reach such a conclusion. Furthermore, whilethey may be very popular among primatemorphologists, the use of residuals in suchanalyses may in fact be inappropriate asnumerous researchers and studies suggest.

Caton’s chapter with a detailed appendixabout the gastrointestinal tract of Pygathrixnemaeus provides one of the most thoroughand useful descriptions about colobine stom-achs to date. As with the other phylogeneticanalyses in this volume, her analysis of gutfeatures leaves much to be desired. Here theproblem is a lack of sufficient phylogeneti-cally informative characters to produce ameaningful analysis. Only 10 morphologicalcharacters are used to resolve a tree with 6taxa containing 10 branches. Furthermore,if the data are considered to be unordered(i.e., their polarity is unknown), one shorterand four equally parsimonious trees to thatfound by Caton exist. Therefore, while Ca-ton’s description and interpretation of themorphological features of the colobine diges-tive system are extremely useful, her phy-letic interpretation is open to question.

Part III of the volume opens with Kirkpa-trick’s incredibly thorough overview of theecology and behavior of these monkeys. Thismay be the single most useful chapter of thebook. Lippold supplies an up-to-date ac-

count of recent research into how muchmore widely distributed and socially andecological variable the douc langurs of Viet-nam are than previously thought. The nextseveral chapters present the results of vari-ous field observations regarding the ecologyand behavior of Rhinopithecus in both Viet-nam and China. The final and shortestsection of the book contains four short chap-ters on the conservation status of the snub-nosed monkeys and doucs. The honest pessi-mism expressed regarding the future statusof some of the species does not preventuseful suggestions for the rest from beingpursued. The book ends with a 30 pagegazetteer by Kirkpatrick, which like hisreview of their ecology and behavior, is sureto become an indispensable aid for research-ers studying these fascinating, and, nowhopefully better understood monkeys.

Despite this reviewer’s misgivings aboutseveral of the analytical chapters, overallthis book supplies a great deal of useful dataand observations regarding the snub-nosedmonkeys and doucs.

TODD R. DISOTELL

Department of AnthropologyNew York UniversityNew York, New York

INTRODUCTION TO THE PRIMATES. By Daris R.Swindler. 1998. Seattle, Washington: Uni-versity of Washington Press. 284 pp. ISBN0-295-97704-3. $22.00 (paper).

Daris Swindler’s new book fills a long-standing gap in the primatology literatureand will be welcomed by teachers of under-graduate anthropology courses on the func-tional and evolutionary biology of primates.Introduction to the Primates is a synthesisand summary of a large literature on themorphology, growth and development, socialbehavior, and fossil history of the primatestold by a leading researcher and masterfulteacher of this material. Geared toward anundergraduate audience, the book clearlyand concisely tells a story about the evolu-

tion and adaptations of non-human pri-mates, touching on many aspects of compara-tive primate biology that will be of interestto undergraduate students. Written in acasual, at times anecdotal style, this shouldbe a popular textbook choice for many biologi-cal anthropologists who share Swindler’sorientation toward primate anatomy andgrowth and development. Swindler has dedi-cated this book to two recently deceasedclose friends and colleagues of his (and ofmany readers of this journal), Jim Gavanand Elizabeth Watts.

Swindler’s goal in this text is ambitious,involving nothing less than providing a com-plete survey of primate biology for studentswith little or no prior background in biologyor biological anthropology. It is to his credit

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that he accomplishes this goal in fewer than300 pages of well-organized, nicely illus-trated (by Linda E. Curtis), and highlyreadable text. The book begins with a veryinteresting introductory chapter on the his-tory of human interest in and study ofnon-human primates. Of particular interestis the discussion of the 17th and 18th cen-tury anatomical descriptions of apes by Tulp,Tyson, and Buffon, as well as 19th centuryfield reports of the African apes. In additionto exploring definitions of the Order Pri-mates, the next chapter provides a workingclassification of living primates, a brief dis-cussion of evolutionary and cladistic ap-proaches to systematics (Swindler prefersthe former), and an overview of the majorfeatures and geographic distribution of themajor groups of modern primates. This chap-ter sets the stage for the remainder of thebook, a series of chapters that document therange of variation in features such as skullmorphology, dentition and diet, brain andspecial senses, and skeletal morphology ofthe living primates. The book closes withsections on primate evolution and the behav-ior and conservation status of modern pri-mates.

Swindler is at his best when describingcomparative and developmental aspects ofnon-human primate osteology, especially re-lating to diet, dentition, and cranial morphol-ogy. His chapter on the skull provides anexcellent overview of the comparativeanatomy of the primate skull. He incorpo-rates historical insights into his presenta-tion, for example, tracing ideas about thepresence or absence of the premaxilla in thehuman skull back through Vesalius (16thcentury) and Galen (2nd century). Compara-tive anatomical topics that are nicely cov-ered in this chapter include the evolution ofthe mammalian ear ossicles, the anthropoidpostorbital septum, and the human chin.For each of these topics, Swindler citesrecent as well as classic references, provid-ing further access to a wide range of litera-ture for interested students. Perhaps thebest chapter in this text is the one on growthand development, an area in which Swindlerhas made major contributions over a longand illustrious career. This chapter includesvery accessible discussions of the develop-

ment of the genitalia and reproductive or-gans of male and female primates, primateplacentation, prenatal and postnatal devel-opment, and life history theory. A very usefultable entitled ‘‘Vital Statistics of Living Pri-mates’’ provides a wealth of life history dataon 21 prosimian and 39 anthropoid speciesand could provide students with the opportu-nity to explore the relationship between, forexample, adult and neonatal brain and bodyweight, gestation length, and diet. The sec-tion on postnatal growth covers skeletal anddental development, physiological age,growth curves, and the adolescent growthspurt.

The final section of the book includesthree chapters on primate social behavior,conservation, and the fossil record of pri-mate evolution. The fossil primates chapterprovides a quick overview of primate evolu-tion from Purgatorius to Homo that is au-thoritative if, at times, a bit hurried. One ofthe strengths of this chapter is the author’swillingness to present in an even-handedfashion both sides of controversial topics,such as the status of plesiadapiformes, an-thropoid origins, the origin of the New Worldprimates, and the taxonomic placement ofOreopithecus. Never dogmatic, Swindlerpresents opposing viewpoints in a way thatallows the classroom instructor to empha-size the fluid and unsettled nature of pa-leoprimatological knowledge. The only chap-ter of this book that is, in this reviewer’sopinion, a bit weak is the one on primatesocial behavior. Here Swindler’s descriptiveapproach fares less well than in his discus-sions of morphological topics. Subsectionson grooming, dominance, and social struc-ture do little to inspire the fledgling prima-tologist, and the selection of research resultsto highlight seems idiosyncratic. The sectionon communication discusses the sign lan-guage work of the Gardners and Roger Foutswith Washoe but not the very exciting re-search by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh on Kanzi.Cheney and Seyfarth’s work on vervets ismentioned only very briefly, while Byrneand Whitten’s Machiavellian intelligence hy-pothesis is not mentioned at all. The absenceof any consideration of sociobiology or anyother theoretical approach to the study of

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primate behavior might (falsely) suggest tostudents that primate behavior is a descrip-tive, inductive branch of ethology informedby few theoretical insights. In spite of thisminor weakness, Introduction to the Pri-mates is highly recommended for use inundergraduate classes on primatology, espe-

cially where the instructor is oriented to-ward issues of comparative morphology,growth and development, and evolution.

ROBERT L. ANEMONE

Department of AnthropologyWestern Michigan UniversityKalamazoo, Michigan

BOOKS RECEIVED

Ciochon RL, and Nisbett RA (eds.) (1998)The Primate Anthology: Essays on Pri-mate Behavior, Ecology, and Conservationfrom Natural History. Upper Saddle River,NJ: Prentice Hall. 246 pp. $28.40 (paper).

Evett IW, and Weir BS (1998) InterpretingDNA Evidence: Statistical Genetics forForensic Scientists. Sunderland, MA:Sinauer Associates. 278 pp. $34.95 (pa-per).

Goodman AH, and Leatherman TL (eds.)(1999) Building a New Biocultural Synthe-sis: Political-Economic Perspectives on Hu-man Biology. Ann Arbor, MI: University ofMichigan Press. 486 pp. $19.95 (paper).

Grauer AL, and Stuart-Macadam P (eds.)(1998) Sex and Gender in Paleopathologi-cal Perspective. New York, NY: CambridgeUniversity Press. 192 pp. $54.95 (cloth).

Marcus GE (1998) Ethnography ThroughThick and Thin. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press. 275 pp. $14.95 (paper).

Mattingly C (1998) Healing Dramas andClinical Plots: The Narrative Structure ofExperience. New York, NY: Cambridge Uni-versity Press. 192 pp. $59.95 (cloth).

Panter-Brick C, and Worthman CM (eds.)(1999) Hormones, Health, and Behavior: ASocio-ecological and Lifespan Perspective.New York: Cambridge University Press.290 pp. $69.95 (cloth).

Steele E, Lindley R, and Blanden R (1998)Lamarck’s Signature: How Retrogenes AreChallenging Darwin’s Natural SelectionParadigm. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.286 pp. $25.00 (cloth).

Strasser E, Fleagle J, Rosenberger A, andMcHenry H (eds.) (1998) Primate Locomo-tion: Recent Advances. New York: PlenumPress. 482 pp. $110.00 (cloth).

Tattersall I (1998) Becoming Human: Evolu-tion and Human Uniqueness. New York:Harcourt Brace. 258 pp. $27.00 (cloth).

Wills C (1998) Children of Prometheus: TheAccelerating Pace of Human Evolution.Reading, MA: Perseus Books. 310 pp.$25.00 (cloth).

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