Books by Subject
Books by Subject
Animal Behavior
Do Animals Think?
by Clive D. L. Wynne, Princeton
University Press; (March 1, 2004)
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Reviews
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Shattering deeply held beliefs about sexual relationships in humans
and other animals, The Myth of Monogamy is a much needed treatment of a
sensitive issue. Written by the husband and wife team of behavioral scientist
David P. Barash and psychiatrist Judith Eve Lipton, it glows with wit and warmth
even as it explores decades of research undermining traditional precepts of
mating rituals. Evidence from genetic testing has been devastating to those
seeking monogamy in the animal kingdom; even many birds, long prized as examples
of fidelity, turn out to have a high incidence of extra-pair couplings.
Furthermore, now that researchers have turned their attention to female sexual
behavior, they are finding more and more examples of aggressive adultery-seeking
in "the fairer sex." Writing about humans in the context of parental
involvement, the authors find complexity and humor:
Baby people are more like baby birds than baby mammals. To be sure, newborn cats and dogs are helpless, but this helplessness doesn't last for long. By contrast, infant Homo sapiens remain helpless for months ... and then they become helpless toddlers! Who in turn graduate to being virtually helpless youngsters. (And then? Clueless adolescents.) So there may be some payoff to women in being mated to a monogamous man, after all.
Careful to separate scientific description from moral prescription, Barash and Lipton still poke a little fun at our conceptions of monogamy and other kinds of relationships as "natural" or "unnatural." Shoring themselves up against the inevitable charges that their reporting will weaken the institution of marriage, they make sure to note that monogamy works well for most of those who desire it and that one of our uniquely human traits is our ability to overcome biology in some instances. If, as some claim, monogamy has been a tool used by men to assert property rights over women, then perhaps one day The Myth of Monogamy will be seen as a milestone for women's liberation. --Rob Lightner
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Clever As a Fox : Animal Intelligence
And What It Can Teach Us About Ourselves
by Sonja I., Ph.d. Yoe
Hardcover - 324 pages (March 2001)
Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA; ISBN: 158234115X
; Dimensions (in inches): 0.91 x 9.59 x 6.36
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Animal Behavior Desk Reference, Second
Edition: A Dictionary of Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution
by Edwards M. Barrow
Hardcover - 936 pages
2 edition (December 28, 2000)
CRC Pr; ISBN: 0849320054
Editorial Reviews
Book
Description
Animal Behavior Desk Reference, Second Edition: A Dictionary of Behavior,
Ecology, and Evolution
Revised and updated, containing over 5,000 entries, with over 1,200 more entries
than in the previous edition, Animal Behavior Desk Reference, Second Edition:
A Dictionary of Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution provides definitions for terms
in animal behavior, biogeography, ecology, evolution, genetics, psychology,
systematics, statistics, and other related sciences. Formatted like a standard
dictionary, this reference presents definitions in a quick- and easy-to-use
style.
For each term, where applicable , you receive:
Multiple definitions listed chronologically
Term hierarchies summarized in tables
Definition sources
Directives that show where a concept is defined under a synonymous
name and concepts related to focal ones
Non-technical and obsolete definitions
Pronunciations of selected terms
Common-denominator entries
Synonyms
Classifications of organisms and descriptions of many taxa
Organizations relevant to animal behavior, ecology, evolution, and related sciences
Still the most complete work of its kind, Animal Behavior Desk Reference, Second Edition: A Dictionary of Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution can improve your scientific communication, particularly in the fields of animal behavior, evolution, ecology, and related branches of biology. If you are a teacher, student, writer, or active in science in any way, this book should be in your library and at your fingertips.
Features
Discusses how definitions impact the way people communicate
Serves as an access point to the primary literature through extensive
referencing
Presents variations in meaning that have developed for many different terms over
time
Indicates controversies regarding the meanings of many terms with
author-and-date citations
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The Triumph of Sociobiology
by John Alcock
Hardcover - 256 pages (May 2001)
Oxford Univ Pr (Trade);
ISBN: 0195143833 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.96 x 9.55 x 6.35
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Editorial Reviews
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Do animals think? According to Cartesian models of science that have
long influenced the Western view of the natural world, they do not: they merely
react to external stimuli, the responses to which they cannot control.
A different view has emerged in recent years, one that draws on findings from experimental psychology, biology, linguistics, and cognitive ethology. Writes Donald Griffin, an associate at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, "Communicative behavior is not a human monopoly." Animal communication--from the dance language of the bees to the vocalisms of parrots and bonobos--suggests that there is more than a ghost in the machine. For underlying that communicative ability are other powers that humans have no easy way of gauging: a sense of time and futurity, a complex memory, an ability to lie, even consciousness itself.
Griffin examines recent studies that show that many species are able to discern and classify colors, shapes, materials, and "sameness," and that many other species are able to adapt their communications systems to account for novel situations. Warning that our understanding of animal minds is still ill-formed and that much work remains to be done in the field before we can confidently answer that ancient question one way or the other, he argues that "animals are best viewed as actors who choose what to do, rather than as objects totally dependent on outside influences." --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Animal Traditions : Behavioural
Inheritance in Evolution
by Eytan Avital, Eva Jablonka
Availability: Usually
ships within 24 hours.
Hardcover (February 2001)
Cambridge Univ Pr (Short);
ISBN: 0521662737
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Hierarchy in the Forest : The Evolution
of Egalitarian Behavior
by Christopher Boehm
Hardcover - 292 pages (February
2000)
Harvard Univ Pr; ISBN: 0674390318
; Dimensions (in inches): 1.01 x 9.55 x 6.41
Book
Description
Are humans by nature hierarchical or egalitarian? Hierarchy in the Forest
addresses this question by examining the evolutionary origins of social and
political behavior. Christopher Boehm, an anthropologist whose fieldwork has
focused on the political arrangements of human and nonhuman primate groups,
postulates that egalitarianism is in effect a hierarchy in which the weak
combine forces to dominate the strong. The political flexibility of our species
is formidable: we can be quite egalitarian, we can be quite despotic. Hierarchy
in the Forest traces the roots of these contradictory traits in chimpanzee,
bonobo, gorilla, and early human societies. Boehm looks at the loose group
structures of hunter-gatherers, then at tribal segmentation, and finally at
present-day governments to see how these conflicting tendencies are reflected.
Hierarchy in the Forest claims new territory for biological anthropology and
evolutionary biology by extending the domain of these sciences into a crucial
aspect of human political and social behavior. This book will be a key document
in the study of the evolutionary basis of genuine altruism.
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What's that squirrel thinking as it runs across the street? Behavioral
neuroscientist Marc D. Hauser asks big questions about little brains in Wild
Minds: What Animals Really Think. While his subjects aren't accessible for
interviews, he believes that we can gain insight into their interior lives by
examining their behavior in the context of their social and physical environments.
Thus, while comparing the actions of chimps, rats, honeybees, and human infants,
he is careful to keep in mind that each of them has different needs that require
different kinds of intelligence and emotion and ought not be judged by the same
criteria. Looking at counting, mapmaking, self-understanding, deception, and
other intelligent activities, Hauser shows that the birds and the bees have
more on their minds than we've come to believe. Acknowledging the vast gulf
of language that separates our species from all others, he still maintains that
this tool is but one of many and is no better an indication of "superior"
intelligence than is the bat's fantastically well-developed echolocation system.
In the last chapter, Hauser looks at moral behavior and decides that animals
can be "moral patients but not moral agents"--that is, their inability
to attribute mental states to others keeps them blameless for their actions
but their sensitivity to suffering earns them fair treatment from the rest of
us. Whether or not you agree with that, you're sure to find Wild Minds
a refreshing look at the thoughts of our mute cousins. --Rob Lightner
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About
the Author
Mark D. Hauser is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Program
in Neuroscience at Harvard University. He is the author of The Evolution of
Communication (MIT Press, 1996). Mark Konishi is Bing Professor of
Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology.
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Editorial
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When Irene Pepperberg, a professor at the
University of Arizona, says goodnight, she typically hears the reply "Bye.
I'm gonna go eat dinner. I'll see you tomorrow." Though the response itself
is not unusual, the source is, for it comes from Alex, a gray parrot,
Pepperberg's main research subject for the past 22 years. That parrots can talk
is well known; what Pepperberg set out to study was their cognitive abilities.
By teaching the bird the meaning--not just the sound--of words in order to
communicate, she hoped to discover how his brain worked. She exhaustively
details her fascinating results in The Alex Studies.
Pepperberg bought Alex--a parrot of average intelligence and without lofty pedigree or training--from a pet store when he was 1. Since working with Pepperberg, he has developed a 100-word vocabulary and can identify 50 different objects, recognizing quantities up to six, distinguishing seven colors and five shapes, and understanding the difference between big and small, same and different, over and under. He can tell you, for instance, that corn is yellow even if there is no corn in view, as well as correctly select the square object among various shapes and identify it verbally. What this all means, stresses Pepperberg, is that Alex is not merely parroting but actually thinking; he bases answers on reason rather than instinct or mimicry.
Though the anecdotes are rich and Alex makes a lively subject,
this is principally a research paper relying on intricate details and a prodigious
amount of data (the notes and references alone run to 79 pages). This is not
light reading, particularly for the layperson. Still, The Alex Studies
manages to be more than a valuable contribution to science, for in providing
ample evidence of our similarities to other creatures, the book ultimately calls
into question the concept of human supremacy over the animal kingdom. Pepperberg's
stated goal is "to provoke awareness in humans that animals have capacities
that are far greater than we were once led to expect, and to remind us that
all we need to examine these capacities are some enlightened research tools."
She has provided such tools in this seminal work. --Shawn Carkonen
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The Hunting Apes : Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior
Stanford studied the great apes, especially chimpanzees, and came to the conclusion that among primates, meat is a valuable commodity both nutritionally and socially. Although many other foods are nutritionally desirable, meat is unique in its social desirability, and for males, it represents power:
Underlying the nutritional aspect of getting meat, part of the social fabric of the community is revealed in the dominance displays, the tolerated theft, and the bartered meat for sexual access. The end of the hunt is often only the beginning of a whole other arena of social interaction.
In Stanford's view, females play a crucial role in keeping groups together and cementing individual relationships. Meat plays an important role in the way males fit in to a society, and the ability of males to get meat readily may very well explain their societal dominance. These conclusions are not liable to be nearly so controversial as the way Stanford gathered his data--he drew broad parallels between chimps and modern hunter-gatherer societies. Stanford also admits that a lack of fossil evidence supporting his meat/brain link is problematic. The Hunting Apes is an interesting look at what is likely the worthwhile center of a discredited evolutionary theory. --Therese Littleton
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Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees : The Nature of Cooperation
in Animals and Humans
by Lee Alan Dugatkin
Hardcover - 256 pages
(February 1999)
Free Press; ISBN: 0684843412 ;
Dimensions (in inches): 0.79 x 5.75 x 8.78
Other Editions: Paperback
Amazon.com
"Man," Aristotle observes in his treatise The Politics,
"is by nature a social creature." In this lively book of popular science,
Lee Dugatkin takes a close look at the inescapable fact that humans are indeed
social creatures whose instinct, it seems, is to aid one another in times of
need. He examines the ways in which thinkers of various stripes have considered
this subject. Economists, for instance, conceive of a "rational man"
who acts cooperatively when the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs; theologians
depict humans as being inherently good and thus inclined to kindness; some biologists
take the matter of human cooperation as being a more sophisticated expression
of cooperation in animal societies (to which Dugatkin rejoins, "animals
show us a stripped-down version of what behavior in a given circumstance would
look like without our moral will and freedom"). In the face of such views,
Dugatkin proposes no dogma of his own. Instead, he takes up one interesting
question after another (Do sparrows help one another locate food out of self-interest?
What prompts a soldier to fall on a grenade to save nearby comrades? Is blood
thicker than water?), expertly leading his readers through contending scientific
and philosophical theories while seeking the answers. --Gregory McNamee
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Reviews
Astounding as it sounds, a number of scientists have actually argued that when a female Bonobo wraps her legs around another female ... while emitting screams of enjoyment, this is actually "greeting" behavior, or "appeasement" behavior ... almost anything, it seems, besides pleasurable sexual behavior.
Throw this book into the middle of a crowd of wildlife biologists and watch
them scatter. But Bagemihl doesn't let the scientific community's discomfort deny him the
opportunity to show "the love that dare not bark its name" in all its feathery,
furry, toothy diversity. The second half of this hefty tome is filled with an exhaustive
array of species that exhibit homosexuality, complete with photos and detailed scientific
illustrations of the behaviors described. Biological Exuberance is a
well-researched, thoroughly scientific, and erudite look at a purposefully neglected
frontier of zoology. --Therese Littleton
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Page is clearly sympathetic to his subjects, speaking for them where most of
them cannot. Investigating tool use and language, he finds the competition not
so barren as we had once thought, with finches and gorillas merely heading the
lists of nonhuman animals learning clever tricks. Interwoven with his
descriptions of bright animals is a story of our own species' long, slow coming
to terms with our non-unique status. Perhaps intelligence is not distributed
equally, even among humans, but it seems fair to say that we've lost our
monopoly. Page's warm, gentle prose also reminds us of our responsibilities to
those whose capacity for suffering has been quietly ignored for centuries. Inside
the Animal Mind ends with a call to treat animals with respect. --Rob
Lightner
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Rattling the Cage offers Wise's argument to secure the blessings of liberty for chimpanzees and bonobos. Despite the cognitive, emotional, social, and sexual sophistication exhibited by both species, Wise acknowledges that advocating the legal personhood of what others might consider hairy little beasts leaves him vulnerable to ridicule and marginalization as a fringe academic. He compares his struggle to that of Galileo, recognizing that anachronistic cultural and religious beliefs may disable modern judges from ruling according to correct principles just as the irrational convictions of Galileo's contemporaries forced them to cling to an Earth-centered universe that no longer existed. "Think of a Fundamentalist Protestant faced with a decision about teaching evolution in the public schools or a Roman Catholic deciding a question of abortion rights," Wise suggests, then turns the rhetoric up a notch: "Is it surprising that Nazi judges dispensed Nazi justice and that racist judges dispensed racist justice?" Wise seems certain, though, that our concept of justice eventually will evolve to the point where no chimp or bonobo will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law--perhaps the best for which any primate can hope, at least until apes preside over courts to administer a justice of their own making. --Tim Hogan
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Play Behavior In Animals
By G. Burghardt
Paperback
Chapman & Hall, May 1997
ISBN: 0412037912
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