Games Primates Play

Most humans don't realize that when they exchange emails with someone, anyone,

they are actually exhibiting certain unspoken rules about dominance and

hierarchy. The same rules regulate the exchange of grooming behavior in rhesus

macaques or chimpanzees. Interestingly, some of the major aspects of human

nature have profound commonalities with our ape ancestors: the violence of

war, the intensity of love, the need to live together.While we often assume

that our behavior in everyday situations reflects our unique personalities,

the choices we freely make, or the influences of our environment, we rarely

consider that others behave in these situations in almost the exact the same

way as we do. In "Games Primates Play," primatologist Dario Maestripieri

examines the curious unspoken customs that govern our behavior. These patterns

and customs appear to be motivated by free will, yet they are so similar from

person to person, and across species, that they reveal much more than our

selected choices.

"Games Primates Play" uncovers our evolutionary legacy: the subtle codes that

govern our behavior are the result of millions of years of evolution,

predating the emergence of modern humans. To understand the rules that govern

primate games and our social interactions, Maestripieri arms readers with

knowledge of the scientific principles that ethologists, psychologists,

economists, and other behavioral scientists have discovered in their quest to

unravel the complexities of behavior. As he realizes, everything from how we

write emails to how we make love is determined by the legacy of our primate

roots and the conditions that existed so long ago.

An idiosyncratic and witty approach to our deep and complex origins, "Games

Primates Play" reveals the ways in which our primate nature drives so much of

our lives.