Custom-designed course: pay bit more attention to ideas of self and how they might play into sociobiological assumptions of selfish, autonomous actors. In t his course we'll be looking at arguments about human nature -- is there one, wha t might it be, how did it arise, what determines it; minor stuff like that.

Books:
• de Waal, F. (1996) Good Natured: the origins of right and wrong in humans and other animals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

• Weingart, P., Richerson, P. J., & Mitchell, S. D. (1997) Human by Nature: between biology and the social sciences. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Wrangham, R. W., & Peterson, D. (1996) Demonic Males: apes and the origins of human violence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

  Recommended:

• Betzig, L. (1997) Human Nature: a critical reader New York: Oxford University Press.
• Sussman, R. W. (1997) The Biological Basis of Human Nature. Needham, MA: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing.

  WEEK ONE: Overview: Instinct & biological [non]determinism
  Goldsmith, T. H. (1991) The Biological Roots of Human Nature: forging links between evolution and behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. Excerpts
  Platt, J. R. (1964) "Strong Inference", Science 146: 347-353.

  WEEK TWO: Human nature in the social sciences
  Human by Nature general intro and chapters 1 (historical context) and 7 (behavioral ecological anthropology)

  WEEK THREE: Sex and Gender -- best (comparative) evidence for action of "nature" in human behavior/society
  D'Andrade, R. G. (1966) "Sex differences and cultural institutions", pp. 174-204 IN Maccoby, E. E. (ed.) The Development of Sex Differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  Fausto-Sterling, A. (1993) "The five sexes: why male and female are not enough." The Sciences. 33: 20-25.
  Gaulin, S. J. C. (1995) "Does evolutionary theory predict sex differences in the brain." pp. 1211-1225 IN Gazzaniga, M. S. (ed.) The Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  Maccoby, E. E., & Jacklin, C. N. (1983) Summary and commentary. (reprinted from The Psychology of Sex Differences) pp. 102-109 IN Zak, M. W. (ed.) Women and the Politics of Culture. New York: Longman.

  WEEK FOUR: More Human by Nature
  chapter 2 (sociopolitics), intro to Part III and chapters 9 (cultural evolution) & 10 (cultural phylogenies)

  WEEK FIVE: Units of Selection
  D. S. Wilson articles from American Naturalist and Behavioral and Brain Sciences

  WEEK SIX: Sexuality and the Family
  Leavitt, G. C. (1990) "Sociobiological explanations of incest avoidance: a critical review of evidential claims." American Anthropologist 92: 971-993 .
  Moore, J. (1992) "Sociobiology and incest avoidance: a critical look at a critical review." American Anthropologist 94: 930-933.
  Spain, D. H. (1987) "The Westermarck-Freud incest-theory debate." Current Anthropology 28: 623-645.
  Spiro, M. E. (1994) "Is the Oedipus complex universal?" pp. 72-106 IN Kilborne, B., & Langness, L. L. (eds.) Culture and Human Nature: theoretical papers of Melford E. Spiro New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

  WEEK SEVEN: Aggression & Hierarchy
  Smuts, B. (1995) "The evolutionary origins of patriarchy." Human Nature 6: 1-31.
  Wrangham, R. W., & Peterson, D. (1996) Demonic Males: apes and the origins of human violence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
  Wrangham, R. W. (1995) "The biology of violence." New Yorker 3/13/1995: 67-77.

  WEEK EIGHT: Morality and Prosocial Behavior
  Boyd, R. "Cooperation" -- Richerson & Boyd, manuscript
  de Waal, F. (1996) Good Natured: the origins of right and wrong in humans and other animals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  Trivers, R. L. (1971) "The evolution of reciprocal altruism." Quarterly Review of Biology 46: 35-57.

  WEEK NINE: Perspectives on "The Self"
  Student presentation on the self in cross-cultural perspective
  Gallup, G. (1998) "Self-awareness and the evolution of social intelligence." Behavioural Processes 42: 239-247.
  Mauss, M. (1938) "A Category of the Human Mind: the notion of person, the notion of 'self'." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 68: 263-281.
  Neisser, U. (1988) "Five kinds of self-knowledge." Philosophical Psychology 1(1): 35-59.
  Parker, S. T. (1997) "A general model for the adaptive function of self-knowledge in animals and humans." Consciousness and Cognition 6: 75-86.
  Shweder, R. A., & Bourne, E. J. (1984) "Does the concept of the person vary cross-culturally?" pp. 158-199 IN Shweder, R. A., & LeVine, R. A. (eds.) Culture Theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion New York: Cambridge University Press.
  Simmel, G. (1990) The Philosophy of Money Tom Bottomore & David Frisby (trans.). David Frisby (ed.) [Originally published as Philosophie des Geldes (1900, revised 1907).]
  Wilson, D. S., & Sober, E. (1994) "Reintroducing group selection to the human behavioral sciences." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17: 585-654.

  WEEK TEN: Conclusion

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  Created: 25 July 2000.
  Last updated: 25 July 2000.

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