Chapter 9 (Centuries to Millenia Before) discussed culture and how it molds behavior. The author begins with declaring his goals for the chapter, which I appreciated. Culture can be defined in many ways, but to make things easier, he tells us how he will be defining it for the purpose of books subject. I enjoyed learning about the types of cultures, why certain cultures exist where they do, and how culture creates a society’s morals. The concept of honor killing and how it is defined relative to culture was very gripping, at least for me, you might find another topic in this chapter far more engaging. This lengthy chapter has many more topics, you will just have to discover them by reading it for yourself.
Chapter 10 (The Evolution of Behavior) put in the simplest of terms, is about selection. Group selection is how behavior evolves by one learning that for the good of the species you need to act a certain way. Individual selection involves doing what you feel you must do to make sure your genes survive, which usually means destroying someone else’s genes. Kin selection is when you help your closest relatives reproduce in order that some of your genes forge ahead. I also learned why we cooperate with others, how we know it is beneficial to do so, and how cooperation begins when it does not exist. I got really caught up in pair bonding species and tournament species, and the various ways in which you could guess to which group a subject belongs based on physical characteristics. There was a small section about genotype and phenotype, with an amazing analogy to help remember the difference between the two if you find yourself struggling. The chapter ends with the author trying to explain where humans fit into all of this, which is difficult because there is so much variation in what we all value. Also, there is an amusing anecdote about the nicknames given to sociobiologists by people in favor of punctuated equilibrium, and vice versa, and another one about male nipples.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 