Darwin's unfinished symphony : how culture made the human mind / Kevin N. Laland.

  • Laland, Kevin N.
Date:
[2017]
  • Books

About this work

Description

"Kevin Leland shows how the learned and socially transmitted activities of our ancestors shaped our intellects through accelerating cycles of evolutionary feedback. The truly unique characteristics of our species - such as our intelligence, language, teaching, and cooperation - are not adaptive responses to predators or disease, or other external conditions. Rather, humans are creatures of their own making. ... Laland explains how animals imitate, innovate, and have remarkable traditions of their own. He traces our rise from scavenger apes in prehistory to modern humans able to design iPhones, dance the tango, and send astronauts into space."--Book jacket.

Publication/Creation

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Physical description

xii, 450 pages : black and white illustrations ; 25 cm

Contributors

Contents

Foundations of culture. Darwin's unfinished symphony ; Ubiquitous copying ; Why copy? ; A tale of two fishes ; The roots of creativity -- The evolution of the mind. The evolution of intelligence ; High fidelity ; Why we alone have language ; Gene-culture coevolution ; The dawn of civilization ; Foundations of cooperation ; The arts -- Epilogue: Awe without wonder.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-441) and index.

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    AOS.U
    		Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780691151182
  • 0691151180