Baboon Metaphysics The Evolution Of A Social Mind Dorothy L Cheney by Dorothy L. Cheney, Robert M. Seyfarth 9780226102436, 9780226102443, 0226102432, 0226102440 instant download after payment.

In 1838 Charles Darwin jotted in a notebook, “He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.” Baboon Metaphysics is Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth’s fascinating response to Darwin’s challenge.
            Cheney
and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they could
intimately observe baboons and their social world. Baboons live in
groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine
matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a
complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term
friendships based on careful calculations of status and individual need.
           But Baboon Metaphysics
is concerned with much more than just baboons’ social
organization—Cheney and Seyfarth aim to fully comprehend the
intelligence that underlies it. Using innovative field experiments, the
authors learn that for baboons, just as for humans, family and friends
hold the key to mitigating the ill effects of grief, stress, and
anxiety.
            Written with a scientist’s precision and a nature-lover’s eye, Baboon Metaphysics gives us an unprecedented and compelling glimpse into the mind of another species.
 “The vivid narrative is like a bush detective story.”—Steven Poole, Guardian
 
“Baboon Metaphysics is
a distillation of a big chunk of academic lives. . . . It is exactly
what such a book should be—full of imaginative experiments, meticulous
scholarship, limpid literary style, and above all, truly important
questions.”—Alison Jolly, Science
 
“Cheney and Seyfarth
found that for a baboon to get on in life involves a complicated blend
of short-term relationships, friendships, and careful status
calculations. . . . Needless to say, the ensuing political machinations
and convenient romantic dalliances in the quest to become numero uno rival the bard himself.”—Science News “Cheney and Seyfarth’s enthusiasm is obvious, and their knowledge is vast and expressed with great clarity. All this makes Baboon Metaphysics
a captivating read. It will get you thinking—and maybe spur you to
travel to Africa to see it all for yourself.”—Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature
 
“Through
ingenious playback experiments . . . Cheney and Seyfarth have worked
out many aspects of what baboons used their minds for, along with their
limitations. Reading a baboon’s mind affords an excellent grasp of the
dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the
evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence.”—Nicholas
Wade, New YorkTimes