Paleopsychology
Hardcover - 600 pages
(October 2000)
Univ of Michigan Pr; ISBN:
0472110136 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.53 x 10.34 x 7.37
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Human Paleopsychology: Applications to Aggression and Pathological Processes.
By Kent G. Bailey
Hardcover
Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Dec. 1986
ISBN: 0898598109
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Editorial
Reviews
Amazon.com
For centuries, biological scientists have been using the Linnean
system of classification, organizing hierarchies of life forms by their
perceived similarities and differences. In the late 20th century, some
scientists have taken to using an alternative system called cladistics,
which bases taxonomic classifications on ecological relationships. Under the
first system, all algae fall into a single large category, which is then
subdivided into various genera and species; under the second, green algae are
grouped with plants, chromophyte algae with waterborne fungi, and so forth to
account for the environments in which they live. Under the first system, dogs
and wolves and coyotes are separated; under the second, they are united, for,
the thinking goes, similarities of behavior and provenance are more important
than mere lines of evolutionary descent, which can only be guessed at.
The debate over cladistics has largely been confined to seminar rooms and
laboratories. Henry Gee brings it to the general public in this spirited look at
how the science of paleontology, that grand tour of what Gee calls Deep Time, is
conducted. Replacing old family trees with "cladograms," Gee
challenges long-accepted notions about the past (for example, the classification
of Archaeopteryx, which walks like a duck and quacks like a duck but is
accounted for as a dinosaur) and argues for a return to rigor in testing
hypotheses. His book, although about difficult issues, is immediately
accessible, and readers seeking to learn something about cladistics--which Gee
believes is "a revolution in thought as profound as that of Darwinian
evolution by natural selection"--are off to a fine start in these pages. --Gregory
McNamee
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