Understanding Behavior What Primate Studies Tell Us About Human Behavior

by Loy, James D.; Peters, Calvin B.

• ISBN13: 9780195060201
• ISBN10: 0195060202
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1991-02-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Scientific studies of monkeys, apes, and other nonhuman primates began just over 50 years ago. Since then tens of thousands of hours of observation have been made on these animals in the wild and in captivity. The chief rationale for scientific primatology has always been the belief that mportant insights into human behavior and society could be gained through studies of our evolutionary kin. This book reviews what we have learned. Distinguished researchers outline primatological insights in six areas: sex, parenting, behavioral development, aggression/dominance, culture and kinship. The chapters show how primates have been used as simplified models of human behaviors and how they have contributed to scenarios of human evolution. Lay readers, students, and specialists alike will find this a readable and useful compendium of the findings of scientific primatology.

Table of Contents

Mortifying Reflections: Primatology and the Human Disciplines

Maternal Behavior in Human and Nonhuman Primates

Primate Paternalistic Investment: A Cross-Species View

Ontogeny of Behavior in Humans and Nonhuman Primates: The Search for Common Ground

Human Evolution and the Sexual Behavior of Female Primates

Male Sexual Behavior: Monkeys, Men, and Apes

Primate and the Origins of Aggression, Power and Politics Among Humans

Kinship, Donald Stone Sade

Ape, Humans, and Culture: What Primatological Discourse Tells Us About Ourselves

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