Second Nature: Economic Origins of Human Evolution (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521625340)

This book spans two million years of human evolution and explores the impact of economics on human evolution and natural history. The theory of evolution by natural selection has always relied in part on progress in areas of science outside of biology. By applying economic principles at the borderlines of biology, Haim Ofek shows how some of the outstanding issues in human evolution, such as the increase in human brain size and the expansion of the environmental niche humans occupied, can be answered. He identifies distinct economic forces at work, beginning with the transition from the feed-as-you-go strategy of primates, through hunter-gathering and the domestication of fire to the development of agriculture. This highly readable book will inform and intrigue general readers and those in fields such as evolutionary biology and psychology, economics, and anthropology.

Author: Haim Ofek
ISBN-10: 0521625343
ISBN-13: 9780521625340
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/25/2001
Pages: 268
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.87lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.61d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2002 pg. 146