)
The Serpentine Route,	112	(12)
Breathing Fire: The Komodo Dragon,	124	(3)
My, What Big Teeth You Have!	127	(6)
On Top of Everything Else, Sharks, Too?	133	(2)
7 TERROR FROM THE SKY	135	(26)
Featherweights and Talon Tips,	138	(3)
Crested Viragos,	141	(6)
An Alfred Hitchcock Moment,	147	(2)
The Record of Giant Raptors,	149	(2)
The Taung Child Tells Its Tale,	151	(4)
Running Hawks, Hungry Toucans, and Giant Owls,	155	(6)
8 WE WEREN'T JUST WAITING AROUND TO BE EATEN!	161	(30)
Heavyweight Champions,	166	(4)
Why Hermits Seem Odd,	170	(4)
We Saw...Food. We Came...Down from the Trees. We Conquered...Gravity	174	(6)
On the Path to Einstein,	180	(2)
Daytime Talk Shows,	182	(4)
Making a Last Stand: Counterattack and Chutzpah,	186	(3)
Weapons of Mass Destruction,	189	(2)
9 GENTLE SAVAGE OR BLOODTHIRSTY BRUTE?	191	(28)
The Hunting Myth and Sociobiology,	194	(7)
Chimpanzee and Human Males as Demonic Killers,	201	(6)
Chimpanzee Aggression,	207	(4)
Getting Out of Our Genes,	211	(2)
The Other 50%,	213	(6)
10 MAN THE HUNTED	219	(32)
Sink Your Teeth into This!	226	(5)
Painting the Family Portrait,	231	(4)
Habitat for Humanity,	235	(4)
Macaques 31 Us?	239	(3)
Put It All Together and What Do You Have?	242	(3)
Man the Hunted,	245	(3)
The Oldest Story,	248	(3)
Acknowledgments	251	(2)
Notes	253	(18)
Bibliography	271	(30)
Index	301