This recent volume in the Terry Lectures is a significant contribution to the contemporary dialogue on the
nature of human participation in the evolutionary process and the place of the individual in history. It provides a new context for considering both impersonal processes in the development of civilization and the role of individual genius in cultural innovation.
The analysis focuses on cultural microevolution: the development of man's specific psychobiological capacities, the continuity of cultural transmission through the senses, and the role of the fully identified group of individuals in purposeful innovation. To illuminte the problems of moving toward conscious cultural evolution Dr. Mead draws on forty years of experience with direct observation of primitive peoples and with the application of anthropological insights to contemporary society.