In 1838 Charles Darwin jotted in a notebook, He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke. "Baboon Metaphysics "is DorothyL.Cheney and Robert M.Seyfarth s fascinating response to Darwin s challenge.
Cheney and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana s Okavango Delta, where they could intimately observe baboons and their social world. Baboons live in groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term friendships based on...

Cheney and Seyfarth enter the minds of vervet monkeys and other primates to explore the nature of primate intelligence and the evolution of cognition.

"This reviewer had to be restrained from stopping people in the street to urge them to read it: They would learn something of the way science is done, something about how monkeys see their world, and something about themselves, the mental models they inhabit."--Roger Lewin, Washington Post Book World

"A fascinating intellectual odyssey and a superb summary of where science stands."--Geoffrey Cowley, Newsweek

"A...

In 1838 Charles Darwin jotted in a notebook, "He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke." Baboon Metaphysics is Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth's fascinating response to Darwin's challenge.
Cheney and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta, where they could intimately observe baboons and their social world. Baboons live in groups of up to 150, including a handful of males and eight or nine matrilineal families of females. Such numbers force baboons to form a complicated mix of short-term bonds for mating and longer-term friendships...