Cooperation in Primates and Humans: Mechanisms and Evolution

Peter M. Kappeler & Carel P. van Schaik, Eds (2006)

Springer-Verlag

ISBN 3540282696 (hardback) £92.50 / $149.00 / EUR 119.95

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Cooperation is a widespread phenomenon that has been observed at basically every biological level, from molecules to groups of individuals. In the last few decades, it has received a great deal of attention because cooperation is thought to contradict the concept of maximization of individual fitness at the basis of evolutionary theory. Kin selection and reciprocal altruism, and, more recently, various additional explanations (e.g. indirect reciprocity), have been proposed to clarify the conditions under which cooperation may be evolutionarily stable. With this background in mind, Kappeler and van Schaik’s edited book aims to review the major areas of research on cooperation and to analyse its mechanisms in the primate order to understand the similarities and differences between humans and non-human primates. I can tell you right at the start of this review that they succeeded in their goals: this book presents an almost comprehensive review of the topic by some of the “silverback” scientists on cooperation.

The book is divided into six parts. The first part contains an introductory chapter on the various forms of cooperation. Kinship is the focus of the second part of the book. Interestingly, this section challenges the (too often easily accepted) view that nepotistic behaviour is usually due to kin selection by showing that other explanations are equally plausible (e.g. familiarity) and may indirectly lead to kin-biased behaviour. Joan Silk critically analyses the role of kin selection in favouring cooperation and discusses some examples of nepotistic behaviour in species with different social organisation and/or dispersal. Chapais’s chapter focuses on how competence may affect kin-biased cooperation. Reciprocity is the topic of the third part of the book. Trivers reviews the developments to the concept of reciprocal altruism occurred after his seminal paper was published more than 30 years ago. Trivers defends from recent criticisms the importance of the prisoner’s dilemma as a model to analyse cooperation and seems to reject the idea of strong reciprocity. The following three chapters analyse reciprocity among primates, mainly in chimpanzees and capuchins, and address the role of cooperation for reconciliation. The fourth part is on mutualism. Christophe Boesch and colleagues analyse cooperative hunting in various chimpanzee populations. In line with the previous chapters by Silk and Chapais, the authors suggest that cooperative hunting in chimpanzees is better explained by mutualism than by kin selection. Van Schaik and colleagues present a model for coalitions among males based on the level of despotism and the “goal” of the coalition. Next are two chapters mainly on non-primate species: Clutton-Brock focuses on cooperative breeding while König analyses non-offspring nursing in mammals using the house mice as a case study.

Having discussed the three “pillars of cooperation”, to use Kappeler and van Schaik’s words, the book moves on to its last two parts: biological markets and cooperation in humans. Barrett and Henzi define what constitutes a biological market, present the major assumptions of the theory, and provide a couple of classical examples on the market forces in baboons: grooming reciprocity and the baby market. Noë’s chapter starts by suggesting that trading may be considered a form of cooperative interaction. It then provides an excellent discussion on the evolutionary bases of human cooperation. The last two chapters of the book focuses on the importance of reputation, altruistic punishment and emotions for cooperation in humans. 

I have only two minor criticisms to make. First, I feel there is still a lot of confusion on the definition of a cooperative act, of altruism and of some of the other concepts in this area. For example, we generally tend to speak of altruism for acts that may be beneficial for both the donor and the recipient although “pure altruism” is by definition only beneficial for the donor (the reason for this practice may be that “pure altruism” may not exist at all). In light of this, I think the editors had to make sure that all the contributors used the same definitions of the terms. This would have probably avoided some small confusion as, for example, van Schaik and Kappeler define cooperation in their chapter in a slightly different way from Boesch et al.’s definition. Second, I find the title a bit misleading: with only two chapters specifically on humans (matched by two previous chapters mainly on non-primate species) this is basically a book with a strong focus on non-human primates. I imagine that by explicitly using the word “humans” in the title the editors (and/or the publisher) were trying to attract more readers with an interests in social psychology or economics. Anyway, not big faults for me as I really enjoyed reading this book: it covers almost all the major aspects of cooperation, it is always clear and well written, and references are up to date. This book would be very beneficial for higher undergraduate and postgraduate students (if they can afford the high price) and for scientists alike in primatology, psychology and behavioural ecology. 

BONAVENTURA MAJOLO

Department of Psychology, University of Lincoln