1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782937603321

Autore

Ofek Haim <1936->

Titolo

Second nature : economic origins of human evolution / / Haim Ofek [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2001

ISBN

1-107-11513-2

1-280-41897-4

0-511-17484-5

0-511-01798-7

0-511-15493-3

0-511-32853-2

0-511-75493-0

0-511-05074-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (254 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

306.3/093

Soggetti

Human evolution

Economics, Prehistoric

Commerce, Prehistoric

Economic history

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half -title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgments; 1 Introduction; Part 1 Bioeconomics; Part 2 Paleoeconomics; References; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Was exchange an early agent of human evolution or is it merely an artefact of modern civilisation? Spanning two million years of human evolution, this book explores the impact of economics on human evolution and natural history. The theory of evolution by natural selection has always relied in part on progress in areas of science outside biology. By applying economic principles at the borderlines of biology, Haim Ofek shows how some of the outstanding issues in human evolution, such as the increase in human brain size and the expansion of the environmental niche humans occupied, can be



answered. He identifies distinct economic forces at work, beginning with the transition from the feed-as-you-go strategy of primates, through hunter-gathering and the domestication of fire to the development of agriculture. This highly readable book will inform and intrigue general readers and those in fields such as evolutionary biology and psychology, economics, and anthropology.