The Chosen Primate : Human Nature and Cultural Diversity

We are all Darwinians now. Yet is there a Darwinian explanation for the evolution of human nature?

The great debates about human origins, cultural history and human nature confront us with two opposing - often irreconcilable - images of human beings.

One view emphasizes biology, the other emphasizes culture as the foundation of human behaviour.

In "The Chosen Primate" the author reframes these debates and reconsiders the fundamental questions of anthropology.

Balancing biological and cultural perspectives, Kuper reviews our beliefs about human origins, the history of human culture, genes and intelligence, the nature of the differences between males and females, and the foundations of human politics.

Within the context of Darwinian theory, he traces the influence of eugenics, sociobiology and gender studies on anthropology.

This study also offers a history of the people and places that have shaped anthropology, taking us to Olduvai Gorge with the Leakeys, the Kalahari with the Marshalls, and Samoa with Margaret Mead. "The Chosen Primate" ends by looking forward to the next millenium, noting that our future depends on our response to another fundamental question: will our culture, which has given us the means to adapt successfully to nature, ultimately destroy it?