A Different Kind of Animal: How Culture Transformed Our Species (University Center for Human Values #46) (Paperback)
How our ability to learn from each other has been the essential ingredient to our remarkable success as a species
Human beings have evolved to become the most dominant species on Earth. This astonishing transformation is usually explained in terms of cognitive ability--people are just smarter than all the rest. But Robert Boyd argues that culture--our ability to learn from each other--has been the essential ingredient of our remarkable success. He shows how a unique combination of cultural adaptation and large-scale cooperation has transformed our species and assured our survival--making us the different kind of animal we are today. Based on the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, A Different Kind of Animal features challenging responses by biologist H. Allen Orr, philosopher Kim Sterelny, economist Paul Seabright, and evolutionary anthropologist Ruth Mace, as well as an introduction by Stephen Macedo.
Robert Boyd is Origins Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His books include How Humans Evolved, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, and The Origin and Evolution of Cultures.