Review: [Untitled] STOR ? 
Reviewed Work(s): 
Prosocial Behavior: Theory and Research, by Daniel Bar-Tal 
Mary Jane West Eberhard 
The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 52, No. 3. (Sep., 1977), p. 329. 
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SEPTEMBER  1977] NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 329 
manipulation" (in the general sense of Trivers) may 
play a role, or that there is a possible role for selfish 
behavior (the reverse of altruism). For example: 
Sahlins argues that if kin-selection were operative, 
human groups should not exchange members, since it 
would benefit an individual to be near his or her own 
relatives. While true in its simplest form, this conten- 
tion fails to address the issue of possible losses (in 
terms of fitness) associated with inbreeding. To argue 
as a sociobiologist, perhaps there is some optimal bal- 
ance between loss in fitness due to inbreeding and 
gains from helping relatives. Actually the problem is 
not restricted to humans. A sister who mates with a 
brother passes "her" genes via herself and her sib. If 
she causes the brother no loss in fitness (through 
access to other females), all would seem to gain in the 
action. However, the widespread occurrence of out- 
breeding in nature argues that inbreeding depression 
is an important selective force countering incest (I 
thank J. Maynard Smith for this thought). By taking a 
very simple view of kin-selection, Sahlins reaches a 
rather final conclusion. I suggest that this conclusion 
is not justified by his analysis. 
A critique of his chapter on natural selection must 
focus on one major facet. He criticizes natural selec- 
tion as a viewpoint, but he ignores the wealth of 
theory and data which uphold its usefulness ? Lack's 
theory of clutch size, Fisher's sex-ratio theory, the 
Orians-Verner model for polygamy ? many more 
could be cited. It is as if Sahlins elected to ignore most 
of Wilson's book and all of the evidence bearing upon 
natural selection applied to organisms. If biologists 
may be rightfully accused of claiming too much for 
sociobiology as applied to humans, Sahlins is clearly 
open to the criticism of misunderstanding how socio- 
biology applies to biology. 
On the whole, I found this book unconvincing. As 
stated in the author's introduction, the book was writ- 
ten in a hurry because the author feared that 
sociobiology would soon disappear as a science, to live 
on as some form of pop culture. Given the amount of 
work now under way in various laboratories, these 
predictions seem rather unlikely. Nevertheless, I 
hope Sahlins' book is widely read, since it points out 
the complexity of human social structure which in- 
deed requires explanation. Perhaps the most impor- 
tant contribution the book makes is in the area of 
methodology. Quotations from Jean-Paul Sartre, 
Thomas Hobbes, or Karl Marx (in Chapters 1 and 4) 
will not settle the question of how useful sociobiology 
is as a viewpoint for analyzing human behavior. 
Sociobiology, in its application to humans, will suc- 
ceed or fail depending upon the insights it provides: 
most of the work is yet to be done. 
ERIC L. CHARNOV, Biology, University of Utah 
PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR; THEORY AND RESEARCH. 
By Daniel Bar-Tal. Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, 
Washington and London; John Wiley & Sons, New York. 
$12.50. x + 197 p.; ill.; author and subject indexes. 
1976. 
This book could be subtided, "Psychology for 
Sociobiologists." It deals with "prosocial" behavior 
(reciprocity and altruism) in humans, and seems a 
diligent summary of these topics as treated in social 
psychology, not venturing outside that field except to 
cite a few articles in journals of sociology. 
Sociobiologists will find this book useful as a starting 
point for cross-disciplinary synthesis, and as a remin- 
der that man is by far the most studied social or- 
ganism. This is the largest available monograph on 
the central themes of sociobiological thought available 
for any single species. Costs and benefits of prosocial 
behavior are elaborately analyzed, but kinship, an- 
other of the cornerstones of sociobiological theory, is 
scarcely mentioned and evidently plays a very minor 
role in psychological explanations of altruism. It is to 
be hoped that future research will show whether this 
striking difference in approach reflects real differ- 
ences in the nature of human vs. non-human sociality, 
or, as seems more likely, differences in the conceptual 
traditions of the two fields, which have developed in 
nearly perfect isolation from each other. Bar-Tal's 
extensive bibliography (more than 250 entries) has 
only three references in common with the more than 
2500 references of E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology. 
MARY JANE WEST EBERHARD, Biologia, Universidad 
del Valle, Cali, Colombia, and Smithsonian Tropical 
Research Institute, Balboa, Canal Zone 
MAN IN THE ANDES. A Multidisciplinary Study of High- 
Altitude Quechua. US/IBP Synthesis Series 1. 
Edited by Paul T. Baker and Michael A. Little. Dowden, 
Hutchinson 6f Ross, Stroudsburg. $25.00. xxi + 482 
p.; ill.; index. 1976. 
The details of the way the native of high altitudes is 
adapted to hypoxic stress as compared to the low- 
lander transposed to high altitudes, has challenged 
biologists since Monge's pioneering studies of the 
highlander Peruvian Indians. In the hope that the 
answer might lie in a comprehensive study of a some- 
what isolated population that has lived for genera- 
tions at high altitude, P. T. Baker began, in 1964, a 
four-year project which was reformulated in 1967 
and 1968 under the Human Adaptability Project of 
the International Biological Programme. The popula- 
tion selected was the Quechua Indian and mestizo 
natives of the district of Nunoa, Department of Puno, 
in southern Peru; the town of Nunoa is 4050 m above 
sea level. Data from lowland populations were used 
for comparative purposes. 
The results of the Nunoa project are presented 
in this book. It consists of 20 contributions by 17 
specialists in ecology, social and political structure, 
child care, genetics, environmental health, vital statis- 
tics, nutrition, hematology, and physiology. Some of 
this material has already been published elsewhere. 
The book is well illustrated with graphs and tables