The secret of our success : how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter / Joseph Henrich.

  • Henrich, Joseph Patrick
Date:
[2015]
  • Books

About this work

Description

"Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a vast range of diverse environments. What has enabled us to dominate the globe, more than any other species, while remaining virtually helpless as lone individuals? This book shows that the secret of our success lies not in our innate intelligence, but in our collective brains--on the ability of human groups to socially interconnect and learn from one another over generations. Drawing insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile hunter-gatherers, neuroscientific findings, ancient bones, and the human genome, Joseph Henrich demonstrates how our collective brains have propelled our species' genetic evolution and shaped our biology."--provided by publisher.

Publication/Creation

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Physical description

xv, 445 pages : illustrations, maps, charts ; 25 cm

Notes

Available in 2015.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-427) and index.

Contents

A puzzling primate -- It's not our intelligence -- Lost European explorers -- How to make a cultural species -- What are big brains for? : or, How culture stole our guts -- Why some people have blue eyes -- On the origin of faith -- Prestige, dominance, and menopause -- In-laws, incest taboos, and rituals -- Intergroup competition shapes cultural evolution -- Self-domestication -- Our collective brains -- Communicative tools with rules -- Enculturated brains and honorable hormones -- When we crossed the Rubicon -- Why us? -- A new kind of animal.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    AOS.U
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780691166858
  • 0691166854