What a big brain we have for all the small talk we make. It's an evolutionary riddle that at long last makes sense in this intriguing book about what gossip has done for our talkative species. Psychologist Robin Dunbar looks at gossip as an instrument of social order and cohesion--much like the endless grooming with which our primate cousins tend to their social relationships. ...(展开全部)

What a big brain we have for all the small talk we make. It's an evolutionary riddle that at long last makes sense in this intriguing book about what gossip has done for our talkative species. Psychologist Robin Dunbar looks at gossip as an instrument of social order and cohesion--much like the endless grooming with which our primate cousins tend to their social relationships. ...(展开全部)

Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language is a 1996 book by Robin Dunbar, in which Dunbar argues that language evolved from social grooming. He further suggests that a stage of this evolution was the telling of gossip, an argument supported by the observation that language is adapted for storytelling. The book has been criticised on the grounds that since words are so chea...(展开全部)

Arguing that gossiping is vital to a society, and that there is no such thing as "idle" gossip, this book disputes the assumption that language developed in male-male relationships. The author believes that, on the contrary, language evolved among women, and contends that, although men are just as likely to natter as women, women gossip more about other people, thus strengtheni...(展开全部)

Arguing that gossiping is vital to a society, and that there is no such thing as "idle" gossip, this book disputes the assumption that language developed in male-male relationships. The author believes that, on the contrary, language evolved among women, and contends that, although men are just as likely to natter as women, women gossip more about other people, thus strengtheni...(展开全部)

Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language is a 1996 book by Robin Dunbar, in which Dunbar argues that language evolved from social grooming. He further suggests that a stage of this evolution was the telling of gossip, an argument supported by the observation that language is adapted for storytelling. The book has been criticised on the grounds that since words are so chea...(展开全部)