Sex and Friendship in Baboons (Evolutionary Foundations of Human Behavior Series) - Softcover

Smuts, Barbara B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0202309738 ISBN 13: 9780202309736

Verlag: Routledge, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Smuts Barbara B

Über diesen Titel

Críticas

"This book is a thoughtful and thought-provoking presentation of Smuts's fieldwork on the enduring preferential relationships between certain adult male and female baboons, relationships that persist irrespective of the female's reproductive state and that are both quantitatively and qualitatively different from other male-female associations... This is a well-balanced meeting of ethnography and evolutionary biology, illustrated with vignettes that capture the flavor of baboon social life." - Amy Samuels, The Quarterly Review of Biology "This book is a remarkable achievement, and may well be a landmark... on how to do a field study, how to analyse field data, and how to write up the results. The strength of the book is in its close attention to a single group of primates, which, coupled with considerable methodological rigour both at the observational and analytical stages, has led to the discovery of statistically valid findings." - V. Reynolds, Man "Barbara Smuts adds to the growing storehouse of information on baboons, as well as to the growing awareness of the sophisticated (read "humanlike") way primates run their lives... The strength of Smuts's study is the documentation of subtle but important interactions among some age-sex classes in baboon societies." - Adrienne L. Zihlman, American Anthropologist "Even though... years have passed since Smuts's book was published, it remains the standard reference for the study of male-female social interactions among primates. Part of the reason her book stays fresh is that Smuts deftly combines the presentation of her data on baboon social life with a primer on how to conduct a scientific study of primate behavior. She provides skillful guidance regarding how to devise and test a hypothesis and how to collect, analyze, interpret, and present data in an interesting and accessible way. Sex and Friendship in Baboons should be required reading." - Nichelle L. Cobb, Current Anthropology "I first read this book as a graduate student in the late 1980s... This book accomplishes an additional goal described in the new 1999 preface. Smuts states that it is important that we come to understand the highly personal nature of baboon (and other species') relationships. In doing so, not only may we understand ourselves better, but we may also come to view o ur responsibilities toward baboons and other species in a different way. Smuts's work brings the personal side of baboon life to light while maintaining a professional and scientific approach to the topic... Sex and Friendship in Baboons still provides marvelous insight into olive baboon social life." --Vicki K. Bentley-Condit, Quarterly Review of Biology "[A] detailed case study in primate behavior which could easily be used as a methods manual for students about how to embark on their own projects." - Linda Marie Fedigan, American Scientist "The fieldwork combined systematic observation with the careful recording and enumeration of data... A number of carefully documented chapters analyze the benefits and costs of friendships to both males and females... This excellent study has a great deal to offer." - Jetse Sprey, Contemporary Sociology

Reseña del editor

Those who have been privileged to watch baboons long enough to know them as individuals and who have learned to interpret some of their more subtle interactions will attest that the rapid flow of baboon behavior can at times be overwhelming. In fact, some of the most sophisticated and influential observation methods for sampling vertebrate social behavior grew out of baboon studies, invented by scientists who were trying to cope with the intricacies of baboon behavior. Barbara Smuts' eloquent study of baboons reveals a new depth to their behavior and extends the theories needed to account for it.

While adhering to the most scrupulous methodological strictures, the author maintains an open research strategy--respecting her subjects by approaching them with the open mind of an ethnographer and immersing herself in the complexities of baboon social life before formulating her research design, allowing her to detect and document a new level of subtlety in their behavior. At the Gilgil site, described in this book, she could stroll and sit within a few feet of her subjects. By maintaining such proximity she was able to watch and listen to intimate exchanges within the troop; she was able, in other words, to shift the baboons well along the continuum from "subject" to "informant." By doing so she has illuminated new networks of special relationships in baboons. This empirical contribution accompanies theoretical insights that not only help to explain many of the inconsistencies of previous studies but also provide the foundation for a whole new dimension in the study of primate behavior: analysis oft he dynamics of long-term, intimate relationships and their evolutionary significance.

At every stage of research human observers have underestimated the baboon. These intelligent, curious, emotional, and long-lived creatures are capable of employing stratagems and forming relationships that are not easily detected by traditional research methods. In the process of unraveling their complex social relationships, Smuts has revealed that these masters of strategy and aggressive competition are equally capable of patience, tenderness, and concern.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Routledge
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0202309738
• ISBN 13: 9780202309736
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320