This book is a truly international collaboration, with editors based on four con- nents and first authors from Canada, France, Japan, Madagascar, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Clearly, there is something attractive about studying Lemur catta, the ringtailed lemur. Perhaps it is the lemurs themselves Why study ringtailed lemurs? Because lemurs are a separate radiation of p- mates from the monkeys, apes, and humans. Because ringtails live in the largest social groups of any known lemur and therefore offer the closest comparison with other social primates, including ourselves. And...

Alison Jolly believes that biologists have an important story to tell about being human - not the all-too-familiar tale of selfishness, competition, and biology as destiny but rather one of cooperation and interdependence, from the first merging of molecules to the rise of a species inextricably linked by langauge, culture, and group living. This is the story that unfolds in this book, the saga of human evolution as told by a world-renowned primatologist who works among the female-dominant ringtailed lemurs of Madagascar.

This book is a truly international collaboration, with editors based on four con- nents and first authors from Canada, France, Japan, Madagascar, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Clearly, there is something attractive about studying Lemur catta, the ringtailed lemur. Perhaps it is the lemurs themselves Why study ringtailed lemurs? Because lemurs are a separate radiation of p- mates from the monkeys, apes, and humans. Because ringtails live in the largest social groups of any known lemur and therefore offer the closest comparison with other social primates, including ourselves. And...

Madagascar is home to one of the world's greatest concentration of biodiversity--but that biodiversity is also among the most threatened on the planet. For decades, conservationists from the developed world have been working to protect those riches, for the earth and for the people of Madagascar. This diary from the late Alison Jolly, who was one of the leading figures in that movement, captures the successes and failures of those efforts, as well as the complicated, fundamental questions that they raise.

Offering a rich account of the lives of people who live on Madagascar, and the...