Current Problems in Sociobiology

by King's College Sociobiology Group

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521285209
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/24/1982
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

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.