Biological Anthropology: A Synthetic Approach to Human Evolution

This new edition of Biological Anthropology is evolutionary in perspective in the belief that evolution is the only unifying theory that can clearly explain the existing array of biological and cultural data. The basics of anthropological theory and human genetics are introduced before the topics of vertebrate evolution, primate evolution and social behavior, human evolution and behavior, and human variation and adaptation. In each section, behavior, morphology, adaptation, and ecology are discussed to provide the comparative basis for human origins. Includes expanded sections on genetics, with a new chapter on classic genetics (Ch. 2), and a new chapter on Darwinian evolution (Ch. 3); a new chapter on the living primates, their distribution and anatomical adaptations (Ch. 7); an expanded section on Homo , including a new chapter on Homo sapiens sapiens ; and a new chapter on hominoid and human behavior (Ch. 13), which combines the evolution of hominoid behavior and the evolution of human social behavior.