Review of John Cartwright's Evolution and Human Behaviour: Darwinian Perspectives on the Human Condition

Abstract

The book presents succinctly and clearly the many key concepts and theories resting at the heart of an interdisciplinary approach to human behavior; these include kin selection, game theory, life history theory, sexual selection theory, paternity certainty, parent-offspring conflict, reproductive value, antagonistic pleiotropy, and memes. What does the book cover? A sampling of topics includes Charles Darwin; Tinbergens four why questions in biology; the definition of an adaptation; inclusive fitness; group selection; sex ratios; hominin brain and body sizes; defining features of humans (e.g., bipedalism, fatty neonates, and slow life histories); competing theories of human bipedalism; brain energetics and the expensive tissue hypothesis; epigenetics; life history allocations and endocrinology; attachment and Bowlby; individual differences; age of menarche; grandmother hypothesis and senescence; error management theory; sex differences in spatial cognition; Ekmans facial expression research; kin detection; reputation and signaling; Daly and Wilsons research on homicide; age and sex patterns in crime; jealousy; human sperm competition; concealed ovulation; cosmetic surgeries in the UK; male status and female attractiveness in mate choice surveys; cycle-related shifts in female sexuality; masculinity/femininity in beards, voices, facial shape, and body shape; neoteny in faces; models of male homosexuality; Westermarck and incest avoidance; amylase gene copy number and starchy diets; cooking and jaw and tooth change; evolutionary accounts of religion; costly signaling and commune duration; disgust and the behavioral immune system. Topical examples, which only scratch the surface of deeper treatments elsewhere, include co-sleeping and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); the zoonotic origins of many human infectious diseases, such as measles; Paul Ewalds research on the evolution of virulence; the evolution of antibiotic resistance; the hygiene hypothesis; contrasts between the timing of births as specified by the obstetric dilemma and maternal metabolic models; pregnancy sickness and food aversions; major dietary transitions; animal domestication, such as pigs, and relevance to diets; industrial era foods, such as high-fructose corn syrup; blood pressure among Yanomamo and UK women; and paternal age-related increases in mutations. How do children acquire cultural values and dietary preferences, for example? [...]human social, political, and economic behaviors change with age in ways that can be situated within larger discussions of human development and life history theory.