Guts and brains : : an integrative approach to the hominin record / / edited by Wil Roebroeks.

• Superior document: LUP Academic
• TeilnehmendeR: Roebroeks, Wil.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Series: LUP Academic
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (277 pages) :; illustrations, maps.

The human brain and its one hundred billion neurons compose the most complex organ in the body and harness more than 20 per cent of all the energy we produce. Why do we have such large and energy-demanding brains, and how have we been able to afford such an expensive organ for thousands of years? Guts and Brains discusses the key variables at stake in such a question, including the relationship between brain size and diet, diet and social organization, and large brains and the human sexual division of labour. This interdisciplinary volume provides an entry for the reader into understanding the development of both early primates and our own species.

Waarom hebben wij zulke grote en energie-vretende hersenen? Hoe kunnen we ons zo'n duur orgaan permitteren, en hoe deden Neandertalers dat, hun brein was immers minstens zo groot als dat van de moderne mens? In deze bundel behandelen vooraanstaande onderzoekers de verwevenheid van belangrijke variabelen in deze, bijvoorbeeld de relatie tussen dieet en hersengrootte bij primaten, tussen dieet en sociale organisatie, en tussen grote, "dure" hersenen en de sexe-gebonden arbeidsverdeling bij hedendaagse jagers-verzamelaars. De bijdragen in Guts and Brains laten zien dat kleine veranderingen in het dieet van onze verre voorouders grote gevolgen hadden voor hun manier van leven en uiteindelijk ook voor die van de moderne mens. Daarmee geeft de bundel ons niet alleen een beter inzicht in de levenswijze van vroege mensachtigen maar ook in die van die eigenaardige primaat die wij Homo sapiens noemen, onze eigen soort.

Table of Contents

Guts and Brains: An Integrative Approach to the Hominin Record / Wil Roebroeks -- 2. Notes on the Implications of the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis for Human Biological and Social Evolution / Leslie C. Aiello -- Energetics and the Evolution of Brain Size in Early Homo / William R. Leondard, Marcia L. Robertson and J. Josh Snodgrass -- The Evolution of Diet, Brain and Life History among Primates and Humans / Hillard S. Kaplan [and five others] -- Why Hominins Had Big Brains / Robin I.M. Dunbar -- Ecological Hypotheses for Human Brain Evolution: Evidence for Skill and Learning Processes in the Ethnographic Literature on Hunting / Katharine MacDonald -- Haak en Steek - The Tool that Allowed Hominins to Colonize the African Savanna and to Flourish There / R. Dale Guthrie --

Women of the Middle Latitudes. The Earliest Peopling of Europe from a Female Perspective / Margherita Mussi -- The Diet of Early Hominins: Some Things We Need to Know before "Reading" the Menu from the Archaeological Record / Lewis R. Binford -- Diet Shift at the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Europe? The Stable Isotope Evidence / Michael P. Richards -- The Evolution of the Human Niche: Integrating Models with the Fossil Record / Najma Anwar, Katharine MacDonald, Wil Roebroeks, and Alexander Verpoorle.