Why are so many of us afraid of snakes? And more curiously, why does our unconscious mind recognize them as a threat before our conscious mind? Distinguished Professor Emerita of Anthropology Lynne A. Isbell dives into how our relationship with snakes is an ancient one that reaches back to the evolutionary origins of primates. 

In her recent book Primate Socioecology: Shifting Perspectives, Lynne A. Isbell presents a new way of classifying primate social organizations. Primates are unusual among mammals in having a wide diversity of social organizations, including living alone, in pairs, in small cohesive groups, in large cohesive groups, and in groups whose members split up and come back together repeatedly.