HUMAN E V O L U T I O N

Vol. 18 - n. 3-4 (255-265) - 2003

Book Review AGE~ M A R R I A G E , AND P O L I T I C S IN F I F T E E N T H - C E N T U R Y R A G U S A

David Rheubottom

Oxford University Press 8 June 2000 ISBN 0 19 823412 0 s 40.00 Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Ragusa: Trade and Territory. 3. Ragusan government and the quest for offices. 4. The Casata 5. Casata Unity: Size and political muscle. 6. Betrothal order, dowry and the "Sisters First" Principle. 7. The Casata, Genealogical skewing, and political support. 8. Changes in the Great Council an Political Competition. 9. Bureaucracy and office. 1. Conclusion. This book combines the interdisciplinary insights of history, anthropology, and computing to examine the interrelation between politics, kinship, and marriage in a late-medieval city-state. At the heart of the study is a reconsideration of "office" and the ways in which ties of kinship and marriage were mobilized to build electoral success. In fifteenth-century Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik) membership pf the Great Council, which nominated and elected office-holders, was restricted to the legitimate male offspring of patrician bridges and grooms. The patrician class was highly endogamous, and the relationship between endogamy and electoral support is an important theme running through this book. A related theme concerns the age differences between spouses, which are shown to have important structural implications for the organization of the casata, kinship relations, and marriage ties. These implications are investigated using a variety of innovate methods, including cohort analysis and computer simulation. AN AMAZONIAN MYTH AND ITS HISTORY Peter G o w

Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 924195 3 s 45.00 Hardback ISBN 0 19 924196 1 s 19.99 Paperback 5 April 2001 Contents: PART I Myths: 1. A Piro Myth and its context. 2. The meaning of the myth. 3. Myths and mythopoeisis. PART II: Transformations. 4. Design. 5. Hallucination. 6. The Girl's initiation ritual. PART III: The Gringos. 7. The Gringos envisioned. 8. The Gringos arrive. 9. The Gringos rethought. Conclusion. Taking as its starting point a single myth told to him by Piro man, Peter Gow presents an analysis of a century of social transformation in an indigenous Amazonian society, the Piro people of

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Peruvian Amazonia. He unites the ethnographic data collected by the fieldwork methods invented by Malinowski with Ltvi-Strauss's analyses of the relations between myth and time. Gow explores Piro history ethnography outwards into the domains of myth-telling in general and, following the logic of certain important myths, extends his exploration further outwards into other important domains of Piro experience such as visual art, shamanry, and gids' initiations ritual. All these domains, like the myths themselves, have been demonstrably changing over the period since the 1880s. He goes on to show how these changes are in fact transformations of transformations, changes in social forms that are intrinsically about change. He traces the pattern of change through the historical circumstance of Piro people from the 1880s to the 1980s, to show how the inherently transformational nature of Piro social forms led them to respond as they did to the coming of rubber bosses, missionaries, and film-makers. This book makes an important contribution to debates in anthropology on the nature of history and social change, as well as addressing neglected areas such as myth, visual art, and the methodological issue involved in addressing fieldwork and archival data.

ANIMAL TRADITIONS: BEHAVIOURALINHERITANCE IN EVOLUTION

Eytan Avital and Eva Jablonka Cambridge University Press 23rd November 2000 ISBN 0 521 66273 7 hardback s US$ 85.00 Contents: 1. New rules for old games. 2. What is pulling the strings of behaviour? 3. Learning and the behavioural inheritance system. 4. Parental care - the highroad to family traditions. 5. Achieving harmony between mates - the learning route. 6. Parents and offspring - too much conflict? 7. Alloparental care - an additional channel of information transfer. 8. The origins and persistence of group legacies. 9. Darwin meets Lamarck - the co-evolution of genes and learning. 10. The free phenotype. Animal Traditions maintains that the assumption that the selection of genes supplies both a suf-

ficient explanation of the evolution of behaviour and a true description of its course is, despite its almost universal acclaim, wrong. Eytan Avital and Eva Jablonka contend that evolutionary explanations must take into account the well-established fact that, in mammals and birds, the transfer of learnt information across generations is both ubiquitous and indispensable. The introduction of the behavioural inheritance system into the Darwinian explanatory scheme enables the authors to offer new interpretations for common behaviours such as maternal behaviours, behavioural conflict within families, adoption and helping. This approach offers a richer view of heredity and evolution, integrates developmental and evolutionary processes, suggests new lines for research and provides a constructive alternative to both the selfish gene and meme views of the world. It will make stimulating reading for all those interested in evolutionary biology, sociobiology, behavioural ecology and psychology.

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BIOLOGY OF PLAGUES" EVIDENCE FROM HISTORICAL POPULATIONS Scott S., Ducan C.J.

Cambridge University Press 29th March 2001 ISBN 0 521 80150 8 (hardback) s (US$100.00)

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Epidemiological concepts. 3. The biology of bubonic plague. 4. The Great Pestilence. 5. Case study: the plague at Penrith in 1597-98.6. Pestilence and plague in the 16th century in England. 7. Plagues in the 16th century in the northern England: a metapopulation study. 8. Plagues in London in the 17th century. 9. Plagues in the provinces in the 17th century. 10. Plague at Eyam in 1665-66: a case study. 11. Continental Europe during the third age of plagues: a study of large-scale metapopulation dynamics. 12. The plague at Marseilles, 1720-22: an outbreak of bubonic plague? 13. Conclusion.

The threat of unstoppable plagues, such as AIDS and Ebola, is always with us. In Europe, the most devastating plagues were those from the Black Death pandemic in the 1300s to the Great Plague of London in 1665. For the last 100 years, it has been accepted that Yersinia pestis, the infective agent of bubonic plague, was responsible for these epidemics. This book combines modern concepts of epidemiology and molecular biology with computer modelling. Applying these to the analysis of historical epidemics, the authors show that they were not, in fact, outbreaks of bubonic plague. Biology of Plagues offers a completely new interdisciplinary interpretation of the plagues of the Europe and establishes them within a geographical, historical and demographic framework. This fascinating detective work will be of interest to readers in the biological and social sciences, and lessons learnt will underline the implication of historical plagues for modern-day epidemiology.

CIVILT,~ E CULTURE. LINEAMENTI 1)I ANTROPOLOGIA

Cecilia Gatto Trocchi

Franco Angeli 2003. ISBN 88 464 4398 5 18.00 Contenuto: 1.Lo studio scientifico delle culture. 2. Parentela, famiglia, matrimonio. 3.Modi di produzione e scambi economici. 4. I1 diritto nelle societh primitive. 5. Antropologia politica. 6. Antropologia delle religioni. 7. Antropologia dell'arte. 8. Etnomedicina. 9. L'approccio intercul= turale. I1 testo vuole offrire una guida per chiarire, al di fuori dei miti contemporanei, la storia e la metodologia antropologica e far emergere la complessith irriducibile della condizione umana. Sono

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analizzati i vail concetti di cultura, i modelli, il relativismo e 1,etno-centrismo, mentre sul piano metodologico viene evidenziata la visione "intema" e la visione "esterna" dei fenomeni socioculturali che emergono dalla ricerca sul campo e dalle strategie degli informatori, con cui necessario mettere in atto la negoziazione delle interpretazioni. II volume propone l'analisi dei sistemi di parentela, dei modi di produzione e scambio, del diritto, dell'organizzazione politica. Ampio spazio ~ dato all'antropologia delle religioni, alia magia, al pensiero simbolico, all'arte primitiva. Riflessioni sistematiche sono dedicate all'etnomedicina e ai fenomeni interculturali nelle attuali societ~ polietniche.

COMPARATIVEPRIMATESOCIOECOLOGY Edited by P.C. Lee Cambridge University Press 19th July 2001. ISBN 0 521 00424 1 s 27.95 ($39.95) paperback Contents: PART I Comparative methods: 1. The comparative method: principles and illustrations from primate socioecology (Maclaron A.). 2. Cladistics as a tool in comparative analysis (Robson-Brown K.). 3. Phylogenetically independent comparisons and primate phylogeny (Purvis A., Webster A.J.). PART II Comparative life history and biology 4. Socioecology and the evolution of primate reproductive rates (Ross C., Jones K.). 5. Comparative ecology of postnatal growth and weaning among haplorhine primates (Lee P.C.). 6. Some current ideas about the evolution of the human life history (Blurton Jones N., Hawkes K., O'Connell J.F.). 7. The evolutionary ecology of the primate brain (Barton R.). 8. Sex and social evolution in primates. (Van Schaik C.P., Van Noordwijk M.A., Nunn C.L.). 9. Mating systems, intrasexual competition and sexual dimorphism in primates (Plavcan J.M.). PART III Comparative socioecology and social evolution: 10. Lemur social structure and convergence in primate socioecology (Kappeler P.M.). 11. Why is female kin bonding so rare? Comparative sociality of neotropical primates (Strier K.B.) 12. Energetics, time budgets and group size (Williamson D.K., Dunbar R.). 13. ecology of sex differences in great ape foraging (Bean A.). 14. Hominid behavioural evolution: missing links in comparative primate socioecology (Foley R.A.). 15. Evolutionary ecology and cross-cultural comparison: the case of matrilineal descent in sub-Sahara Africa (Mace R., Holden C.). Comparative studies have become both more frequent and more important as means for understanding the biology, behaviour and evolution of mammals. Primates have complex social relationships and diverse ecologies, and represent a large species radiation. This book draw together a wide range of experts from fields as diverse as reproductive biology and foraging energetics to place recent field research into a synthetic perspective. The chapters tackle controversial issues in primate biology and behavioural, including the role of brain expansion and infanticide in the evolution of primate behavioural strategies. The book also presents an overview of comparative methodologies as applied to recent primate research that will provide new approaches to comparative research. It will be of particular interest to primatologists, behavioural in the evolution of human social behavioural.

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EAT OR BE EATEN: PREDATOR SENSITIVE FORAGING AMONG PRIMATES

Edited by Lynne E. Miller Cambridge University Press 4th April 2002 ISBN 0 521 01104 3 paperback s 29.95 (US $ 40.00) ISBN 0 521 80451 5 s 80.00 (US$110.00) hardback Contents: 1. An introduction to predator sensitive foraging L.E. Miller. PART I Biological variables: 2. Dangers in the dark: are some nocturnal primates afraid of the dark? S.K. Bearder, K.A. Nekaris, C. A. Buzzell. 3. Predation sensitive foraging in captive tamarinds M.J. Prescott, H. Buchanan-Smith. 4. Seeing red: consequence of individual differences in colour vision in callitrichid primates. N.G. Caina. 5. Predator sensitive foraging in Thomas langurs. E. H.M. Sterck. PART II Social variables: 6. The role of group size in predator sensitive foraging decisions for wedge-capped capuchin monkeys (Cebus olivaceus) L.E. Miller. 7. Group size effects on predations sensitive foraging in wild ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) M. L. Sauther. 8. Species differences in feeding in Milne Edward's sifakas (Propithecus diadema edwardsi), rufus lemur (Eulemur fulvus rufus), and red-bellied lemurs (Eulemur rubiventer) in southern Madagascar: implications for predator avoidance. D. J. Overdorff, S. G; Strait, R. C~ Seltzer. 9. Evidence of predator sensitive foraging and traveling in single- and mixed-species tamarin troops. P.A. Garber, J: C. Bicca-Marques. 10. Predator (in)sensitive foraging in sympatric female vervets (Cercopithecus aethiops) and patas monkeys (Erythrocebus patas): a test of ecological models of group dispersion L.A. Isbell, K.L. Enstam. 11. Predation risk and antipredator adaptations in white-faced sakis, Pithecia pithecia T.M.Gleason M.A. Norconk. PART III Environnemental variables: 12. Foraging female baboons exhibit similar patterns of antipredator vigilance across two populations R.A.Hill, G. Cowlishaw. 13. Foraging and safety in adult female blue monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, Kenya. M. Cords. 14. Predicting predation risk for foraging, arboreal monkeys A. Treves. 15. Predator sensitive foraging in ateline primates A. di Fiore 16. Antipredatory behavior in gibbons (Hylobates lar, Khao Yai/Thailand) N. L. Uhde, V. Sommer. Predator sensitive foraging represents the strategies that animals employ to balance the need to eat against the need to avoid being eaten. Ecologists working with a wide range of taxa have developed sophisticated theoretical models of these strategies, and have produced elegant data to test them. However, only recently have primatologists begun to turn their attention to this area of research. This volume brings together primary data from a variety of primate species living in both natural habitats and experimental settings, and explores the variables that may play a role in primates behavioral strategies. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that predator sensitive foraging is relevant to many primates, of various body size and group size and living in different environments. Eat or be eaten encourages further discussion and investigation of the subject. It will make fascinating reading for researchers and students in primatology, ecology and animal behavior.

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EVOLUTIONARYANATOMYOF THE PRIMATE CEREBRAL CORTEX Edited by Dean Falk & Kathleen R. Gibson

Cambridge University Press 2001. ISBN 0 521 64271X s 55.00 hardback Contents: PART I The evolution of brain size: 1. Encephalization and its developmental structure: how many ways can a brain get big? (Kasakan P.M., Finlay B.L.). 2. Neocortical expansion and elaboration during primate evolution: a view from neuroembryology (Rakic P., Kornack D.R.). 3. In defense of the Expansive Tissue Hypothesis (Aiello L.C., Bates N., Joffe T). 4. Bigger is better: primate brain size in relationship to cognition (Gibson K.R., Rumbaugh D., Beran M.). 5. The evolution of sex differences in primate brains (Falk D.). 6. Brain evolution in hominids: are we at the end of the road? (Hofmann M.A.). PART II Neurological substrates of species-specific adaptations: 7. The discovery of cerebral diversity: an unwelcome scientific revolution (Preuss T.M.). 8. Pheromonal communication and socialization (Chiarelli B.). 9. Revisiting australopithecine visual striate cortex: newer data from chimpanzee and human brains suggest it could have been reduced during australopithecine time (Holloway R.L., Broadfield D.C., Yuan M.S.). I0. Structural symmetries and asymmetries in human and chimpanzee brains (Gilissen E.). 11. Language areas of the hominid brain: a dynamic communicative shift on the upper east side planum (Gannon P.J., Kheck N.M., Hof P.R.). 12 The promise and the peril in hominin brain evolution (Tobias P.V.). 13. Advances in the study of hominid brain evolution: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 3-D reconstruction (Semendeferi K.). 14. Exo-and endocranial morphometrics in mid-Pleistocene and modern human. (Shafer K., Seidler H., Bookstein EL., Prossinger H., Falk D., Conroy G). Epilogue The study of primate brain evolution: where do we go from here? (Jerison H.J.). Studies of brain evolution have moved rapidly in recent years, building the pioneering research of Harry J. Jerison. This book provides state-of-the-art reviews of primate (including human) brain evolution. The book is divided in two sections: the first gives new perspectives on the development. It has long been recognized however, that brains do not merely enlarge globally as they evolve, but that their cortical and internal organization. Species-specific adaptations therefore have neurological substrates that depend on more that just overall brain size. The second section explores these neurological underpinning for the senses, adaptations and cognitive abilities that are important for primates. With a prologue by Stephen J. Gould and an epilogue by Harry J. Jarrison, this is an important new reference work for all those working on brain evolution primates.

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FUNDAMENTALSOF BIOSTATISTICS Bernard Rosner

Duxbury Thomson Learning 5th edition ISBN 0534370683 $ 35.00 Contents: 1. General overview. 2. Descriptive statistics. 3. Probability. 4. Discrete probability distributions. 5. Continuous probability distributions. 6. Estimation. 7. Hypothesis Testing: onesample inference. 8. Hypothesis Testing: Two sample Inference. 9. Nonparametric Methods. 10. Hypothesis Testing: Categorical Data. 11. Regression and correlation Methods. 12. Multisample Inference. 13. Design and analysis techniques for Epidemiologic studies. 14. Hypothesis Testing: Person-Time Data. This book offers a practical introduction to the methods, techniques, and computation of statistics on human subjects. This text will help you master the statistical methods most often used in medical literature and medical research. Every new concept is development through worked-out examples from current medical research. Statistical applications pertaining almost exclusively to human subjects of medical research make this text an ideal starting point for anyone in the premed, nursing, or allied health fields. The Fifth Edition contains 260 new exercise based on computer simulations; new sections; new examples; uses statistical software; incorporate modern computer graphics.

HUMAN BIOLOGY OF PASTORALPOPULATIONS Edited by Leonard W.R., Crawford M.H.

Cambridge University Press 7th March 2002 ISBN 0 521 78016 0 (Hardback) s 55.00 US$ 80.00 Contents: 1. The biological diversity of herding populations: an introduction (Crawford M.H., Leonard W.R.). 2. Genetic structure of pastoral population of Siberia: the Evenki of central Siberia and the Kizhi of Gorno Altai (Crawford M.H., McComb J., Schanfeild M.S., Mitchell J.R.), 3. Genetic structure of the Basque herders of northern Spain (Calderon R.). 4. History, demography, marital patterns and immigration rate in the South Sinai Bedouins: their effect on the coefficient of inbreeding (F) (Kobyliansky E., Hershkovitz I.). 5. Uncertain disaster: environmental instability, colonial policy, and the resilience of East African pastoral systems (Gray S., Leslie P., Alinga Akol H.). 6. Changing pattern of Tibetan nomadic pastoralism (Goldstein M.C., Beall C.M.). 7. Human biology, health and ecology of nomadic Turkana pastoralists (Little M.A.). 8. Economic stratification and health among the Herero of Botswana (Pennington R.L.). 9. Ecology, health and lifestyle change among the Evenki herders of Siberia (Leonard W.R., Galloway V.A, Ivakine E., Osipova L., Kazakovtseva M.). 10. Disease patterns in Sfimi and

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Finnish populations: an update (N~iyhii S., Luoma P., Lehtinen S., Lehtimaki T., Mosher M.J, Leppaluoto J.). 11. Yomut family organization and demography (Irons W.). 12. Pastoralism and evolution of lactase persistence (Holden C , Mace R.). Animal-herding (pastoralism) is a subsistence strategy that is practiced by populations of lowproducing ecosystems worldwide. Increasingly, it is vanishing due to land pressure and ecological degradation, particularly in the developing world. While previous book have examined the social, cultural and economic dimensions of the pastoral way of life, until now there has been no systematic examination of the biology and health of pastoral groups. Human biology of pastoral Populations fills this gap by drawing together our current knowledge of the biology, population structure and ecology of herding populations. It investigates how pastoral populations adapt to limited and variable food availability, the implications of the herding way of life for reproductive patterns, population structure and genetic diversity and the impacts of ongoing social and ecological changes on the health and well-being of these populations. This volume will be of broad interest to scholars in anthropology, human biology, genetics and demography.

HUMAN GROWTH,ASSESSMENTAND INTERPRETATION

ALEX ROCHE & SHUMEISUN 27th February 2003. Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 78245 7 hardback s 60.00 Contents: 1 Measurement and assessment: Measurement of weight, size, and total body composition; The assessment of maturity; Growth reference data for general populations; Changes in percentile levels with age; Other important measures; Total body composition; Percentages of values at older ages; Multiple births; low birth weight infants; Diseases-specific growth charts; Maturity reference data. 2 Patterns of change in size and body composition: Mathematical models for describing growth patterns; Growth and body composition during infancy; Tracking; Decanalization; Failure-to-thrive; Catch-up growth; Prediction of adult stature; Target stature. 3 Determinants of growth: Genetic influences; Family influences; Substance abuse during pregnancy; Breast-feeding; Hormonal influences; Ethnic influences; Nutritional influences; High altitude; Maturity. 4. Secular changes in growth and maturity: Changes in size; Changes in maturity; Recent slowing of secular changes; Determinants of secular changes; Secular changes and long-term serial growth studies; 5. Significance of human growth: Early growth and later growth; Maturity; Growth and disease; Adult stature; Assessment of growth; Assessment of nutritional status; Growth screening. Many researchers and professionals need to be able to measure, assess, and interpret human growth between birth and adulthood. However, much of the methodology is scattered in diverse literature. Human Growth: assessment and Interpretation provide a complete reference to the field for all those who measure and assess child growth. It emphasizes the interpretation of

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growth data taking into account the adjusted effects of influences such as genes, hormones, and substance abuse during pregnancy, gives descriptions of normal and abnormal growth patterns, and of variant growth patterns such as failure-to thrive and catch growth. Including methods to measure size and maturity, the judgement and interpretation of recorded data, evaluations of influences on growth, and the significance of abnormal growth, it will be an essential source of information for paediatricians, human biologists, health workers, nutritionists, epidemiologists, and other who are responsible for the health and welfare of children.

LIFE ON THE AMAZON: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF A BRAZILIAN PEASANT VILLAGE Mark Harris

Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 7262392 21 December 2000 s 25.00 Contents: River run. Introduction. Caboclo. The tides of history in Amazonia. Fishing with Jos~Maria. Continuity and resources. "We are all family here". Amongst two brothers. Rhythms. Work as life. Another way of telling: Boundaries. Possession. Conclusion. Closing the circle. This book is innovative contribution to anthropology's interest in how identity is created and defined. Dr. Harris uses forms of ethnographic writing to explore the historical and social identity of a village of caboclo fisherpersons who live on the banks of the River Amazon, He intersperses his analytical chapters with narrative sections that describe more freely what the people do and how they do it. He thus moves beyond notions of identity that define themselves in collective, ethic or class terms, by focusing on people's practical engagement with their environment.

ON THE MOVE: HOW AND WHY ANIMALS TRAVEL IN GROUPS. E d i t e d b y B o i n s k y S., G a r b e r P.A.

The University of Chicago Press 15 May 2000 Cloth ISBN 0 226 06339 9 US $ 95.00 UK s 66.50 Paper ISBN 0 226 06340 2 US $ 35.00 UK s 24.50 Contents: Part I Ecological costs and benefits. Part II Cognitive Abilities, possibilities and constraints. Part III Travel decisions. Part IV Social Processes Part V Group movement from a wider taxonomic perspective. Concluding remarks. Getting from here to there may be simple for one individual. But as any parent, scout leader, or CEO knows, herding a whole troop in one direction is a lot more complicated. Who leads the group? Who decides where the group will travel, and using what information? How do they

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accomplish these tasks? On the Move addresses these questions, examining the social, cognitive, and ecological processes that underlie patterns and strategies of group travel. Chapters discuss how factors such as group size, resource distribution and availability, the costs of travel, predation, social cohesion, and cognitive skills affect how individuals as well as social groups exploit their environment. Most chapters focus on field studies of a wide range of human and nonhuman primate groups, from squirrel monkeys to Turkana pastoralists, but chapters covering group travel in hyenas, birds, dolphins, and bees provide a broad taxonomic perspective and offer new insights into comparative questions, such as whether primates are unique in their ability to coordinate group-level activities.

PRIMATE MALES: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF VARIATION IN GROUP COMPOSITION

Edited by Peter M. Kappeler Cambridge University Press 4th May 2000 ISBN 0 521 65846 2 paperback s 25.95 (US $ 38.00) ISBN 0 521 65119 0 hardback s 70.00 (US$100.00)

I Introduction. II Comparative perspectives on male- female association. III Variation in tnale numbers: taxon-level analyses. IV Behavioral aspects of male coexistence. V Evolutionary determinants and consequences. VI Conclusions. The size and composition of primate groups vary tremendously across species, within species, and within groups over time. The most variable quantity is the number of adult males. In some groups, single males can monopolize access to several females, whereas reproduction is shared among several males in other groups. This variation lies at the heart of understanding adaptive variation among social systems. Whether groups contains single or multiple males has important consequences for the reproductive strategies of both sexes, and also shapes these animals' morphology and behavior. Written by leading authorities, this book provides an extensive overview of variation in group composition across all major primate taxa, using up-to-date reviews, case studies, evolutionary theory and theoretical mammals. It will become a firm favourite with all those interested in the behavioral ecology of primates.