Genes are credited or blamed these days for more and more human behaviors and
predicamentsDbut gambling, courtesy and even greed? Phelan, a professor of
economics at Harvard, and Burnham, a biology professor at UCLA, focus not on
the mechanisms of particular genes but on the effects of more general
evolutionary patterns. In this enormously entertaining sociobiological overview,
they argue that humans are well adapted to the environment in which we originated,
but since we are no longer hunter-gatherers, instincts that evolved under those
conditions can lead to harmful excess in today's world. Obesity, for example,
occurs because early humans faced food shortages and adapted to store fat in
their bodies. Burnham and Phelan explain the evolutionary basis for such
troublesome matters as overspending, gambling, drug abuse, sexual infidelity,
rudeness and greed. The point, they emphasize, is not to excuse harmful
behaviors, but to understand that they are part of our animal natures. This
approach, they believe, enables us to find better ways to cope with these
problems than mere willpowerDin their view, a tactic doomed to failure since it
runs counter to instinct. Burnham and Phelan cite their own amusing strategies
for dealing with food and gambling problems, and insist that anyone can learn
to "tame" their "mean genes." Though this book only scratches the surface of
a subject considered in detail by such scientists as E.O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins
and Sara Blaffer Hrdy, it is sure to generate wide popular interest. Agents, John
Brockman and Katinka Matson. Author tour; 20-city radio satellite tour.

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