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Stone Age Present: How Evolution Has Shaped Modern Life -- From Sex, Violence and Language to Emotions, Morals and Communities
From Simon & Schuster, The Stone Age Present explores how evolution has shaped modern life—from sex, violence, and language to emotions, morals, and communities.
In this fascinating synthesis of the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and biology, William Allman shows us how our minds have evolved in response to challenges faced by our prehistoric ancestors, and reveals how our brains continue to harbor that legacy in the present day.
In this fascinating synthesis of the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and biology, William Allman shows us how our minds have evolved in response to challenges faced by our prehistoric ancestors, and reveals how our brains continue to harbor that legacy in the present day.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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About the author
William Allman
6 booksWilliam Allman became the curator of the White House on August 1, 2002, having served in the office of the curator since 1976, and carries out the preservation and study of the collection of art, furniture and decorative objects used to furnish the White House as an official residence and as an accredited historic house museum. He has a B.A. in history from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in American studies with museum concentration from George Washington University. Allman has contributed articles to many White House Historical Association publications, including the semi-annual journal White House History. He frequently lectures on the White House collection and was an advisor for the redesign of the White House Visitor Center. Allman is the author of the new “Official White House China: From the 18th to 21st Centuries” (White House Historical Association) and “The White House: Its Historic Furnishings and First Families” (White House Historical Association), recently released in a new edition with specially commissioned photography.
-- http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/author/wi...
-- http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/author/wi...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 2, 2020
Platitudes
May 28, 2007
Allman considers puzzling human behaviors and habits in light of anthropological research on human evolution. People who think a person is a blank slate with behaviors completely controlled by society and environment won't like this book, but I think behavior is dictated by some of both biology and environment, and so I found this book quite intriguing. A similar (longer) book has been written by Paul Ehrlich called Human Natures, that I haven't read yet.
July 24, 2021
Evolutionary psychology is such racist sexist bullshit. Taking the prevailing prejudices of your society and calling it 'human nature' is not science - it is ideology.
July 9, 2019
Good, but keeps the rose-colored glasses on
The point implied in the title is a good one: we are stone age animals living in an electronic jungle. The Environment of Evolutionary Adaption, which was on the savannas of Africa, disappeared for most of us long ago; but genetically and phenotypically speaking we have changed very little. Thus the first four words of the title are beguiling; the rest after the colon, I suspect, was something formulated by a committee of book biz editors trying to spice up the presentation.
This is evolutionary psychology written by a journalist, readable with some worthwhile insights. It should be compared to Richard Wright's The Moral Animal (1994) and Matt Ridley's The Red Queen (1993) from the same time period. This is a comparison that could be extended to other books on evolutionary psychology, including anthropologist Marvin Harris's Our Kind (1989): sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson's earlier, On Human Nature (1978); Robert Jay Russell's The Lemur's Legacy (1993); Richard Wrangham's Demonic Males (1996), etc. Incidentally Amazon has all these books and others, so you might want to do a little comparison shopping. What one notices is that Allman's book is, relatively speaking, a feel-good, sanitized narrative. Our stone age ancestors did not kill a cow and cut up its carcass and distribute it to others in order to enhance their power and prestige and to gain reproductive favors, as most "observers" would have it; but, according to Allman, to share "with friends and neighbors" and "courting lovers." It is amazing what a difference terminology can make. Allman almost allows us to embrace evolutionary psychology and its rather unflattering insights and keep the rose-colored glasses on. The tone is positive and reasoned. The book is also as politically correct, although not as annoyingly PC as Wrangham's Demonic Males.
I should mention that one of the major themes in this book and in recent evolutionary psychology is that our brains grew big and smart to deal with our complex social lives. This is the current wisdom. Well, as Satchel Paige said, "The social ramble ain't restful," and as I've always said, socializing is a lot of work. Yes, I think this really does explain how our brains got to be so big. We needed to be really smart to outsmart the other guy. We needed to be smart to juggle all those intrigues, social, political and sexual. I like the way this insight fits with the female's abhorrence of nerds: the fact of the matter is, not being social is also not being smart! So there, nerds!
Like Harris, Allman does not see civilization or the rise of agriculture as necessarily a good thing for the average Joe. And he is firm in discounting the idea that human beings represent "progress" on the evolutionary scale. Interestingly, Allman reports extensively from Robert Axelrod's work on cooperation in an attempt to make us look like good guys. Axelrod is the guy who devised the computer models testing the prisoner's dilemma and held the competition that revealed the now well-known and celebrated "Tit for Tat" strategy that won it (initially cooperate and then act toward the other as that other has acted toward you: tit for tat). Tit for tat also appeared in Wright's The Moral Animal and in Ridley's The Origins of Virtue and elsewhere. I think Axelrod might have had a press agent. At any rate, tit for tat is now seen as needing a random and forgiving variation in order to defeat various other strategies, including ruthlessly non-cooperative ones.
This is a pretty book, originally from Simon & Schuster, very well edited and copyread (thank you!).
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
The point implied in the title is a good one: we are stone age animals living in an electronic jungle. The Environment of Evolutionary Adaption, which was on the savannas of Africa, disappeared for most of us long ago; but genetically and phenotypically speaking we have changed very little. Thus the first four words of the title are beguiling; the rest after the colon, I suspect, was something formulated by a committee of book biz editors trying to spice up the presentation.
This is evolutionary psychology written by a journalist, readable with some worthwhile insights. It should be compared to Richard Wright's The Moral Animal (1994) and Matt Ridley's The Red Queen (1993) from the same time period. This is a comparison that could be extended to other books on evolutionary psychology, including anthropologist Marvin Harris's Our Kind (1989): sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson's earlier, On Human Nature (1978); Robert Jay Russell's The Lemur's Legacy (1993); Richard Wrangham's Demonic Males (1996), etc. Incidentally Amazon has all these books and others, so you might want to do a little comparison shopping. What one notices is that Allman's book is, relatively speaking, a feel-good, sanitized narrative. Our stone age ancestors did not kill a cow and cut up its carcass and distribute it to others in order to enhance their power and prestige and to gain reproductive favors, as most "observers" would have it; but, according to Allman, to share "with friends and neighbors" and "courting lovers." It is amazing what a difference terminology can make. Allman almost allows us to embrace evolutionary psychology and its rather unflattering insights and keep the rose-colored glasses on. The tone is positive and reasoned. The book is also as politically correct, although not as annoyingly PC as Wrangham's Demonic Males.
I should mention that one of the major themes in this book and in recent evolutionary psychology is that our brains grew big and smart to deal with our complex social lives. This is the current wisdom. Well, as Satchel Paige said, "The social ramble ain't restful," and as I've always said, socializing is a lot of work. Yes, I think this really does explain how our brains got to be so big. We needed to be really smart to outsmart the other guy. We needed to be smart to juggle all those intrigues, social, political and sexual. I like the way this insight fits with the female's abhorrence of nerds: the fact of the matter is, not being social is also not being smart! So there, nerds!
Like Harris, Allman does not see civilization or the rise of agriculture as necessarily a good thing for the average Joe. And he is firm in discounting the idea that human beings represent "progress" on the evolutionary scale. Interestingly, Allman reports extensively from Robert Axelrod's work on cooperation in an attempt to make us look like good guys. Axelrod is the guy who devised the computer models testing the prisoner's dilemma and held the competition that revealed the now well-known and celebrated "Tit for Tat" strategy that won it (initially cooperate and then act toward the other as that other has acted toward you: tit for tat). Tit for tat also appeared in Wright's The Moral Animal and in Ridley's The Origins of Virtue and elsewhere. I think Axelrod might have had a press agent. At any rate, tit for tat is now seen as needing a random and forgiving variation in order to defeat various other strategies, including ruthlessly non-cooperative ones.
This is a pretty book, originally from Simon & Schuster, very well edited and copyread (thank you!).
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
May 18, 2013
Insightful and comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary underpinings of the contemporary human. Basis is that progress has catapulted us into a completely different world, while evolutionary adaptations have not had the opportunity to take place as quickly. Evidence includes tests where people perform identical logical tests differently under different contexts. Brain development includes more instinctive behavior than previously conceded (flight or fight; identification of natural enemies, ability to think probabilistically via intuition vs hard numbers, etc. Social aspect of the brain includes understanding hierarchies, navigating social climbing, forming groups and enemies. Concepts of love include beauty aspects that indicate health and strength -- much gender issue can be explained by differences between male and female roles. Language roots are in the brain and independently evolved.
November 6, 2007
Really interesting analysis of exactly what the title says -- how our social and cultural ways are part of our biological evolution. Simplified for the lay reader, but a great place to start...
July 25, 2009
Evolutionary psychology made fun! Really fun!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews