The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature

462 Pages·2001·2.08 MB·English

by  Geoffrey Miller

Acclaim for Geoffrey Miller's
THE MATING MIND
"Miller is an extremely talented writer, and he has produced a
beautifully written book that is a genuine pleasure to read. The
strength of this work, however, goes well beyond style. Miller has
ambitiously described a scenario that provides insight into a
number of puzzles about the human mind." —Science
"Fascinating.... This book will be intriguing even to readers with
only a superficial knowledge of evolutionary biology."
—The Washington Post Book World
"A brilliant and seductive book. It will sweep you off your feet.
And, when you come to earth again, you'll find yourself seeing
the human mind and its most prized creations with new eyes."
—Nicholas Humphrey, New School for Social Research
"This elegant, original, and lucid book is beguiling testimony to
its own thesis: a fitting new feather in our cultural cap."
—Helena Cronin, London School of Economics
"Miller is the real thing, and his wonderfully readable book should
be read by everyone with a taste for serious ideas."
—The Independent (London)
"A refined, an intellectually ingenious, and a very civilized discus
sion of the possible importance of sexual selection for mental
evolution."
—John Constable, Cambridge University,
in Psychology, Evolution, and Gender
"Entertaining and wide-ranging." —Nerve
"Flies in the face of evolutionary orthodoxy—proposed by
Stephen Jay Gould and others—which suggests that culture
evolves on its own, separate from the evolution of the human
mind." —The Observer (London)
"Witty, well-argued. . . . Ultimately, Miller is arguing for a com-
monsense view of the evolution of human nature."
—The Times (London)
"Anyone who thinks evolutionary theory is stuffy should pick up
The Mating Mind. Geoffrey Miller sets our usual assumptions
about human intelligence—that natural selection alone is re
sponsible—on its head."
—Meredith Small, author of What's Love Got to Do with It?
"Erudite, lucid, and ambitious." —Mirabella
"Written with grace and wit while conveying a new and world-
changing scientific theory . . . Miller's prose is as fluent, clever
and epigrammatic as a good novelist's. At the very least what he
has done is to find a place for beauty, waste and extravagance in
science." —Matt Ridley, The Sunday Telegraph (London)
"Consistently penetrating and ingenious . . . mixing outstanding
sober exposition of the mechanisms of sexual selection with spec
ulations about its role in our capacities for morality, language, and
creativity that range from deep to wild." —Financial Times
Geoffrey Miller
The Mating Mind
Geoffrey Miller is an evolutionary psychologist at
the London School of Economics and at UCLA,
where he teaches animal communication and
marketing. Born in 1965 in Cincinnati, he studied
at Columbia University and received a Ph.D. in
cognitive psychology from Stanford University.
After moving to Europe, he worked at the
Universities of Sussex and Nottingham, at the
Max Planck Institute in Munich, and at University
College London. He lives with his family in
Surrey, England and Los Angeles.
.
THE MATING MIND

THE
MATING
M I ND
How Sexual Choice Shaped
the Evolution of Human Nature
Geoffrey Miller
A N C H OR B O O KS
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, APRIL 2001
Copyright © 2000 by Geoffrey Miller
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor
Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously
in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally
published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division
of Random House, Inc., in 2000.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks
of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Doubleday edition as follows:
Miller, Geoffrey F.
The mating mind: how sexual choice shaped the evolution
of human nature / Geoffrey Miller.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-385-49516-1
Includes bibliographical references (p. 467-489) and index.
1. Human evolution. 2. Mate selection—History.
3. Intellect. 4. Brain—Evolution. I. Tide
GN281.4M53 2000
306.82'01—dc21 00-22673
CIP
Anchor ISBN: 0-385-49517-X
Author photograph ©Jerry Bauer
www.anchorbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
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