412 BOOK REVIEWS

tor-descendant relationships while never- theless continuing to refer to cladistic schemes as phylogenies.

In my estimation, one of Szalay’s more val- uable attainments in this chapter is his ex- plicit reintroduction of William King Gregory’s paired concepts of heritage and ha- bitus as a major part of the theoretical under- pinning of a functional-adaptive approach. It is surely time that the genetic implications of this conceptual framework were explored as fully as have been the functional-anatom- ical ones, and both integrated into a more dynamic study of evolutionary morphology.

Physical anthropologists interested by Sza- lay’s chapter should also find material of con- siderable interest in Hinchliffe and Hecht’s juxtaposition of embryological and paleonto- logical evidence on homology of the bird wing skeleton. By studying natural patterns of tis- sue necrosis during development the investi- gators were able to gain strong evidence for the disappearance of digit 1, and hence they favor the hypothesis that the remaining three digital elements represented in the wings of modern birds are homologous with 2, 3, and 4 of the primitive tetrapod limb rather than with 1,2, and 3 as proposed by many paleon- tologists. Readers with morphogenetic inter- ests should find the techniques discussed to be of considerable value.

An ecomorphological approach is employed by Blonde1 et al. in their study of the causes for community convergence among Mediter- ranean bird communities. Their investiga- tion led to a rejection of the hypothesis that the community resemblances were due to ecologically mediated convergence and to the suggestion that such resemblances as existed might reflect more in the way of shared an- cestry. Primate ecologists might find both the methodological approaches employed here to be of possible use.

Murray’s attempt to develop a general de- mographic theory for the evolution of mating systems should attract the interest of demog- raphers and primate sociobiologists, since a major problem he addresses concerns how

sex ratios affect other life history parame- ters. Aspects of his theory treat the evolution of monogamy, sexual dimorphism, and a wide range of other aspects of biology and behav- ior that may be constrained by demographic influences.

Bock‘s analysis of interspecific hybridiza- tion in Drosophila reports a very high level of interspecific fertility under laboratory con- ditions; with only about 300 of the approxi- mately 1,500 species of these flies raised in captivity, there are 266 known instances of interspecific hybridization involving 191 dif- ferent species. Systematists and those inter- ested in evolutionary dynamics might profitably read this excellent review article and compare it with the similarly extensive tabulations of primate hybrids compiled by the Italian anthropological geneticist Bru- netto Chiarelli over the past two decades. Both bodies of work provide very substantial data unsupportive of the trendy theory of punctuated equilibrium.

In closing, I will refer briefly to Hoffman’s review of species selection, which focuses on the question of whether that concept repre- sents, to use his formulation of the problem, myth or reality. Those physical anthropolo- gists who closely follow current debates in the general realm of evolutionary biology will recognize Hoffman’s subject as part of the larger debate over whether macroevolution is or is not decoupled from microevolution. The general issue is advanced relatively lit- tle, if at all, by this chapter, largely because of definitional problems. The author himself touches on this difficulty. Perhaps it is only in the context of the other, more empirically oriented papers that Hoffman’s essay comes off as less appealing than it might have in a different setting. In any case, the volume is a worthwhile addition to any reference library.

ROBERT B. ECKHARDT Department of Anthropology The Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania

HUMAN NATURE: DARWIN’S VIEW. By A. Al- land, Jr. New York: Columbia University Press. 1985. x + 242 pp., index. $25.00 (cloth). Although Charles Darwin harbored a deep

and lasting commitment to the notion of the physical and psychic unity of the human spe-

cies, his earlier anthropological encounters during the voyage of the Beagle had served to reinforce a growing conviction in the ap- parent reality of the mental and moral racial differences among human beings. This, along with the internal logic of his own arguments for evolution, pushed him increasingly in a

BOOK REVIEWS 413

racialist direction-though few scholars would argue that Darwin was a racist in the conventional sense of the word.

In this edited work, Alexander Alland has extracted relevant anthropological passages from three of Darwin’s published works in an attempt to reveal more clearly his atti- tude toward race and related issues. These anthropological excerpts are from the follow- ing texts: Journal of Researches [into the Ge- ology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. from 1832-18361 (1836; selection from the second, revised, John Murray edition of 1845); The Descent of Man [and Selection in Relation to Sex] (first published in 1871 as a two-volume work; selection from the revised, one-volume edition of 1874); and The Expression of the Emotions [in Man and Animals] (first pub- lished in 1872; selection from the revised John Murray edition of 1890). These selec- tions are arranged and presented chronolog- ically without annotation under their appro- priate source titles (incomplete, as indicated by the notation above) as individual sections (pp. 29-135; 137-201; 203-238, respectively). The entire collection is prefaced by an intro- ductory essay (pp. 3-26).

In explaining the complexity and inconsis- tency in Darwin’s anthropological views, Al- land focuses on the inherent contradictions in the three major sources that shaped Dar- win’s ideas, namely, his experiences during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle; his subsequent readings on race; and the exigencies of his theory of natural selection. Although the Or- igin of Species prepared the way for the prop- osition that the human species had emerged by a natural process of evolution from an animal ancestor, there were still a number of philosophical obstacles with which Darwin had to wrestle. For example: Could a moral sense evolve out of animal habits and in- stincts? Were speech and the faculties of hu- man reason merely an incremental advance over simpler forms of animal communica- tion? While Darwin belived them to be so, the case made for this proposition was com- plicated and frequently discursive. It re- quired a variety of evidence much of it drawn from fields with which he had extensive, firsthand knowledge, such as comparative anatomy, paleontology, andembryology. How- ever, since human beings were cultural ani- mals, Darwin was ultimately obliged to rest his case on the authority of others whose

anthropological data were more difficult to evaluate. Thus, as Alland notes, there are often some marked differences between the views indicated in Darwin’s Journal and his later anthropological texts. These inconsis- tencies, Alland correctly suggests, have their origin in Darwin’s inability to disengage himself completely from the claims of then current anthropological thinking. Although Alland raises many of these and other issues connected with Darwin’s debt to anthropol- ogical thinking of his times, they are not developed in a easily identifiable historical framework. In this regard, he presumes that his readers are already familiar with the de- tails of Darwin’s seminal voyage on H.M.S. Beagle and, more importantly, the historical context in which his anthropological obser- vations therein were subsequently formu- lated. As such he misses an opportunity to discuss the development of Darwin’s anthro- pological thinking between the publication of Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871). Here a brief discussion of A.R. Wallace’s influence on Darwin’s thinking about natural and sexual selection in the mid 1860s (see Greene, 1977) would have been instructive; for, where initially they had shared similar views, by the early 1870s they were defending significantly different posi- tions. The developing split between Wallace and Darwin thus tells us much about the emerging configuration of anthropology dur- ing the remainder of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, while Alland’s essay is intrins- ically interesting, many of his ideas and ar- guments are frequently either left undevel- oped or hurriedly presented. A case in point is his account of Darwin’s encounter with the Fuegians and his reference to the old myth of Patagonian giants. Here Alland argues, and correctly so, that Darwin’s use of this ancient image in his description of Fuegians was simply an analogy and was not indica- tive (as some scholars have claimed) of his failure to distinguish between fact and fic- tion. Indeed, as Alland continually reminds the reader, Darwin was a good and reliable observer, even when dealing with people from different cultures, and was seemingly capa- ble in many instances of overcoming the ac- cepted prejudices of his day. However, in presenting this issue, Alland provides little in the way of background information to this myth and makes it impossible for the general reader to understand fully the issues in- volved. What information he does provide is

414 BOOK REVIEWS

presented largely in the form of quotations from James Boon’s book Other Tribes, Other Scribes. For example, he cites Boon’s conten- tion that physical gigantism among Patagon- ians was both discredited and disproved by the naval explorer John Narbrough [1640- 16881 in 1670, but Alland does not go on to indicate that this issue was far from dead either in the popular or scientific imagination.

Another interesting and major focus of Al- land‘s introductory essay is the question of Darwin’s attitude toward the application of his evolutionary theory to social, historical, and political events, namely, what became known as social Darwinism Some scholars contend that Darwin was a social Darwinist, while others argue to the contrary. If I am reading Alland correctly, he favors a position somewhere between the two extremes, not- ing the absence of any strong advocacy of laissez-faire politics in Darwin’s writings. Al- though a book review is not the place to argue a position, I nevertheless think that Alland could have presented a n even stronger case to demonstrate Darwin’s dis- tate for what Tennyson had called “Nature, red in tooth and claw” (p. 80). Although Dar- win had employed such terms as “warfare in nature,” “the struggle for survival,” and even Herbert Spencer’s aphorism “the sur- vival of the fittest” in the Origin of Species (see pp. 45-47,59-60), the underlying theme of The Descent of Man runs counter, so I believe, to the general thesis of social Dar- winism. Throughout this work, as well as The Expression of the Emotions (which inci- dentally was originally conceived as a part of The Desceng, Darwin is struggling with the problem of freeing himself from the clutches of social Darwinism, claiming that coopera- tion had been and remains a principal factor in the evolution of the human species. In short, Darwin was endeavoring to be a Dar-

winist, without being a social Darwinist. While finding the idea behind Alland’s

book a most attractive and worthwhile one, I do not think it has been fully realized. First, I think, given the nature of the work, Al- land’s introductory essay should have been more rigorously cast and cross-referenced with the extracts from Darwin’s texts. Also the pedagogic value of this essay would have been increased by a more complete bibliog- raphy. In its present form, Alland cites only seven references, which are hardly sufficient to sustain a critical and inquiring student. Furthermore, I think each of the selections extracted from Darwin’s ’three texts would have benefitted from a short historical intro- duction, as well as annotations. Although the entire collection is supplied with an index, it is by no means comprehensive and goes little beyond the indexes found in the originals. Finally, while there is probably no book that can boast of being completely devoid of typo- graphical errors, this work contains more than its fair share (particularly the introduc- tory essay), which further detracts from the work’s authority. FRANK SPENCER Department of Anthropology Queens College of the City University of New York Flushing, New York

LITERATURE CITED

Boon, J (1982) Other Tribes, Other Scribes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Darwin, C (1859) On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Westport, CT: Easton F’ress, 1976 reprint of 1859 edition.

Greene, JC (1977) Darwin as a social evolutionist. J. Hist. Biol. I0:1-27.

Tennyson, Lord A (1982) In Memoriam. In S Shatto and M Shaw (eds): Tennyson’s In Memoriam. Oxford, Eng- land CIarendom Press.

BOOKS RECEIVED Hall, RL (ed.) (1985) Male-Female Differ-

ences. New York: Praeger. 309 pp. $32.95 (cloth).

Harris, M (1986) Good to Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster. 289 pp. $17.95 (cloth).

Simons, RC, and Hughes, CC (1985) The Cul- tureBound Syndromes. Dordecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing. (Distributed by Klu- wer Academic Publishers, Hingham, MA).

Smuts. RB (19851 Sex and Friendship in Ba-

boons. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine. 303 pp. $34.95 (cloth).

Thompson, EA (1986) Pedigree Analysis in Human Genetics. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 213 pp. $35.00 (cloth).

Tobias, PV (1984) Dart, Taung and the ‘Miss- ing Link. ’ Johannesburg, South Africa: Witwatersrand University Press. 67 pp. No price available (paper).

Tobias, PV (ed.) (1985) Hominid Evolution: Past, Present and Future. New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc. 530 pp. $38.00 (cloth).