Robbins Burling, The talking ape: How language evolved. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. ix, 286. Hb $30.00.

Among those who theorize about the evolution of language, there are several camps, including those who argue that language evolved slowly from primate gesture-calls, and those who surmise that syntax is so complicated that it must have come from a single genetic mutation. Robbins Burling agrees fully with neither and argues that language is a separate system from gesture-calls, but that language did evolve slowly through natural and sexual selection. He invites us to look at the social uses of language and the cultural value of its complicated, embellished nature.