Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind by Dorothy L. Cheney
Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind by Dorothy L. Cheney
English | May 15, 2007 | ISBN: 0226102432 | 361 Pages | PDF | 3 MB
English | May 15, 2007 | ISBN: 0226102432 | 361 Pages | PDF | 3 MB
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.