The fruit, the tree, and the serpent : why we see so well / Lynne A. Isbell.

By:

Isbell, Lynne A

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009.Description: 1 online resource (xi, 207 pages) : illustrations, mapsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780674054042
0674054040

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Fruit, the tree, and the serpent.DDC classification:

599.93/8 22

LOC classification:

GN281.4 .I82 2009eb

NLM classification:

2009 F-827
GN 281.4

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Primate Biogeography -- Why Did Primates Evolve? -- Primate Vision -- Origins of Modern Predators -- Vision and Fear-- Venomous Snakes and Anthropoid Primates -- Why Only Primates? -- Testing the Snake Detection Theory -- Epilogue : Implications for Humans.

Action note:

digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve

Summary: The worldwide prominence of snakes in religion, myth, and folklore underscores our deep connection to the serpent -- but why, when so few of us have firsthand experience? The surprising answer, this book suggests, may lie in the singular impact of snakes on primate evolution. Predation pressure from snakes, Lynne Isbell tells us, is ultimately responsible for the superior vision and large brains of primates -- and for a critical aspect of human evolution. Drawing on extensive research, Isbell further speculates how snakes could have influenced the development of a distinctively human behavior: our ability to point for the purpose of directing attention. A social activity (no one points when alone) dependent on fast and accurate localization, pointing would have reduced deadly snake bites among our hominin ancestors. It might have also figured in later human behavior: snakes, this book eloquently argues, may well have given bipedal hominins, already equipped with a non-human primate communication system, the evolutionary nudge to point to communicate for social good, a critical step toward the evolution of language, and all that followed. --publisher description.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Materials specified	Status	Date due	Barcode
Electronic-Books	OPJGU Sonepat- Campus	E-Books EBSCO			Available

Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-199) and index.

Print version record.

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The worldwide prominence of snakes in religion, myth, and folklore underscores our deep connection to the serpent -- but why, when so few of us have firsthand experience? The surprising answer, this book suggests, may lie in the singular impact of snakes on primate evolution. Predation pressure from snakes, Lynne Isbell tells us, is ultimately responsible for the superior vision and large brains of primates -- and for a critical aspect of human evolution. Drawing on extensive research, Isbell further speculates how snakes could have influenced the development of a distinctively human behavior: our ability to point for the purpose of directing attention. A social activity (no one points when alone) dependent on fast and accurate localization, pointing would have reduced deadly snake bites among our hominin ancestors. It might have also figured in later human behavior: snakes, this book eloquently argues, may well have given bipedal hominins, already equipped with a non-human primate communication system, the evolutionary nudge to point to communicate for social good, a critical step toward the evolution of language, and all that followed. --publisher description.

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2011. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL

http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212

digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL

English.

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