Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction

Description

A Pelican introduction to the social and cognitive changes that gave rise to modern humans What makes us human? How did we develop language, thought and culture? Why do we need them? The past 12,000 years represent the only time in the sweep of human history when there has been only one human species. How did this extraordinary proliferation of species come about - and then go extinct? And why did we emerge such intellectual giants? The tale of our origins has inevitably been told through the 'stones and bones' of the archaeological record, yet Robin Dunbar shows it was our social and cognitive changes rather than our physical development which truly made us distinct from other species.

Robin Dunbar is an evolutionary psychologist and former director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. His acclaimed books include How Many Friends Does One Person Need? and Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, described by Malcolm Gladwell as 'a marvellous work of popular science.'

Human Evolution is a must-read. It has the great strength of showing you the inner workings of an imaginative mind, while allowing you the freedom to think * New Scientist *