Description
Why are humans so unusually successful—surviving, innovating, and building complex societies—when other animals also learn from one another? This book argues that our edge comes from culture itself: uniquely powerful social learning enabled cumulative cultural evolution, allowing knowledge, tools, and institutions to improve across generations. Drawing on evolutionary theory and vivid real-world examples—including a drought-stricken Aboriginal community and the leadership of its oldest member—it shows how prestige, norms, and “self-domestication” shaped the psychology of prosocial, rule-following people who expect their communities to enforce shared rules. In a clear, research-driven style, the authors connect human behavior, intellect, and cooperation to the deep mechanisms of cultural evolution, challenging familiar assumptions about why our species thrives.
Available Editions
paperback
Princeton University Press
Published Jan 1, 2016
445 pages
ISBN: 9780691166858
audiobook
Tantor Audio
Published Mar 13, 2018
ISBN: 9781977353733
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Details
First Published
2016
Language
eng
Content Warnings
No content warnings identified.