Humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. While we are similar to other mammals in many ways, our behavior sets us apart. Our unparalleled ability to adapt has allowed us to occupy virtually every habitat on earth using an incredible variety of tools and subsistence techniques. Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammal's. In this stunning exploration of human adaptation, Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd argue that only a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution can explain these unique characteristics.

Not by Genes Alone offers a radical interpretation of human evolution, arguing that our ecological dominance and our singular social systems stem from a psychology uniquely adapted to create complex culture. Richerson and Boyd illustrate here that culture is neither superorganic nor the handmaiden of the genes. Rather, it is essential to human adaptation, as much a part of human biology as bipedal locomotion. Drawing on work in the fields of anthropology, political science, sociology, and economics—and building their case with such fascinating examples as kayaks, corporations, clever knots, and yams that require twelve men to carry them—Richerson and Boyd convincingly demonstrate that culture and biology are inextricably linked, and they show us how to think about their interaction in a way that yields a richer understanding of human nature.

In abandoning the nature-versus-nurture debate as fundamentally misconceived, Not by Genes Alone is a truly original and groundbreaking theory of the role of culture in evolution and a book to be reckoned with for generations to come.

彼得·里克森（Peter J. Richerson），生物学家，美国加利福尼亚大学戴维斯分校环境科学学院教授，研究领域包括社会文化演变、人类生态学以及热带湖沼学等。他与罗伯特·博伊德合著有Culture and the Evolutionary Process, The Origin and Evolution of Cultures 等书。

罗伯特·博伊德（Robert Boyd），美国加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校人类学系教授，美国亚利桑那州立大学人类演化与社会变迁学院外聘教授。除了与彼得·里克森合著及合编的大量文章以及书籍外，他还与他人合著有How Humans Evolved, 并参与编写了Foundations of Human Sociality，Moral Sentiments and Material Interests 等。