Cheating Monkeys And Citizen Bees. The Nature Of Cooperation In Animals And Humans - Couverture souple

Dugatkin, Lee

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0674001672 ISBN 13 : 9780674001671

Editeur : Harvard University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Despite the perception of nature as red in tooth and claw, cooperation is ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom, as cooperative hunting, anti-predator behavior, foraging, coalition formation, grooming, helpers-at-the-nest, territoriality, sentry behavior, and group thermoregulation. It is indisputable that animals cooperate-cooperation has been observed in everything from insects to primates and in every imaginable scenario-but evolutionary biologists and behavioral ecologists still hotly debate just why animals act in altruistic ways and how such behavior could have evolved. Here biologist Lee Dugatkin outlines four paths to cooperation shared by humans and other animals : family dynamics, reciprocal transactions (or "tit for tat"), so-called selfish teamwork, and group altruism. He draws on a wealth of examples-from babysitting among mongooses and food sharing among vampire bats to cooperation in Hutterite communities and on kibbutzim-to show not only that cooperation exists throughout the animal kingdom, but how an understanding of the natural history of altruism might foster our own best instincts toward our fellow humans.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Cooperation is the fabric that keeps society together, but to what extent is such behaviour instinctive, and how much of it is a product of moral will? Could the secret of enhancing human cooperation lie in an investigation of the animal kingdom? In CHEATING AND MONKEYS CITIZEN BEES, evolution and animal behaviour expert Lee Dugatkin reports from the cutting edge of scientific research on the startlingly evolutionary truth about cooperation and how it works. He explains the four paths to cooperation which we share with animals: family dynamics, reciprocal transactions, mutual teamwork, and universal altruism.
Dugatkin illustrates his argument with remarkable examples of cooperation from the natural world: baby-sitting mongooses and squirrels who willingly martyr themselves to save relatives and fish who switch sexes in order to share reproductive duties. With these colourful insights into the natural world, Dugatkin shows that what comes naturally to animals can teach us about the instincts that underlie the complex web of human social networks.

Biographie de l'auteur

Lee Dugatkin has written extensively on evolution in academic journals as well as popular magazines.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Harvard University Press
• Date d'édition: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0674001672
• ISBN 13: 9780674001671
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Amazon EU Sarl; 0; www.amazon.com; ; 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; 0; L-1855; Luxembourg