|
A
Missing Piece of By
Amotz and Avishag Zahavi English edition:
Naama Zahavi-Ely and Melvin Patrick Ely Ever since Darwin, the extravagance in animal
displays--elaborate mating rituals, lavish decorative displays, complex
songs, calls, and dances--has fascinated and perplexed human observers. The Handicap Principle offers a
unifying theory that brilliantly explains many previously baffling aspects of
animal signaling and endows human behaviors with surprising new
significance. The Handicap Principle illuminates an astonishing
variety of behaviors in animals ranging from amebas and ants to peacocks,
gazelles, and humans. Essentially, the
Zahavis assert that for animal signals to be effective, they must be reliable,
and to be reliable they must impose a cost, or handicap, on the
signaler. When a gazelle sights a
wolf, for example, it jumps high into the air several times before it flees;
the gazelle is signaling, in a reliable way, that it has seen the wolf and is
in good enough physical condition to escape the predator. A human parallel occurs in children’s games
of tag, in which faster players will often taunt their pursuer before running
away. By momentarily handicapping
itself--expending precious time and energy in a display of prowess--the
animal (or human) underscores the truthfulness of its signal and spares both
prey and predator the exhaustion of a pointless chase. In a similar way, the enormous cost a
peacock incurs by carrying elaborate and heavy tail feathers, which interfere
with movement and flight, reliably communicates its quality and thus its
desirability as a mate. One of the book’s most important applications of the
Handicap Principle is to the evolutionary enigma of animal altruism. The authors show that, when one animal
helps another, it handicaps itself--takes a risk or endures a sacrifice--not
mainly to benefit its kin or social group, but rather to increase its own
prestige within the group and thus signal its desirability as a partner or
its power as a rival. The Zahavis discuss the ways the Handicap Principle
works in human social life, touching on subjects as diverse as body features,
the evolution of art, verbal language versus nonverbal communication, and the
role of sex in testing the social bond.
Homosexuality, human altruistic drives, and suicidal behavior are all
explained within the framework of evolution.
Elegantly and accessibly translated and enlivened with
vivid examples and captivating illustrations, The Handicap Principle conveys
to the nonspecialist reader perhaps the most important advance in the study
of animal behavior to appear in the last several decades. The book allows us not only to hear what
animals are saying to each other--and to understand why they are saying
it--but also to gain a richer understanding of the forces guiding human
behavior. To see
more information about The Handicap Principle, read an excerpt, or
order the book click
here.
|
|
Praise Click
here for
more from reviews. “Revolutionary
and controversial . . . . Read this
fine book, and discover what the excitement is all about!” --Jared
M. Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel “This
fascinating, provocative, insightful, and controversial book will charm,
inform, and sometimes infuriate.” --Paul
Ekman, Professor of Psychology, “Elegantly
written, exhaustively researched, and consistently enlivened by equal
measures of insight and example.” --Ingram “Highly
readable yet rigorous enough for specialists.” --Bruce
D. Neville, Library Journal “Fills
a rare niche . . . . scientific ideas are presented in a clear and interesting
way.” --Walter
J. Bock, BioScience |
