Genesis

December 15, 2018
The acclaimed naturalist delivers a pithy summary of evidence for Darwinian evolution of human behavior.The truth of human physical evolution, although denied by many laymen, hasn't troubled scientists since the 19th century. Behavioral evolution acquired a bad reputation when social Darwinists taught that being rich or powerful showed superior fitness (Darwin disagreed). In the 1960s, Wilson (Emeritus, Evolutionary Biology/Harvard Univ.; The Origins of Creativity, 2017, etc.) became a world expert on ants, a social insect, but he broadened his sights to include social evolution in general. In 1975, he published Sociobiology (1975), which provoked a firestorm; however, once accusations of fascism died down, biologists decided that he was onto something significant. The subject is only mildly controversial today, and Wilson, a skilled writer who accessibly addresses lay audiences, explains that simple cooperation exists throughout biological systems as far back as bacteria, and plenty of advanced species show a modest degree of division of labor. Extremely few--perhaps 2 percent--have reached the highest level of "eusociality," a rare condition that "has conferred ecological dominance on land by some of the species that possess it, particularly the ants, termites, and humans." The author proceeds to deliver a magisterial history of social evolution, from clouds of midges or sparrows to the grotesqueries of ant colonies to the perhaps parallel features of human society in which childless elements (grandparents, maiden aunts, young siblings, priests, nuns, etc.) seem to participate in nurturing the next generation. Altruism turns out to be a powerful evolutionary tool when employed on a broad scale. A selfish individual prospers compared to his neighbors, but a group that cooperates always outcompetes one with selfish members.A lucid, concise overview of human evolution that mentions tools and brain power in passing but focuses on the true source of our pre-eminence: the ability to work together.

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February 1, 2019

Eminent biologist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Wilson (emeritus, Harvard Univ.; Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life) revisits a subject he's been studying for decades: the biological origin and evolution of social behavior. Focusing here on eusociality (the ultracooperative and altruistic form of social organization found in ant, bee, wasp, and termite colonies), the author describes the physical and behavioral adaptations that enabled individual organisms to form a eusocial colony and explains why only a few species among the millions on Earth have achieved it. Arguing that humans are eusocial as well, Wilson offers a scenario for how eusociality might have evolved among small groups of early humans "nesting" around a campsite. Wilson is widely recognized as an expert on insect societies, but some of his ideas are controversial and have raised the hackles of evolutionary and population biologists. Surprisingly, he makes scant reference to his critics. VERDICT A challenging read best suited for specialists in the fields of evolutionary biology and sociobiology. Popular science readers should turn to the author's more accessible work on the same topic: The Social Conquest of Earth.--Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

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January 1, 2019
Tens of thousands of extant animal species display among them almost every conceivable level of evolving social complexity, says Wilson (The Origins of Creativity, 2017), often called the father of sociobiology. A much smaller number, most of them ants, termites, bees, and wasps, but including a shrimp and the recently renowned mole rat, live in societies consisting of reproductive and nonreproductive castes. How this form of organization came about is the subject of this little book, which first discusses the six great transitions of evolution, of which the fifth is the origin of societies and the last the origin of language, and then traces general social evolution to the brink of eusociality, the highest state of insect evolution. Crucial to the broadest readership Genesis may attract is Wilson's arresting belief that more germane insight will attend the study of insect eusociality, for a plausible case can be made for eusociality in human beings. He adduces homosexuals and monastics as possible expressions of a eusocial nonreproductive caste among humans. Like virtually every one of Wilson's books, deeply informative and provocative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)