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The relations between behavior, evolution, and culture have been a
subject of vigorous debate since the publication of Darwin's The
Descent of Man (1871). The latest volume of Perspectives in
Ethology brings anthropologists, ethologists, psychologists, and
evolutionary theorists together to reexamine this important
relation. With two exceptions (the essays by Brown and Eldredge),
all of the present essays were originally presented at the Fifth
Biannual Symposium on the Science of Behavior held in Guadalajara,
Mexico, in February 1998. The volume opens with the problem of the
origins of culture, tackled from two different viewpoints by
Richerson and Boyd, and Lancaster, Kaplan, Hill, and Hurtado,
respectively. Richerson and Boyd analyze the possible relations
between climatic change in the Pleistocene and the evo lution of
social learning, evaluating the boundary conditions under which
social learning could increase fitness and contribute to culture.
Lancaster, Kaplan, Hill, and Hurtado examine how a shift in the
diet of the genus Homo toward difficult-to-acquire food could have
determined (or coe volved with) unique features of the human life
cycle. These two essays illus trate how techniques that range from
computer modeling to comparative behavioral analysis, and that make
use of a wide range of data, can be used for drawing inferences
about past selection pressures. As culture evolves, it must somehow
find its place within (and also affect) a complex hierarchy of
behavioral and biological factors."
ON THE FUTURE OF PERSPECTIVES When Patrick Bateson and Peter
Klopfer offered me the editorship of Perspectives in 1992, the
world of academic publishing was in one of its periodic upheavals.
Subscriptions to series-even distinguished series such as Perspec
tives-had been declining and individual volume prices had been
rising, a trend that if continued could only result in the series
pricing itself out of the market. In the course of the negotiations
around the change of editors, the publishers offered a cost-cutting
solution: change the production pattern to "camera ready" and elimi
nate the costs of indexing and proofreading. While I could see the
sense in this proposal, I was reluctant to accept it. Part of what
I had always liked about the volumes in this series was that they
were real books, intelligently proofread, nicely laid out, and
provided with proper indexes. Thus, I in return offered a "Devil's
bargain" the publisher should maintain the present quality of the
series for two more volumes and make a renewed effort to advertise
the series to our ethological and sociobiological colleagues, while
I as the new series editor committed myself to a renewed effort to
make Perspectives the publication of choice for writers who are
trying to get their message out to the world intact and readers who
are seeking clear, coherent, comprehensive and untrammeled
presentations of authors' ideas and research programs."
ON THE FUTURE OF PERSPECTIVES When Patrick Bateson and Peter
Klopfer offered me the editorship of Perspectives in 1992, the
world of academic publishing was in one of its periodic upheavals.
Subscriptions to series-even distinguished series such as Perspec
tives-had been declining and individual volume prices had been
rising, a trend that if continued could only result in the series
pricing itself out of the market. In the course of the negotiations
around the change of editors, the publishers offered a cost-cutting
solution: change the production pattern to "camera ready" and elimi
nate the costs of indexing and proofreading. While I could see the
sense in this proposal, I was reluctant to accept it. Part of what
I had always liked about the volumes in this series was that they
were real books, intelligently proofread, nicely laid out, and
provided with proper indexes. Thus, I in return offered a "Devil's
bargain" the publisher should maintain the present quality of the
series for two more volumes and make a renewed effort to advertise
the series to our ethological and sociobiological colleagues, while
I as the new series editor committed myself to a renewed effort to
make Perspectives the publication of choice for writers who are
trying to get their message out to the world intact and readers who
are seeking clear, coherent, comprehensive and untrammeled
presentations of authors' ideas and research programs."
The relations between behavior, evolution, and culture have been a
subject of vigorous debate since the publication of Darwin's The
Descent of Man (1871). The latest volume of Perspectives in
Ethology brings anthropologists, ethologists, psychologists, and
evolutionary theorists together to reexamine this important
relation. With two exceptions (the essays by Brown and Eldredge),
all of the present essays were originally presented at the Fifth
Biannual Symposium on the Science of Behavior held in Guadalajara,
Mexico, in February 1998. The volume opens with the problem of the
origins of culture, tackled from two different viewpoints by
Richerson and Boyd, and Lancaster, Kaplan, Hill, and Hurtado,
respectively. Richerson and Boyd analyze the possible relations
between climatic change in the Pleistocene and the evo lution of
social learning, evaluating the boundary conditions under which
social learning could increase fitness and contribute to culture.
Lancaster, Kaplan, Hill, and Hurtado examine how a shift in the
diet of the genus Homo toward difficult-to-acquire food could have
determined (or coe volved with) unique features of the human life
cycle. These two essays illus trate how techniques that range from
computer modeling to comparative behavioral analysis, and that make
use of a wide range of data, can be used for drawing inferences
about past selection pressures. As culture evolves, it must somehow
find its place within (and also affect) a complex hierarchy of
behavioral and biological factors.
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