One of the strengths of scientific inquiry is that it can progress with any mixture of empiricism,
intuition, and formal theory that suits the convenience of the investigator. Many sciences …

Present conditions and selection pressures are irrelevant to the present design of organisms
and do not explain how or why organisms behave adaptively, when they do. To whatever …

Economic theory is currently at a crossroads, where many leading mainstream economists
are calling for a more realistic and practical orientation for economic science. Indeed, many …

A few years back, I (Levenson, 1994) tried to answer the question:``What are the functions of
emotion?''The opening paragraph (p. 123) of my response still captures the essence of my …

Two contrasting positions on the nature of race and ethnicity have been taken or at least,
have been implicit, in the literature. Some scholars have viewed ethnic and racial group …

In this paper I suggest that play is a distinctive behavioural category whose adaptive
significance calls for explanation. Play primarily affords juveniles practice toward the …

Culture is the ongoing product of the evolved psyches of individual humans living in groups.
Progress in our understanding of culture as a phenomenon depends on progress in …

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of evolutionary theory and
archaeology. If evolution is taken to mean what it does in the sciences, it has yet to be …

In most social species, position in the male social hierarchy and reproductive success are
positively correlated; in humans, however, this relationship is less clear, with studies of …

Drawing on evidence from the sciences, Masters (government, Dartmouth College) explores
the idea that politics is a natural phenomenon with many parallels in the natural world …