1. Talking Heads 2. Into The Social Whirl 3. The Importance Of Being Earnest 4. Of Brains and Groups and Evolution 5. The Ghost in the Machine 6. Up Through the Mists of Time 7. First Words 8. Babel's Legacy 9. The Little Rituals of Life 10. The Scars of Evolution Bibliography Index
Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford.
At the heart of this fresh and witty book is the thesis that gossip
is the human version of primate grooming...Grooming, Gossip, and
the Evolution of Language is in many ways a wonderful book, and its
ideas deserve an airing. Mr. Dunbar is a clear thinker and a
polymath, marshaling evidence for his thesis from such varied
fields as primatology, linguistics, anthropology and genetics.
*New York Times Book Review*
If you've ever wondered why we gossip, read Dr. Robin Dunbar's
Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language. Humans are the
only primates that use language, and Dunbar theorizes that we
gossip to strengthen our social status because we can't groom each
other.
*New York Post*
Dunbar asks interesting questions, provides a fresh perspective on
an old problem and gives readers a zippy intellectual ride.
*The Nation*
[Dunbar's] is an intoxicating idea, somewhere between brilliant and
loopy. On the way to fleshing out this bracing thesis, Dunbar gives
us what he calls a 'magical mystery tour' of scientific
disciplines, including neurology, linguistics, evolution and
more...[H]is ideas and language can be delightful.
*Washington Post Book World*
We're chatterers and snoops, every one of us, according to this
fresh, witty book, and there's an evolutionary reason: gossip, like
primate grooming, helps cement social ties.
*New York Times*
This book, which gives a deep insight into the emerging field of
evolutionary psychology, is about as smart as they come. It tackles
the related questions of brain size and the evolution of language,
and relates our love of gossip and small talk to the endless
grooming routines of other primates. It's 'Dilbert' for those who
want to know why.
*Boston Globe*
Robin Dunbar's Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language, is
a highly enjoyable speculation, in Neo-Darwinian mode, of how and
why humans came to have language. The argument of the book is the
now not unfamiliar argument that the point of talking is being able
to make small talk (the 'gossip' of the title), and that small talk
produces social cohesion and mitigates social conflict. In other
words, it does what primatologists have long claimed grooming does
for non-human primates...The book is frequently humorous and
charming, always readable, and often modest in tone...The citations
to his own and others' original research and the review of the
literature on non-human primate language and grooming practices,
are part of what make this book well suited for a general
readership, but also appropriate for a more specialized academic
and student readership.
*Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences*
Dunbar has written provocative book about the sociology of language
use...[A] fascinating study.
*Library Journal*
It may seem a stretch to connect the origin of speech with the
grooming behavior of baboons, but Dunbar's research has persuaded
him of such a link. This intriguing book presents his thesis, which
he formulated after noting a relationship between maximum group
size and the ratio of neocortical tissue to total brain volume.
Dunbar then extrapolates to humans, proposing 150 as the upper
range of people any one person can personally maintain
relationships with via our equivalent of grooming: gossipy
chitchat...[H]e argues the case, in evolutionary biological terms,
in an elucidating and entertaining manner. How language began
fascinates most of us, and consistently delightful are Dunbar's
excursions into paleoanthropological anatomy, exigencies of nomadic
living, philology of root languages, and the conversational styles
at cocktail parties. A relaxed, concise presentation of an evolving
theory of linguistic evolution.
*Booklist*
A novel and exciting argument--delivered with great verve--about
the evolution of human intelligence and language.
*Alison Jolly, Princeton University*
Fascinating theories and cogent insights into why and how we use
language, as learned from our simian relatives. Dunbar is a
psychologist at the University of Liverpool, but his lucid
Darwinian forays into the evolution of language draw widely on the
fields of anatomy, linguistics, sociology, and anthropology...An
enjoyable romp through the past few hundred thousand years. Where
else could you learn that it takes a village to grow a neocortex or
that, to reproduce the best genes, women network and men
advertise?
*Kirkus Reviews*
The "grooming" of this book's title is when primates leisurely go
over each other's fur and skin, picking and pinching in a practice
that produces not only mutual pleasure but also social bonding. The
"gossip" is supposed to be what happens when humans do much the
same thing with language. And the "evolution" gets us from one
stage to the other
So could human language have replaced grooming?
This central hypothesis is important because it involves a vision
of what language is all about; it may stand or fall on the strength
of that vision.
*The European Legacy*
Dunbar (psychology, Univ. of Liverpool) has written a provocative book about the sociology of language use. He begins with a discussion of primate behavior, physiology, and Darwinian evolution. Then he shows the importance of the theory of mind and intentionality in discussing the difference between other species of primates and Homo sapiens. He disagrees with Piaget's ideas on human development and develops a different interpretation. He explains the beginning and uses of language as grooming and gossip, highlighted by the abilities and limits of language as part of human life. In the last chapter he gives some implications of his ideas for changing and understanding social dynamics. This fascinating study is recommended for language and psychology collections.‘Gene Shaw, NYPL
At the heart of this fresh and witty book is the thesis that gossip
is the human version of primate grooming...Grooming, Gossip, and
the Evolution of Language is in many ways a wonderful book, and
its ideas deserve an airing. Mr. Dunbar is a clear thinker and a
polymath, marshaling evidence for his thesis from such varied
fields as primatology, linguistics, anthropology and genetics. --
Natalie Angier * New York Times Book Review *
If you've ever wondered why we gossip, read Dr. Robin Dunbar's
Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language. Humans are
the only primates that use language, and Dunbar theorizes that we
gossip to strengthen our social status because we can't groom each
other. -- Johanna Huden * New York Post *
Dunbar asks interesting questions, provides a fresh perspective on
an old problem and gives readers a zippy intellectual ride. -- Jo
Ann C. Gutin * The Nation *
[Dunbar's] is an intoxicating idea, somewhere between brilliant and
loopy. On the way to fleshing out this bracing thesis, Dunbar gives
us what he calls a 'magical mystery tour' of scientific
disciplines, including neurology, linguistics, evolution and
more...[H]is ideas and language can be delightful. -- John Schwartz
* Washington Post Book World *
We're chatterers and snoops, every one of us, according to this
fresh, witty book, and there's an evolutionary reason: gossip, like
primate grooming, helps cement social ties. * New York Times *
This book, which gives a deep insight into the emerging field of
evolutionary psychology, is about as smart as they come. It tackles
the related questions of brain size and the evolution of language,
and relates our love of gossip and small talk to the endless
grooming routines of other primates. It's 'Dilbert' for those who
want to know why. -- David Warsh * Boston Globe *
Robin Dunbar's Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of
Language, is a highly enjoyable speculation, in Neo-Darwinian
mode, of how and why humans came to have language. The argument of
the book is the now not unfamiliar argument that the point of
talking is being able to make small talk (the 'gossip' of the
title), and that small talk produces social cohesion and mitigates
social conflict. In other words, it does what primatologists have
long claimed grooming does for non-human primates...The book is
frequently humorous and charming, always readable, and often modest
in tone...The citations to his own and others' original research
and the review of the literature on non-human primate language and
grooming practices, are part of what make this book well suited for
a general readership, but also appropriate for a more specialized
academic and student readership. -- Charis Cussins * Journal of the
History of the Behavioral Sciences *
Dunbar has written provocative book about the sociology of language
use...[A] fascinating study. * Library Journal *
It may seem a stretch to connect the origin of speech with the
grooming behavior of baboons, but Dunbar's research has persuaded
him of such a link. This intriguing book presents his thesis, which
he formulated after noting a relationship between maximum group
size and the ratio of neocortical tissue to total brain volume.
Dunbar then extrapolates to humans, proposing 150 as the upper
range of people any one person can personally maintain
relationships with via our equivalent of grooming: gossipy
chitchat...[H]e argues the case, in evolutionary biological terms,
in an elucidating and entertaining manner. How language began
fascinates most of us, and consistently delightful are Dunbar's
excursions into paleoanthropological anatomy, exigencies of nomadic
living, philology of root languages, and the conversational styles
at cocktail parties. A relaxed, concise presentation of an evolving
theory of linguistic evolution. * Booklist *
A novel and exciting argument--delivered with great verve--about
the evolution of human intelligence and language. -- Alison Jolly,
Princeton University
Fascinating theories and cogent insights into why and how we use
language, as learned from our simian relatives. Dunbar is a
psychologist at the University of Liverpool, but his lucid
Darwinian forays into the evolution of language draw widely on the
fields of anatomy, linguistics, sociology, and anthropology...An
enjoyable romp through the past few hundred thousand years. Where
else could you learn that it takes a village to grow a neocortex or
that, to reproduce the best genes, women network and men advertise?
* Kirkus Reviews *
The "grooming" of this book's title is when primates leisurely go
over each other's fur and skin, picking and pinching in a practice
that produces not only mutual pleasure but also social bonding. The
"gossip" is supposed to be what happens when humans do much the
same thing with language. And the "evolution" gets us from one
stage to the other So could human language have replaced grooming?
This central hypothesis is important because it involves a vision
of what language is all about; it may stand or fall on the strength
of that vision. -- Anthony Pym * The European Legacy *
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