The Evolutionary Review offers a forum for evolutionary critiques in all the fields of the arts, human sciences, and culture: essays and reviews on film, fiction, theater, visual art, music, dance, and popular culture; essays and reviews of books, articles, and theories related to evolution and evolutionary psychology; and essays and reviews on science, society, and the environment. Essays in The Evolutionary Review implicitly affirm E. O. Wilson’s vision of “consilience,” that is, the unity of knowledge. They also give evidence that an evolutionary perspective can yield a richer, more complete understanding of the world and ourselves. Criteria for selecting essays include depth and seriousness in evolutionary thinking, imaginative force, and excellence of style. Potential contributors should establish a distinct, individual point of view, avoiding academese and neutral summary. The editors value incisiveness and clarity, energy, wit and humor, vivid language and striking imagery, tonal nuance, and a knack for engaging the interest of readers. The inaugural issue offers articles and reviews on evolutionary and biocultural theory; commentaries on Facebook, American Idol, and comics; and essays and reviews on music, cinema, opera, and fiction.
Alice Andrews teaches psychology and evolutionary studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is the author of the evolutionary psychological novel Trine Erotic and the founder of the online journal Entelechy: Mind & Culture. Joseph Carroll is Curators’ Professor of English at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. His books include Evolution and Literary Theory and Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature. He has produced an edition of On the Origin of Species. He is coeditor (with Brian Boyd and Jonathan Gottschall) of the forthcoming Evolution, Literature, and Film: A Reader.
Table of Contents
Editors’ Introductions Alice Andrews, Joseph Carroll
Evolutionary Theory and Cultural Trends
What Is Copernican? A Few Common Barriers to Darwinian Thinking about the Mind Jiro Tanaka
Learning from the Immune System about Evolutionary Psychology David Sloan Wilson
When Biological Evolution and Social Revolution Clash: Skinner’s Behaviorist Utopia Peter Swirski
Facebook or Lonesome No More Craig T. Palmer, Alex Newsome, Kelsey Proud, Kathryn Coe
Ins and Outs: An Evolutionary Approach to Fashion Leslie Heywood, Justin R. Garcia
1859: Darwin, Mill, and Drake Kevin Scott Baldwin
Challenging Evolutionary Metaphors of Survival: Morris’ News from Nowhere Todd O. Williams
Commemorating Charles Darwin John van Wyhe
Reviews The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution by Denis Dutton Joseph Carroll
The Nature of Being Human: From Environmentalism to Consciousness by Harold Fromm Francisco Ayala
Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique by Michael S. Gazzaniga Harold Fromm
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires by Peter Turchin Carl N. Degler
Sight and Sound
Tracking Musical Chills Ellen Dissanayake
Woman as Erotic Object in Mainstream Cinema: A Darwinian Inquiry into the Male Gaze Griet Vandermassen
Clichés Worth Singing: Narrative Commonplaces in Opera Brett Cooke
Reviews
Slumdog Millionaire, directed by Danny Boyle Dylan Evans
Poetics of Cinema by David Bordwell, and Embodied Visions: Evolution, Emotion, Culture, and Film by Torben Grodal Daniel Barratt
On Stories
First Do Not Bore: Earning and Sharing Attention in Contemporary Literary Fiction Tim Horvath
On the Origin of Comics: New York Double-take Brian Boyd
The Horror! The Horror! Mathias Clasen
Darkly Darwinian Parables: Ian McEwan and The Comfort of Strangers Charles Duncan
Reviews
The Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence, and the World of Homer by Jonathan Gottschall Robin Headlam Wells
Reading Edith Wharton through a Darwinian Lens: Evolutionary Biological Issues in Her Fiction by Judith P. Saunders Blakey Vermeule
On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction by Brian Boyd Gordon Burghardt
Shakespeare and the Nature of Love: Literature, Culture, Evolution by Marcus Nordlund Robin Fox
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson José Angel Garcia Landa Comeuppance: Costly Signaling, Altruistic Punishment, and Other Biological Components of Fiction by William Flesch Michael Austin
Literature, Science, and a New Humanities by Jonathan Gottschall David Michelson
Interdisciplinary Essays on Darwinism in Hispanic Literature and Film: The Intersection of Science and the Humanities edited by Jerry Hoeg and Kevin S. Larsen Ervin Nieves
