Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

The social instinct : how cooperation shaped the world / Nichola Raihani.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 2021Edition: First U.S. editionDescription: viii, 296 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781250262820
  • 1250262828
Other title:
  • How cooperation shaped the world
Subject(s):
Contents:
The making of you and me -- A cold shudder -- Inventing the individual -- The renegades within -- The family way -- Of moms (and dads) -- Workers and shirkers -- Welcome to the family -- Years of babbling -- Immortals -- Ascending the throne -- Widening the net -- The social dilemma -- An eye for an eye -- Peacocking -- The reputation tightrope -- A different kind of ape -- Facebook for chimps -- Mutiny -- Here be dragons -- Take back control -- Victims of cooperation.
Summary: "In the tradition of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct is a profound and engaging look at the hidden relationships underpinning human evolution, and why cooperation is key to our future survival. Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It's how we progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material, to nation states. But given what we know about the mechanisms of evolution, cooperation is also something of a puzzle. How does cooperation begin, when on a Darwinian level, all that the genes in your body care about is being passed on to the next generation? Why do meerkat colonies care for one another's children? Why do babbler birds in the Kalahari form colonies in which only a single pair breeds? And how come some coral wrasse fish actually punish each other for harming fish from another species? A biologist by training, Raihani looks at where and how collaborative behavior emerges throughout the animal kingdom, and what problems it solves. She reveals that the species that exhibit cooperative behavior-teaching, helping, grooming, and self-sacrifice-most similar to our own tend not to be other apes; they are birds, insects, and fish, occupying far more distant branches of the evolutionary tree. By understanding the problems they face, and how they cooperate to solve them, we can glimpse how human cooperation first evolved. And we can also understand what it is about the way we cooperate that has made humans so distinctive-and so successful"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 303.4 R149 Available 33111010560940
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Enriching" -- Publisher's Weekly

"Excellent and illuminating"-- Wall Street Journal

In the tradition of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene , Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct is a profound and engaging look at the hidden relationships underpinning human evolution, and why cooperation is key to our future survival.

Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It's how life progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material to nation states. But given what we know about evolution, cooperation is also something of a puzzle. How does cooperation begin, when on a Darwinian level, all the genes in the body care about is being passed on to the next generation? Why do meerkats care for one another's offspring? Why do babbler birds in the Kalahari form colonies in which only a single pair breeds? And how come some reef-dwelling fish punish each other for harming fish from another species?

A biologist by training, Raihani looks at where and how collaborative behavior emerges throughout the animal kingdom, and what problems it solves. She reveals that the species that exhibit cooperative behaviour most similar to our own tend not to be other apes; they are birds, insects, and fish, occupying far more distant branches of the evolutionary tree. By understanding the problems they face, and how they cooperate to solve them, we can glimpse how human cooperation first evolved. And we can also understand what it is about the way we cooperate that makes us so distinctive-and so successful.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The making of you and me -- A cold shudder -- Inventing the individual -- The renegades within -- The family way -- Of moms (and dads) -- Workers and shirkers -- Welcome to the family -- Years of babbling -- Immortals -- Ascending the throne -- Widening the net -- The social dilemma -- An eye for an eye -- Peacocking -- The reputation tightrope -- A different kind of ape -- Facebook for chimps -- Mutiny -- Here be dragons -- Take back control -- Victims of cooperation.

"In the tradition of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct is a profound and engaging look at the hidden relationships underpinning human evolution, and why cooperation is key to our future survival. Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It's how we progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material, to nation states. But given what we know about the mechanisms of evolution, cooperation is also something of a puzzle. How does cooperation begin, when on a Darwinian level, all that the genes in your body care about is being passed on to the next generation? Why do meerkat colonies care for one another's children? Why do babbler birds in the Kalahari form colonies in which only a single pair breeds? And how come some coral wrasse fish actually punish each other for harming fish from another species? A biologist by training, Raihani looks at where and how collaborative behavior emerges throughout the animal kingdom, and what problems it solves. She reveals that the species that exhibit cooperative behavior-teaching, helping, grooming, and self-sacrifice-most similar to our own tend not to be other apes; they are birds, insects, and fish, occupying far more distant branches of the evolutionary tree. By understanding the problems they face, and how they cooperate to solve them, we can glimpse how human cooperation first evolved. And we can also understand what it is about the way we cooperate that has made humans so distinctive-and so successful"-- Provided by publisher.

Powered by Koha