social evolution

Draws on new findings to examine the ancestral human population that lived in Africa fifty thousand years ago, explaining how the human line evolved from African apes to humans with the unique gift of language.

Primatologist Alison Jolly describes the development of sex and intelligence that took place during human evolution.

Discusses the development of human life into modern man, the dawn of civilization, and peoples of the world.

Examines the environmental factors that contributed to the history of human life. Discusses the development of human societies on different continents and how they were affected by domestication of wild plants and animals. Reviews localized origins of farming, herding, and food production.

Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon arrived in Venezuela's Amazon region in 1964 to study the Yanomamo Indians, one of the last large tribal groups still living in isolation. He expected to find Rousseau's "noble savages" living contentedly in a pristine state of nature. Instead he discovered a very violent society. Men who killed others had the most wives and the most children. The prime reason for this violence was to avenge deaths and abduct women. Chagnon felt their violence gave them an evolutionary advantage, a controversial theory that was not believed by some cultural anthropologists.

Presents a full-color illustrated guide to understanding human existence and provides information on the body and mind, human culture, rituals, customs and beliefs, and profiles more than two hundred fifty societies from around the world in order to discover how they live, work, and exist.

Traces the development of primitive societies showing why some groups advanced more rapidly than others and how this progression explains why various populations stabilize at specific phases of development while others continue to evolve.