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Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction Mass Market Paperback – 1 May 2014

by Robin Dunbar (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 19 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Pelican (1 May 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0141975318
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141975313
  • Product Dimensions: 11 x 2.2 x 18.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 72,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Human Evolution is a must-read. It has the great strength of showing you the inner workings of an imaginative mind, while allowing you the freedom to think (New Scientist)

About the Author

Robin Dunbar is an evolutionary psychologist and former director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. His acclaimed books include How Many Friends Does One Person Need? and Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, described by Malcolm Gladwell as 'a marvellous work of popular science.'

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsexcellent
By banana pancakes on 9 May 2014
Format: Mass Market Paperback
If you have ever watched tv progams about the evolution of apes into man, this book fills in the gaps that a 1 hour tv program inevitably leaves. It explains the speciation of various lineages of ancient apes into other specias and eventually the last common ancestor which split from a separate lineage, then evolving into us. It makes sense of the image you often see on t-shirts of a primate evolving an increasingly erect posture. It also talks about the evolution of the various species of hominin from the last common ancestor through to australopithacus and onto the various homo species, explaining how the brain grew and the development of culture, family, childhood and diet heled the homo species survive and what made homo sapiens the most successful homin species. excellent reading.
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2.0 out of 5 starsA 'male brain' book
By M. D. Holley TOP 1000 REVIEWER on 11 Aug. 2014
Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase
The title of this book is misleading. The book is about two models Dunbar devised (a 'time budget model' together with 'the social brain hypothesis'), and their application to human evolution. It is not a summary of human evolution itself, but more a discussion of the application of the chosen models.

The models themselves are interesting (especially the social brain hypothesis), and I found the introductory chapters which set out the models fascinating. I even made a list of all my friends to see if the number came to 150 (it did).

Dunbar comes up with a simple set of mathematical equations (the inputs seem to be brain size; time taken feeding, travelling and grooming; type of food available) and we can then reconstruct every stage of human evolution with precision. Or can we?

Illuminating though the models are, Dunbar goes off the rails in the attempt to apply these to situations millions of years ago. He needs to make heroic assumptions at every stage, and over reliance on his cherished models to the exclusion of other factors blinkers him.

The idea that a complex system, (such as the interaction of a hominin species with its environment) can be reduced to a few equations with minimal inputs is really rather silly. The great difficulties economists have in analysing contemporary human systems shows the extent of the challenge - and the economists are here to observe what's going on in minute detail.

There is a danger of applying mathematical modelling to complex systems - it can give the user a false sense of security and a fair degree of over confidence. The author does not seem to be aware of these limitations.

Dunbar exhibits what I would call a strongly male brain.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA wonderfully lucid and analytical approach to human evolution
By S. Campbell on 23 Aug. 2014
Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase
A wonderfully lucid and analytical approach to human evolution. Dunbar's proposed correlation between brain development and social group size (measured partly by number of Facebook friends and size of Christmas card lists!) and his time budget analysis of the reasons for the extinction of other 'hominin' species is both entertaining and enlightening. I loved it.
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5.0 out of 5 starsHooray for another Pelican!
By therealus TOP 1000 REVIEWER on 24 July 2014
Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase
As a bibliophilic teenager, at least once a week I would make the pilgrimage downtown to Clulow’s, a sadly long-defunct independent bookshop, where I would enjoy browsing the Orange-, Grey- and Black-edged Penguins and iconic blue-edged Pelicans. At home my incipient book collection began to emulate the colour-scheme, allowing only the rarest glimpse of a white-edged Picador or randomly hued Panther. From those books I began my exploration of world literature and learned my first proper lessons in Greek and Roman history and mythology, philosophy, psychology, politics, economics and linguistics.

Some of those books continue to adorn my bookshelves, remaining as a reminder of an autodidactic past. It was therefore something of a thrill to find that the Pelican imprint was being relaunched.

Elsewhere I review the first product of this initiative, Ha-Joon Chang’s introduction to economics, which is excellent but, having just completed an economics degree I had a more informed and specialist view of its content, not to mention its overtendency to reference popular culture. Thus reading that book was a different proposition from the second, Robin Dunbar’s introduction to Human Evolution, a subject in which my prior knowledge was relatively shallow, but which manages to avoid, for example, references to Star Trek when explaining symbionts.

So it was that I began my transformation from casual to dedicated observer of people in groups, as that is essentially what for me is the greatest takeaway from Dunbar’s book.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsIt's all about having time.
By Stardust on 4 Dec. 2014
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Have read several books on human evolution but this is the first that goes on about time budget models. Struggled with some sections but it was worth sticking with it until the end. Less about the fossils and more about time allocation. I am now able to consider my own 'time budgets' as I whistle through life, eating, sleeping and reading. This is the second Pelican introduction I have read and I will now be moving on to another.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent - would definitely recommend and very thought provoking.

Published 1 month ago by Steve
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent!

This is a fascinating romp through human evolution, focussing on cognitive and social factors and providing a plausible summary of key steps and parameters in that evolutionary... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Andrew Bryant
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Everything was OK.

Published 4 months ago by kerstin bjorkquist-murray
5.0 out of 5 starsA really great book, easy to read but insightful

A really great book , easy to read but insightful. Only problem is that the graphs are a little repetitive and not clear. A must have pop science book

Published 4 months ago by Bethany Corbin
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Well written, concise read.

Published 5 months ago by Slowjocrow
4.0 out of 5 starsExcellent up to date overview of human evolution - has ...

Excellent up to date overview of human evolution - has more theory and less "wonder of the bones" than I usually like - but it's purpose is to inform not tittilate!

Published 9 months ago by Adam Dare
5.0 out of 5 starsEssential reading for the late night internet hounds

Hmm!

Published 11 months ago by Ian Russell
5.0 out of 5 starsBest Dunbar yet

Information up to date. Prose lean and lucid. Theories intriguing. Great buy.

Published 15 months ago by jpav
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

great

Published 17 months ago by Tim Flowers
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

An excellent account of human social evolution by a leading authority

Published 18 months ago by alanbb

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