ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a broad overview of the questions addressed by evolutionary ecology with respect to human behavior. It relates evolutionary ecology to the approaches and concerns of social science generally. The book provides a summary of the basic theoretical principles, and compares these in some detail to selected social science frameworks. It examines some of the issues raised by the claim that an evolutionary and ecological framework is a necessary component of any comprehensive view of the causes of human behavior. The book describes the origins and basic premises of evolutionary ecology and discusses various ways to include environmental context in evolutionary analyses. It also examines the different kinds of explanation that can be classified as evolutionary.
