Sex at Dawn

16. Known as “geophagy,” dirt eating is common in societies around the world—especially among pregnant and lactating women. Additionally, many otherwise toxic foods containing poisonous alkaloids and tannic acids are cooked along with alkaloid-binding clays. Clay can be a rich source of iron, copper, magnesium, and calcium—all critical during pregnancy.

17. August 5, 2007.

18. http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/04/30/ millionaires-arent-sleeping-well-either/ ?section=money_topstories.

19. See Wolf et al. (1989) and Bruhn and Wolf (1979). Malcolm Gladwell (2008) also discusses Roseto.

20. Sahlins (1972), p. 37.

21. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2009/04/ the-exchange-david-plotz.html.

23. Darwin (1871/2007), p. 208.

24. For a more detailed analysis of how modern economic theory plays out (or doesn’t) among non-state societies, see Henrich et al. (2005) and Richard Lee’s chapter titled “Reflections on Primitive Communism,” in Ingold et al. (1988).

Chapter 12: The Selfish Meme (Nasty?)

1. In A Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith wrote, “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.”

2. Gowdy (1998), p. xxiv.

3. From Mill (1874).

4. New York Times, July 23, 2002, “Why We’re So Nice: We’re Wired to Cooperate.” http://www.nytimes.com/2002/ 07/23/science/

why-we-re-so-nice-we-re-wired-to-cooperate.html. For the original research, see Rilling et al. (2002).

5. We’ve drawn from an excellent analysis of Hardin’s paper by Ian Angus, which can be found at http://links.org.au/node/ 595.

6. See Ostrom (2009), for example.

8. Harris (1989), pp. 344-345.

9. Bodley (2002), p. 54.

10. Harris (1989), p. 147.

11. van der Merwe (1992), p. 372. Also see Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” (widely available online; see here, for example: http://www.awok.org/worst-mistake/).

12. Le Jeune (1897), pp. 281-283.

13. Gowdy (1998), p. 130.

14. Quoted in Menzel and D’Aluisio, p. 178.

15. Harris (1977), p. x. Also see Eaton, Shostak, and Konner (1988).

16. Gowdy (1998), p. 13.

17. Gowdy (1998), p. 23.

18. Harris (1980), p. 81.

19. Ridley (1996), p. 249.

20. See de Waal (2009) for much more on the biological origins of empathy and instinctive justice.

21. Dawkins (1998), p. 212.

22. de Waal and Johanowicz (1993).

23. Sapolsky and Share (2004). Also see Natalie Angier, “No Time for Bullies: Baboons Retool Their Culture, New York Times, April 13, 2004.

24. Boehm (1999), p. 3, 68.

25. Fromm (1973), p. 60.

26. Gowdy (1998), p. xvii.

Chapter 13: The Never-Ending Battle over Prehistoric War (Brutish?)

1. From his closing argument in the Scopes case.

2. Wade (2006), p. 151.

3. Recent studies of mitochondrial DNA suggest that even before the human migrations out of Africa that began about

60,000 years ago, human populations were largely isolated from each other for as much as 100,000 years, localized in eastern and southern Africa. Only about 40,000 years ago did these two lines reunite, becoming a single pan-African population, according to this research. See Behar et al.

(2008). Full paper available online at http://www.cell.com/ AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297%2808%2900255-3#.

4. Readers interested in further exploration of the critique of Hobbesian assumptions regarding war in prehistory could begin with Fry (2009) and Ferguson (2000).

5. Pinker’s talk was based upon an argument he presents in The Blank Slate (2002), particularly in the last few pages of the third chapter.

6. The link to Pinker’s presentation is http://www.ted.com/ index.php/talks/

steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html. You can find many other interesting presentations at this site. You might want to search Sue Savage-Rumbaugh’s talks on bonobos, for example. If you prefer to read Pinker’s remarks, an essay based upon the talk can be found at www.edge.org/ 3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html.