Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man - Hardcover

Campbe.., Bernard; Campbell, Bernard Grant

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0202020053 ISBN 13: 9780202020051

Publisher: Aldine De Gruyter, 1972

Synopsis

This volume significantly broadens the scope of modern evolutionary biology by looking at the important and long-neglected concept of natural selection, in which sexual selection plays a complex role that has been little understood and is of great importance. In this classic book, which was the first full discussion of sexual selection since 1871, leading biologists bring modern genetic theory and behavior observation to bear on this subject. The distinguished authors consider many aspects of sexual selection in many species, including man, within the context of contemporary evolutionary theory and research.

About this title

About the Author

Bernard G. Campbell was professor of anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Born in Weybridge, England, he received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1957, and has been a lecturer in anthropology at Cambridge and Harvard universities. Among his many contributions to the field of anthropology are Human Evolution: An Introduction to Man’s Adaptations andSexual Selection and the Descent of Man.

Review

“A book must be judged not only on its content, but also for the perspectives it contains. Such a premises is indispensable to evaluate the present book. The content is outstanding.... The book will be... of central importance to a wide range of professionals, including biologists, geneticists and any sort of anthropologists. Reading it will moreover be an invaluable supplement for students of theory of evolution and anthropology in the broadest sense.”

—A. B. Chiarelli, Man

“As a centennial volume commemorating Darwin’s Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Campbell assembled eleven essays on issues of sexual selection and human evolution which Darwin’s work proposed.... [T]he book is... a valuable collection which expands our understanding of sexual selection.”

—Adrienne Zihlman, American Anthropologist

“[H]ighly exciting book on modern evolutionary theory which began as a tribute to Charles Darwin. If every scientific centennial were to evoke a book half as stimulating, science might move forward much faster even than it is now doing, for this volume opens up and strengthens a borderland between disciplines that have had far too little to say to each other in the past.”

—Bentley Glass, The Quarterly Review of Biology

“In 1871 under the title The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex Darwin published a book that dealt with human evolution and with sexual selection, or two books bound together, one on each of these topics, or perhaps just part of a book, the rest appearing a year later as The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. The event is commemorated here by 11 essays on the subjects considered in Darwin’s classic.”

—George C. Williams, Science

Edition details

• Publisher: Aldine De Gruyter
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0202020053
• ISBN 13: 9780202020051
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 388