This volume celebrates the life and work of Robin Fox and the idea of a biosocial science. From his early studies of kinship, primates, the brain, evolution, the incest taboo, and aggression, to his later work on literature, politics, civilization, law, the Bible, Shakespeare, and the history of ideas, Robin Fox inspired many with an evolutionary vision of humanity that goes beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries and embraces the "universal history of mankind." Fox's work represents an independent "biosocial science" stream of thinking that accepts the Darwinian mandate while avoiding reductionism by recognizing culture as a natural phenomenon.

The essays cover Fox's life and his contributions, and address topics as diverse as the meaning and function of laughter; the unforgiving discipline of writing popular anthropology; extreme drinking rituals among young men training for the British army; Darwin and close-cousin marriage; the universal essence of the epic form as a super-attractor; anthropologists' autobiographies; the conflict between science and anti-science; and the decline of British imperial education.

This engaging collection on a "mainstream maverick" has been edited by Michael Egan. It includes essays by Sir Antony Jay, Lionel Tiger, Howard Bloom, Michael McGuire, Kate Fox, Melvin Konner, Alan Macfarlane, Adam Kuper, Dieter Steklis, Alexandra Maryanski, Bernard Chapais, Jonathan Turner, Linda Stone, Charles Macdonald, Anne Fox, David Jenkins, Frederick Turner, Robert Trivers, and an essay by Robin Fox himself.

On Reading 'Participant Observer' Foreword, I Personal and Confidential Introduction: Mainstream Maverick 1 This Guy, Fox 2 A Tribute and Personal Thanks II Popularity and Drink 3 Writing Popular Anthropology 4 Drink and Duty: Extreme Drinking Rituals in the British Army III Laughter and Happiness 5 Understanding Laughter 6 Joyous, Equal, and Free: Conditions of Felicity in Human Organizations IV Kinship and Incest 7 Kinship Constructed Us: Primate Kinship and Cultural Anthropology 8 Lighting the Red Lamp of Incest 9 Darwin and Cousin Marriage in England V Self and Epic 10 The Image of the Good Imperial Education 11 The Ethnography of the Self: Anthropologists' Autobiographies 12 The Universal Epic: A Research Challenge VI Nature and Society 13 From Human Nature to Human Society: Why Anthropology Cannot Ignore Biological Constants 14 The Changing Nature of Human Nature 15 Science and Anti-Science in Anthropology: A Look Back VII Finale 16 The Consumerist Cosmos 17 Last Word: The Razor's Edge

Michael Egan taught at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Brigham Young University, Hawaii. He was the editor of The Oxfordian and is the author of eleven books.