Genesis

'With Genesis, Wilson inspires awe ... His message is thatselection has shaped a society that is characterized by cooperation anddivision of labour' Nature

Of all species that have ever existed on earth, only one has reachedhuman levels of intelligence and social organisation: us. Why? In Genesis,celebrated biologist Edward O. Wilson traces the great transitions ofevolution, from the origin of life to the invention of sexualreproduction to the development of language itself.

The only wayfor us to fully understand human behaviour, Wilson argues, is to studythe evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, hedemonstrates that at least seventeen - from the African naked mole ratand the sponge-dwelling shrimp to one of the oldest species on earth,the termite - have been found to have advanced societies based onaltruism, cooperation and the division of labour. These rare eusocialspecies form the prehistory to our human social patterns, even,according to Wilson, suggesting the possible biological benefits ofhomosexuality and elderly grandmothers.

Whether writing aboutmidges who dance about like acrobats, schools of anchovies whoprotectively huddle to appear like a gigantic fish or well-organisedflocks becoming potentially immortal, Genesis is a pathbreakingwork of evolutionary theory filled with lyrical observations. It will make us rethink how we became who we are.

Reviews

Endlessly fascinating, Edward O. Wilson-in the tradition of Darwin-plumbs the depths of human evolution in a most readable fashion without sacrificing scholarly rigor.