As the editors of the first book on the squirrel monkey prophesied in 1968, * there has been an incredible expansion in primate research during the past 16 years. Their projection that the squirrel monkey would play an increasingly important role in this research effort has also come to be true during the ensuing years. One inadvertent result of the rapid growth, however, is that it has become more and more difficult for investigators to keep track of new information, both in their own disciplines and in related fields. For scientists who study and use the squirrel monkey in research, this problem is particularly pronounced, because articles are often published in specialized and disparate journals. We felt that a new synthesis of the vast amount of information on Saimiri would resolve this problem and would provide an extremely valuable com panion volume to the first book. The idea grew out of a small symposium held at the IX Congress of the International Primatological Society in Atlanta, Geor gia, during August, 1982. Following the format of The Squirrel Monkey, ad ditional authors were invited to discuss advances in areas which had experi enced exceptional growth or to review basic information that would be of practical value to future researchers. Even with focused topics and synthetic reviews, the wealth of new data resulted in many long manuscripts. In response to the continuing problems with Saimiri nomenclature, Richard Thorington has provided us with a definitive statement on squirrel monkey taxonomy."

How are we to understand the complex forces that shape human behavior? A variety of diverse perspectives, drawing upon studies of human behavioral ontogeny, as well as humanity's evolutionary heri tage, seem to provide the best likelihood of success. It is in the attempt to synthesize such potentially disparate approaches to human devel opment into an integrated whole that we undertake this series on the Genesis of Behavior. In many respects, the incredible burgeoning of research in child development over the last decade or two seems like a thousand lines of inquiry spreading outward in an incoherent starburst of effort. The need exists to provide, on an ongoing basis, an arena of discourse within which the threads of continuity between those diverse lines of research on human development can be woven into a fabric of meaning and understanding. Scientists, scholars, and those who attempt to translate their efforts into the practical realities of the care and guidance of infants and children are the audience that we seek to reach. Each requires the opportunity to see-to the degree that our knowledge in given areas permits-various aspects of development in a coherent, integrated fashion. It is hoped that this series, which will bring together research on infant biology, developing infant capacities, animal models, the impact of social, cultural, and familial forces on development, and the distorted products of such forces under certain circumstances, will serve these important social and scientific needs."