The Evolution of Thought
Evolutionary Origins of Great Ape Intelligence
Published on 23. July 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
396 pages
978-0-521-03992-5 (ISBN)
Description
Research on the evolution of higher intelligence rarely combines data from fields as diverse as paleontology and psychology. In this volume we seek to do just that, synthesizing the approaches of hominoid cognition, psychology, language studies, ecology, evolution, paleoecology and systematics toward an understanding of great ape intelligence. Leading scholars from all these fields have been asked to evaluate the manner in which each of their topics of research inform our understanding of the evolution of intelligence in great apes and humans. The ideas thus assembled represent a comprehensive survey of the various causes and consequences of cognitive evolution in great apes. The Evolution of Thought will therefore be an essential reference for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary psychology, paleoanthropology and primatology.
Reviews / Votes
'... a good overview of the present state of research.' Gorilla Journal 'The book's strengths are several. The editors had a clear idea of what they wanted from their interdisciplinary encounter and they framed the process with welcoming introductory chapters and a masterly concluding one. Ethologists will find accessible even the most esoteric data ... most chapters make a real effort to be understood by non-specialists ... this is a brave and provocative book. It is a call to arms for true-disciplinary collaboration. Few ethologists know palaeontology, but all will learn from this bridge-building effort.' Ethology 'it may be impossible to travel back in time in order to reconstruct exactly the sequence of events that shaped the cognitive architecture of our nearest living and extinct relatives, but books like this one do a good job of allowing us to imagine the most likely scenarios, and of exposing gaps in knowledge that have to be filled for the complete picture to emerge.' PrimatesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
48 Tables, unspecified; 6 Halftones, unspecified; 30 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 189 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
763 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-03992-5 (9780521039925)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Anne E. Russon | David R. Begun
The Evolution of Thought
Evolutionary Origins of Great Ape Intelligence
E-Book
06/2006
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€38.49
Available for download
Anne E. Russon | David R. Begun
The Evolution of Thought
Evolutionary Origins of Great Ape Intelligence
Book
04/2004
Cambridge University Press
€92.85
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Previous edition
Anne E. Russon | David R. Begun
The Evolution of Thought
Evolutionary Origins of Great Ape Intelligence
Book
04/2004
Cambridge University Press
€92.85
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Anne E. Russon is a Professor of Psychology at Glendon College of York University in Toronto, Canada. David Begun is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.
Content
List of contributors; Preface; 1. Evolutionary reconstructions of great ape intelligence Anne E. Russon; 2. Enhanced cognitive capacity as a contingent fact of hominid phylogeny David R. Begun; Part I. Cognition in Living Great Apes: Introduction Anne E. Russon: 3. The manual skills and cognition that lie behind hominid tool use Richard W. Byrne; 4. The cognitive complexity of social organisation and socialisation in wild baboons and chimpanzees: guided participation, socialising interactions and event representation Sue Taylor Parker; 5. Gestural communication in the great apes Joanna Blake; 6. Great ape cognitive systems Anne E. Russon; Part II. Modern Great Ape Adaptation: Introduction Anne E. Russon: 7. What's in a brain? The question of a distinctive brain anatomy in great apes Carol E. MacLeod; 8. Life histories and the evolution of large brain size in great apes Caroline Ross; 9. Evolution of complex feeding techniques in primates: is this the origin of great ape intelligence? Gen Yamakoshi; 10. The special demands of great ape locomotion and posture Kevin D. Hunt; 11. Great ape social systems Carel P. van Schaik, Signe Preuschoft and David P. Watts; 12. Diet and foraging of the great apes: ecological constraints on their social organisations and implications for their divergence Juichi Yamagiwa; Part III. Fossil Great Ape Adaptations: Introduction David R. Begun: 13. Paleoenvironments and the evolution of adaptability in great apes Richard Potts; 14. Cranial evidence and the evolution of intelligence in fossil apes David R. Begun and Laszlo Kordos; 15. Life history and cognitive evolution in the apes Jay Kelley; 16. Fossil hominoid diets, extractive foraging and the origins of great ape intelligence Michelle Singleton; 17. Paleontology, terrestriality and the intelligence of great apes Daniel L. Gebo; 18. Body size and intelligence in hominoid evolution Carol V. Ward, Mark Flinn and David R. Begun; Part IV. Integration: 19. Evolutionary origins of great ape intelligence: an integrated view Anne E. Russon and David R. Begun; Author index; Species index; Subject index.