Since time began, man has been threatened by growing populations and diminishing resources. In response, he has created idiosyncratic cultures whose forms and functions can - to the outsider - seem incomprehensible. In fascinating and at times bizarre detail a distinguished American anthropologist traces the evolution of cultures in terms not of traditionally accepted notions of the inexorable march of material progress but rather of man's supremely rational survival tactics and adaptability in a world which ever threatens him with extinction.

Before consciousness formed and tools were made, before speech was learned and cultures were established, before religion, society, politics, and war, came a simple evolutionary change: one primate, our common ancestor, took the first upright step. So begins our family history ... the story told by Marvin Harris in Our Kind. The tale explores topics as varied as how the different races arose; why marriage and the nuclear family were established; why we overeat; how men came to dominate politics; why women have longer life-spans; why yuppies are such conspicuous consumers; how war has come to overshadow us, and whether it always will ... and a great deal more. --