Sociobiology: The New Synthesis

TLDR

Sociobiology studies the biological foundations of social behavior across species, addressing how cooperation, competition, and diverse social patterns arise. The book compiles material to answer fundamental questions about the origins and mechanisms of social behavior. It presents chapters on social evolution, population biology, group selection, communication, territoriality, dominance, and parental care, covering organisms from microbes to mammals.

Abstract

"Sociobiology is... the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior," explains the author, professor of zoology at Harvard. Although a new discipline, sociobiology is obviously an important, interesting subject, covering a wide field. And this remarkable book covers the field very well. How do members of a species relate to each other, how do they cooperate, how do they compete? Why have so many different patterns of social behavior developed? Are the behaviors genetically determined, learned, or the result of chance? When and why do altruism, aggression, male dominance, caste systems, parasitism, slavery, self-sacrifice occur in the animal kingdom? In this book is gathered a wealth of material to answer many of these questions. Extensive chapters are devoted to social evolution, population biology, group selection, communication, territoriality, dominance, parental care. Then the various types of organisms— microorganisms, insects, cold-blooded vertebrates, birds, and several kinds of mammals—are discussed