In the past two decades, an explosion of research has generated many compelling insights--as well as hotly debated controversies--about the evolutionary bases of human nature. This important volume brings together leading proponents of different theoretical and methodological perspectives to provide a balanced look at 12 key questions at the core of the field today. In 43 concise, accessible chapters, followed by an integrative conclusion, the contributors present viewpoints informed by human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and gene-culture coevolutionary approaches. Topics include the strengths and limitations of different methodologies; metatheoretical issues; and debates concerning the evolution of the human brain, intellectual abilities, culture, and sexual behavior.

In the past two decades, an explosion of research has generated many compelling insights--as well as hotly debated controversies--about the evolutionary bases of human nature. This important volume brings together leading proponents of different theoretical and methodological perspectives to provide a balanced look at 12 key questions at the core of the field today. In 43 concise, accessible chapters, followed by an integrative conclusion, the contributors present viewpoints informed by human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and gene-culture coevolutionary approaches. Topics include the strengths and limitations of different methodologies; metatheoretical issues; and debates concerning the evolution of the human brain, intellectual abilities, culture, and sexual behavior.

An Introduction to The Evolution of Mind: Why We Developed This Book, Steven W. Gangestad and Jeffry A. SimpsonI. Methodological Issues: The Means of Darwinian Behavioral ScienceIssue 1: How the Evolution of the Human Mind Might Be Reconstructed1. Comprehensive Knowledge of Human Evolutionary History Requires Both Adaptationism and Phylogenetics, Randy Thornhill 2. Natural Psychology: The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness and the Structure of Cognition, Edward H. Hagen and Donald Symons3. Reconstructing the Evolution of the Mind is Depressingly Difficult, Paul W. Andrews4. Reconstructing the Evolution of the Human Mind, Eric Alden Smith5. How the Evolution of the Human Mind Might Be Reconstructed, Steven MithenIssue 2: The Role of Tracking Current Evolution6. Reproductive Success: Then and Now, Charles B. Crawford7. On the Utility, Not the Necessity, of Tracking Current Fitness, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder 8. Why Measuring Reproductive Success in Current Populations is Valuable: Moving Forward by Going Backward, H. Kern Reeve and Paul W. Sherman Issue 3: Our Closest Ancestors9. What Nonhuman Primates Can and Can't Teach Us about the Evolution of Mind, Craig B. Stanford 10. Who Lived in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness?, Joan B. Silk11. Chimpanzee and Human Intelligence: Life History, Diet, and the Mind, Jane B. Lancaster and Hillard S. KaplanIssue 4: The Role of Examining the Costs and Benefits of Behaviors12. Optimality Approaches and Evolutionary Psychology: A Call for Synthesis, Hillard S. Kaplan and Steven W. Gangestad 13. The Games People Play, Peter DeScioli and Robert Kurzban 14. Dynamical Evolutionary Psychology and Mathematical Modeling: Quantifying the Implications of Qualitative Biases, Douglas T. Kenrick and Jill M. Sundie II. Fundamental MetaTheoretical IssuesIssue 5. The Modularity of Mind15. Functional Specialization and the Adaptationist Program, Elsa Ermer, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby16. Modules in the Flesh, H. Clark BarrettIssue 6. Development as the Target of Evolution17. The Developmental Dynamics of Adaptation, Hunter Honeycutt and Robert Lickliter 18. An Alternative Evolutionary Psychology?, Kim Sterelny 19. Development as the Target of Evolution: A Computational Approach to Developmental Systems, H. Clark Barrett 20. Evolutionary Psychology and Developmental Systems Theory, Debra Lieberman 21. The Importance of Developmental Biology to Evolutionary Biology and Vice Versa, Randy Thornhill Issue 7. The Role of Group Selection22. The Role of Group Selection in Human Psychological Evolution, David Sloan Wilson 23. Group Selection: A Tale of Two Controversies, Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson 24. On Detecting the Footprints of Multilevel Selection in Humans, Robert Kurzban and C. Athena AktipisIII. Debates Concerning Important Human Evolutionary OutcomesIssue 8. Key Changes in the Evolution of Human Psychology25. The Hominid Entry into the Cognitive Niche, H. Clark Barrett, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby 26. Runaway Social Selection in Human Evolution, Mark Flinn and Richard Alexander 27. Key Changes in the Evolution of Human Psychology, Steven MithenIssue 9. Brain Evolution28. Brain Evolution and the Human Adaptive Complex: An Ecological and Social Theory, Hillard S. Kaplan, Michael Gurven, and Jane B. Lancaster29. Evolution of the Social Brain, Robin Dunbar 30. Brain Evolution, Geoffrey Miller31. E Pluribus Unum: Too Many Unique Human Capacities and Too Many Theories, Barbara L. Finlay Issue 10. General Intellectual Ability32. The Motivation to Control and the Evolution of General Intelligence, David C. Geary33. The g-culture Coevolution, Satoshi Kanazawa 34. General Intellectual Ability, Steven Mithen Issue 11. Culture and Evolution35. Cultural Adaptation and Maladaptation: Of Kayaks and Commissars, Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson36. The Envelope of Human Cultures and the Promise of Integrated Behavioral Sciences, Pascal Boyer 37. The Linked Red Queens of Human Cognition, Coalitions, and Culture, Mark Flinn and Kathryn Coe38. Evolutionary Biology, Cognitive Adaptations, and Human Culture, Kim Hill 39. Representational Epidemiology: Skepticism and Gullibility, Robert Kurzban40. Turning Garbage into Gold: Evolutionary Universals and Cross-Cultural Differences, Mark Schaller Issue 12. The Evolution of Mating between the Sexes41. The Evolution of Human Mating Strategies: Consequences for Conflict and Cooperation, David M. Buss42. Social Structural Origins of Sex Differences in Human Mating, Wendy Wood and Alice H. Eagly 43. The Evolution of Women's Estrus, Extended Sexuality, and Concealed Ovulation, and Their Implications for Human Sexuality Research, Randy Thornhill Whither Science of the Evolution of Mind?, Steven W. Gangestad and Jeffry A. Simpson