Reviews for Complexities: Beyond Nature and Nurture

The average rating for Complexities: Beyond Nature and Nurture based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-03-15 00:00:00 Daniel Dimauro This is a scatter-shot but nonetheless vital little collection of essays. The fact that it came out of an interdisciplinary anthropological conference may explain its hodgepodge nature. In any case, the volume generally seeks to deconstruct overly simplistic and reductionist applications of biology to the study of humanity. Evolutionary psychology and genic selectionism come in for a good bit of scrutiny here. At times, the book oversteps its bounds in service of contrarian arguments where I don't think current research supports any definite conclusions. However, this is a welcome counterbalance to pseudo-biological reasoning and frankly silly ideas (I'm looking at you, waist-to-hip ratio "research"). The essays give the reader a taste of the true complexity of both biology and culture and how the study of both yield few easy answers. Anyone in the social sciences or humanities looking to apply biological theory should read this as an inoculation against seductive evolutionary just-so stories that are all too often targeted at and uncritically cited by those in said fields.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-01-17 00:00:00 Derek Hultquist Read