An accessible account of the social foundation of the human species. ( )

An interesting subject, and although I agree that our species is wired for culture, as the title says, I had issues with some of the particulars in this book and how they were stated. The thing that tended to bug me the most was the way some explanations were phrased. Now I'm sure the author doesn't believe this, but often his choice of words imply that genes act out of conscious intent, or that behaviors that are instinctive are instead volitional. A peahen, for example, doesn't 'know' in any cognitive sense that a peacock with impressive plumage must be healthier than one without, which is what he says. Naked mole rats did not loose their fur in order to avoid parasites. In each case, a mutated gene conferred a physiological or behavioral change which provided some reproductive advantage. When a person jumps into a river to save someone, he isn't first doing some kind of mental calculation to decide how many genes he and the person drowning share. Gene reproduction may benefit from his act of bravery, but it's not why he does it. Chances are, it's motivated mainly by instinct, but the genes that prompt that instinct aren't thinking about it any more than the guy jumping in the river. They don't 'know' anything. They survive or they don't. Those that do, reproduce, and because the behavior has survival benefits, the instinct to save others spreads.
I can't say I gained any great insights from reading this, but it offers some interesting potential explanations for human behavior. ( )

I never do this - but I actually emailed the author about what I found to be an off colour joke. Still a really good book but thought the editor should have provided more solid advice on matters of taste. ( )

I really struggled with this book. It deals with the evolutionary aspects of cooperation and language and related issues; the author is an expert in the field, and it is a subject in which I have a strong interest.
But the problem was in the writing. The author just fails to present his topic in a way that engages the mind of the reader. The logic fails to flow. There are no felicitous anecdotal examples that paint the picture.
I found myself checking how many pages to the end of the chapter from about chapter 2. By the end I was skippy reading.
It is sad. I'm sure the author is capable of a better book. But it wasn't this one.
Read (mostly) Feb 2015. ( )

How to review this book.......

Mark Pagel gives a very clear and concise overview of the current thinking in the field of evolution. I have always found that a considerable amount of this theory is logical and easy to accept and ninety plus per cent of Mr Pagel's explanation re-enforces this belief. Science does, however, insist in talking in the same certainties for which it criticises religion: not a single theory is, "our best guess, based upon current knowledge", it is all De facto, if Mr Pagel will forgive the phrase. God is not even considered worth discussing, He is consigned to the "as everybody knows", level of myth - just a tad patronising.

Our guide insists that Darwinian evolution is an unquestionable system - he sites the old problem of the peacock (why does a peacock have an unwieldy tail, if natural selection moves every creature towards its fittest state?). This proves no problem, the peacock is telling his prospective mate that he is so fit that he can put up with the encumbrance of his tail. Now I thought that was a bit of a cheat... a little bit like saying all birds are blue - the brown and the black ones just have an extra pigment and white ones lack a pigment.

Allowing for these slight niggles, I enjoyed the larger part of this book. It began to break down when Mr Pagel seriously suggested, nay insisted that the you that you think that you know does not exist. Your character is a trick, played by your genes, to make you believe that you are significant. Mr Pagel argues that the gene rules the individual and the state. He is of the , 'there is no free will' brigade and religion, art, literature, etc. are just silly sidelines allowed by, but of no significance to, life. Souls are ridiculed as an impossible concept and humans reduced to oversized termites.

If this is true then, I for one, wish to bury my head and retain the foolish notion that I am a human being. One question that I would love to ask the author, is; If his theory is correct, and everything that we 'know' is simply what our genes allow us to believe; what value is their in Mr Pagel being permitted to divulge this secret? I did get the feeling that we are all equal, at the level of an amoeba, except for the clever scientists: whatever the chief belief, every society needs its leaders. ( )