The Evolution of Human Sociability
Desires, Fears, Sex and Society

Proposes an interdisciplinary framework for understanding human desires and fears, derived from sexual selection during evolution, as motivators of behaviour.

Ron Vannelli (Author)

9781107114760, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 September 2015

326 pages, 2 b/w illus. 1 table
26.4 x 18.7 x 2.4 cm, 0.79 kg

How do desires and fears motivate human sociability? What effect do these motivators have on reproductive, social and political behaviour? And, crucially, how might we understand them separate from preconceived notions of design or higher morality? Taking these questions as a focus, this book examines human evolution with the emphasis on sexual selection and the evolution of a number of human psychological processes. Exploring evolutionary, sexual and maturational processes, along with primate, fossil and geological evidence, Vannelli argues that human nature can be conceptualised as species-typical desires and fears, derived from sexual selection during human evolution, and that these are major motivators of behaviour. Presenting additional evidence from the anthropology of band societies, along with material from group behaviour, Vannelli highlights the importance of pair-bonding, friendship, alliance behaviour, vengeance seeking and interpersonal politics in social behaviour, providing a unique interdisciplinary framework for understanding human nature and the evolution of human sociability.

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Human evolution: the background
3. The evolution of human species-typical desires and fears
4. Bipedalism, brain growth, language and the development of human sociability
5. Desires, fears and the evolution of human politics
6. Human fears
7. A human science, justice and politics
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ], Philosophy of science [PDA], Psychology [JM], Anthropology [JHM], Society & social sciences [J], Philosophy of mind [HPM]