This new series presents innovative titles pertaining to human originsevolution and behavior from a multidisciplinary perspective. Subject areasinclude but are ... » 

This new series presents innovative titles pertaining to human originsevolution and behavior from a multidisciplinary perspective. Subject areasinclude but are not limited to biological and physical anthropologyprehistoric archaeology evolutionary psychology behavioral ecology andevolutionary biology. The series volumes will be of interest primarily tostudents and scholars in these fields.Until twenty years ago we had no idea which of our genes came from our fatherand which came from our mother. We took it for granted that our genes expressedthemselves identically and that there was a 5050 chance that they came fromeither parent. We also assumed that they worked in cooperation with each other.The biggest breakthrough in genetics in the past two decades has been thediscovery of genomic imprinting which allows us to trace genes to the parentof origin. David Haig has been at the forefront of theorizing thesedevelopments arguing that these paternally and maternally active genescomprising less than one percent of our total gene count are far from beingcooperative and have in fact been shown to be in competition with one another.If Haigs theory is correct imprinted genes provide an extraordinary exampleof withinindividual conflict which is one of the most surprising developmentsin evolutionary biology in recent years. Examples like this are shaking up ourfundamental ideas of what it means to be an individual.This collection of Haigs papers provides a unique comprehensive overview ofwhat is known. Each paper is followed by a commentary that links it to theothers provides background as needed and brings readers uptodate ondevelopments thatoccurred after the papers original publication. Becausegenomic imprinting raises questions across various fields in the life sciencesincluding evolutionary biology and developmental genetics Haigs work isscattered through the literature to an unusual degree and has never b «