Current Problems in Sociobiology

The authors of this 1982 book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored.

9780521285209, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 June 1982

412 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

This text was published in 1982, when sociobiology was experiencing the rapid expansion typical of a new subject. It did not do so without its critics, who pointed to the logical flaws and empirical problems present in many functional arguments. The authors of this book were invited to identify areas within sociobiology which provided particular problems or which had previously been ignored and needed to be developed. These contributions cover a wide array of areas within the field. In many cases they pointed the way to future improvements in practice as well as theory and the book should continue to be of fundamental interest to those involved in any way with the behavioural sciences, population biology, ecology and evolutionary studies.

List of participants
Preface P. P. G. Bateson
Acknowledgements
Introduction J. Maynard Smith
Part I. Natural Selection and Sociobiology R. W. Wrangham: 1. Adaptation, fitness and the evolutionary tautology R. I. M. Dunbar
2. The evolution of social behaviour - a classification of models J. Maynard Smith
3. Replicators and vehicles R. Dawkins
4. The concept of fitness in population genetics and sociobiology P. O' Donald
Part II. Complexity in Evolutionary Processes D. I. Rubenstein: 5. Risk, uncertainty and evolutionary strategies D. I. Rubenstein
6. Gene competition without selection E. A. Thompson
7. Behavioural development and evolutionary processes P. P. G. Bateson
8. Individual heterogeneity and population regulation
Part III. Evolutionary Conflicts of Interest R. I. M. Dunbar: 9. Phenotype-limited evolutionarily stable strategies G. A. Parker
10. Parental care and sex role reversal N. Knowlton
11. Parental investment in male and female offspring in mammals T. H. Clutton-Brock
Part IV. Sociality B. C. R. Bertram: 12. Problems with altruism B. C. R. Bertram
13. Mutualism, kinship and social evolution R. W. Wrangham
14. Sociodemographic attributes of nepotism in tribal populations: man the rule-breaker N. A. Chagnon
Part V. The Problems of Comparison T. H. Clutton-Brock: 15. Prospects for interspecific comparison in sociobiology P. J. Jarman
16. Comparisons between taxa and adaptive trends: problems of methodology P. H. Harvey and G. M. Mace
17. Behaviour and competition for scarce resources N. B. Davies
Index.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH]