The editors of this volume argue that future research into complex animal societies and intelligence will change the perception of animals as gene machines, programmed to act in particular ways and perhaps elevate them to a status much closer to our own. At a time when humans are perceived more biologically than ever before, and animals as more cultural, are we about to witness the dawn of a truly unified social science, one with a distinctly cross-specific perspective?
Contributions by: Christophe Boesch, Jack W. Bradbury, Richard Connor, Christine Drea, Anne Engh, Laurence Frank, Karen I. Hallberg, Stephanie Jaffee, Hans Kummer, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, W. C. McGrew, Sarah L. Mesnick, Toshisada Nishida, Charles L. Nunn, Eduardo B. Ottoni, Lisa A. Parr, Katherine B. Payne, Susan Perry, Ronald Schusterman, Robert Seyfarth, Jan A. R. A. M. Van Hooff, Carel van Schaik, Bernhard Voelkl, Sofia Wahaj, Randall S. Wells, Meredith West, Hal Whitehead, Gerald S. Wilkinson, Harald Yurk, Klaus Zuberbuehler