The following review is worthwhile to read, as it sums up a lot which time and again resurfaces in discussions:

ROSE, STEVEN. 1999. "Evolutionary Psychology -- Biology Impoverished", in: Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (London) 24 (3).

This essay reviews 'Divided labours: an evolutionary view of women at work' by Kingsley Browne (70 pp., ISBN 0 297 841408), 'The truth about Cinderella: a Darwinian view of parental love' by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson (68 pp., ISBN 0 297 841610), 'Shaping life: genes, embryos and evolution' by John Maynard Smith (50 pp., ISBN 0 297 841386), and 'Neanderthals, bandits and farmers: how agriculture really began' by Colin Tudge (53 pp., ISBN 0 297 842587), published in 1998 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson at E4-99 each.

"These four little books, in a series called Darwinism Today, may represent the only tangible memorial to the Darwin Centre at the London School of Economics, which flourished for a few years in the mid 1990s, and was committed to publicising the fashionable theses of what was once called sociobiology but is now named evolutionary psychology (EP). The declared aim of EP is to provide explanations for the patterns of human activity and the forms of organisation of human society which take into account the fact that humans are animals and, like all other currently living organisms, are the present day products of some 4 billion years of evolution. Whilst there is nothing in principle wrong with such an agenda, EP bases its worldview on a peculiarly narrow version of ultra-Darwinism pursued with singleminded and almost religious fervour. It does seem to be the fate of all great and innovative thinkers, religious, political, or scientific, to have their ideas adopted and oversimplified to the point of being traduced by later followers. This is certainly the case with the current coterie of so called Darwinists.

Apart from Darwin himself, EP's modern hero figures are, from the classical sociobiological period of the 1970s, Richard Dawkins, Robert Trivers, and E. 0. Wilson, and, more recently, the social psychologists Leda Cosmides and John Tooby and the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, around whom have been grouped a heterogeneous collection of camp followers, including real philosophers such as Daniel Dennett, manque philosophers such as Helena Cronin (organiser of the Darwin Centre and coeditor of this series), and journalists such as Matt Ridley. All are prolific writers and their popular books will be familiar to many. [...]".

The complete review can be read here, and the discussion thread which developed from it here. via Anthro-L

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