Preface; Part I. Comparative Methods: 1. The comparative method: principles and illustrations from primate socioecology A. MacLarnon; 2. Cladistics as a tool in comparative analysis K. Robson-Brown; 3. Phylogenetically independent comparisons and primate phylogeny A. Purvis and A. J. Webster; Part II. Comparative Life History and Biology: 4. Socioecology and the evolution of primate reproductive rates C. Ross; 5. Comparative ecology of post-natal growth and weaning among haplorhine primates P. C. Lee; 6. Some current ideas about the evolution of the human life history N. Blurton-Jones, K. Hawkes and J. O'Connell; 7. The evolutionary ecology of the primate brain R. Barton; 8. Sex and social evolution in primates C. van Schaik, M. A. van Noordwijk and C. L. Nunn; 9. Mating system, intrasexual competition and sexual dimorphism in primates J. M. Plavcan; Part III. Comparative Socioecology and Social Evolution: 10. Lemur social structure and convergence in primate socioecology P. Kappeler; 11. Why is female kin bonding so rare?: comparative sociality of neotropical primates K. Strier; 12. Energetics, time budgets and group size D. Williamson and R. Dunbar; 13. Ecology of sex differences in great ape foraging A. Bean; 14. The evolution of human behaviour and adaptation: missing links in comparative primate socioecology R. A. Foley; 15. Evolutionary ecology and cross-cultural comparison: the case of matrilineal descent in Sub-Saharan Africa R. Mace and C. Holden; Conclusion: socioecology and social evolution P. C. Lee; Index.

P. C. Lee is a lecturer in Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. She began field work on baboons in 1975 and has maintained an interest in the socioecology and behaviour of primates and other large mammals ever since. She has written numerous papers and has co-edited three previous volumes on primates: Primate Evolution, Primate Ecology and Conservation and Primate Ontogeny, Cognition and Behaviour (all 1986) and co-authored The Threatened Primates of Africa.