Mind the Gap

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Primate Behavior and Human Universals: Exploring the Gap

      • Peter M. Kappeler, Joan S. Silk, Judith M. Burkart, Carel P. van Schaik

      Pages 3-15

3. Family & Social Organization

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 18-18

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   2. The Deep Structure of Human Society: Primate Origins and Evolution

      • Bernard Chapais

      Pages 19-51

   3. Conflict and Bonding Between the Sexes

      • Ryne A. Palombit

      Pages 53-83

   4. The Unusual Women of Mpimbwe: Why Sex Differences in Humans are not Universal

      • Monique Borgerhoff Mulder

      Pages 85-106

4. Politics & Power

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 108-108

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   2. Dominance, Power, and Politics in Nonhuman and Human Primates

      • David P. Watts

      Pages 109-138

   3. Human Power and Prestige Systems

      • Aimée M. Plourde

      Pages 139-152

   4. The End of the Republic

      • Laura Betzig

      Pages 153-168

5. Intergroup Relationships

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 170-170

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   2. Intergroup Aggression in Primates and Humans: The Case for a Unified Theory

      • Margaret C. Crofoot, Richard W. Wrangham

      Pages 171-195

   3. Why War? Motivations for Fighting in the Human State of Nature

      • Azar Gat

      Pages 197-220

6. Foundations of Cooperation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 222-222

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   2. From Grooming to Giving Blood: The Origins of Human Altruism

      • Joan B. Silk, Robert Boyd

      Pages 223-244

   3. Evolved Irrationality? Equity and the Origins of Human Economic Behavior

      • Venkat Lakshminarayanan, Laurie R. Santos

      Pages 245-259

   4. From Whence the Captains of Our Lives: Ultimate and Phylogenetic Perspectives on Emotions in Humans and Other Primates

      • Daniel M. T. Fessler, Matthew Gervais

      Pages 261-280

7. Language, Thought & Communication

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 282-282

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   2. Primate Communication and Human Language: Continuities and Discontinuities

      • Dorothy L. Cheney, Robert M. Seyfarth

      Pages 283-298

This volume features a collection of essays by primatologists, anthropologists, biologists, and psychologists who offer some answers to the question of what makes us human, i. e. , what is the nature and width of the gap that separates us from other primates? The chapters of this volume summarize the latest research on core aspects of behavioral and cognitive traits that make humans such unusual animals. All contributors adopt an explicitly comparative approach, which is based on the premise that comparative studies of our closest biological relatives, the nonhuman primates, provide the logical foundation for identifying human univ- sals as well as evidence for evolutionary continuity in our social behavior. Each of the chapters in this volume provides comparative analyses of relevant data from primates and humans, or pairs of chapters examine the same topic from a human or primatological perspective, respectively. Together, they cover six broad topics that are relevant to identifying potential human behavioral universals. Family and social organization. Predation pressure is thought to be the main force favoring group-living in primates, but there is great diversity in the size and structure of social groups across the primate order. Research on the behavioral ecology of primates and other animals has revealed that the distribution of males and females in space and time can be explained by sex-speci?c adaptations that are sensitive to factors that limit their ?tness: access to resources for females and access to potential mates for males.

• Evolution
• behavior
• coevolution
• culture
• human behaviour
• primate behaviour
• social behaviour

From the reviews:

 “This edited, 22-chapter volume organizes contributions by experts from a wide range of disciplines … to address the origins and evolution of human universals--specifically, those behavioral and cognitive features that make humans a distinct species from other primates. … In looking for evidence of both convergence and common descent in specific traits, as is common in comparative primatology, contributors make a very strong effort to evaluate the available evidence for evolutionary continuity in human social behavior. … Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.” (R. A. Delgado Jr., Choice, Vol. 47 (11), August, 2010)

“Mind the Gap, Tracing the Origins of Human Universals … a collection of contributions dealing with the issue of human uniqueness from a multidisciplinary perspective. … Mind the Gap brings together most of the ‘hot’ topics in primatology, along with interesting contributions from cultural anthropology, and, notably, draws our attention to two critical and frequently omitted aspects of comparative research, namely the importance of studying species that are evolutionarily distant from humans, and not only the great apes, and the need for more cross-cultural research.” (Elsa Addessi, Metascience, Vol. 20, 2011)

• Abt. Soziobiologie, Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Göttingen, Germany

  Peter M. Kappeler

• Dept. Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

  Joan Silk

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