Coverart for item
The Resource The secret of our success : how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter, Joseph Henrich

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

Label
The secret of our success : how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter
Title
The secret of our success
Title remainder
how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter
Statement of responsibility
Joseph Henrich
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"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. Our early capacities for learning from others produced many cultural innovations, such as fire, cooking, water containers, plant knowledge, and projectile weapons, which in turn drove the expansion of our brains and altered our physiology, anatomy, and psychology in crucial ways. Later on, some collective brains generated and recombined powerful concepts, such as the lever, wheel, screw, and writing, while also creating the institutions that continue to alter our motivations and perceptions. Henrich shows how our genetics and biology are inextricably interwoven with cultural evolution, and how culture-gene interactions launched our species on an extraordinary evolutionary trajectory. Tracking clues from our ancient past to the present, The Secret of Our Success explores how the evolution of both our cultural and social natures produce a collective intelligence that explains both our species' immense success and the origins of human uniqueness."--Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
BTCTA
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Henrich, Joseph Patrick
Dewey number
599.938
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • maps
  • charts
Index
index present
LC call number
GN281.4
LC item number
.H46 2015
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Human evolution
  • Social evolution
  • Behavior evolution
  • Cognition and culture
  • Behavior evolution
  • Cognition and culture
  • Human evolution
  • Social evolution
Label
The secret of our success : how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter, Joseph Henrich
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Available in 2015
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-427) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
  • text
  • still image
  • cartographic image
Content type code
  • txt
  • sti
  • cri
Content type MARC source
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
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
Control code
ocn930040859
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
xv, 445 pages
Isbn
9780691166858
Lccn
2015934779
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, maps, charts
System control number
  • (Sirsi) i9780691166858
  • (OCoLC)930040859
Label
The secret of our success : how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter, Joseph Henrich
Publication
Note
Available in 2015
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-427) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
  • text
  • still image
  • cartographic image
Content type code
  • txt
  • sti
  • cri
Content type MARC source
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
  • rdacontent
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
Control code
ocn930040859
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
xv, 445 pages
Isbn
9780691166858
Lccn
2015934779
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations, maps, charts
System control number
  • (Sirsi) i9780691166858
  • (OCoLC)930040859

Library Locations

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