Mark Pagel

Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Does an excellent job of using evolutionary biology to discuss the origins of religion, music, art, and . . . morality.Publishers Weekly, starred review

A unique trait of the human species is that our personalities, lifestyles, and worldviews are shaped by an accident of birthnamely, the culture into which we are born. It is our cultures and not our genes that determine which foods we eat, which languages we speak, which people we love and marry, and which people we kill in war. But how did our species develop a mind that is hardwired for cultureand why?

Evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel tracks this intriguing question through the last 80,000 years of human evolution, revealing how an innate propensity to contribute and conform to the culture of our birth not only enabled human survival and progress in the past but also continues to influence our behavior today. Shedding light on our species' defining attributesfrom art, morality, and altruism to self-interest, deception, and prejudiceWired for Culture offers surprising new insights into what it means to be human.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: W. W. Norton & Company
• Seitenzahl: 432
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Februar 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780393063158
• Artikelnr.: 59591955

Autorenporträt

Mark Pagel is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Reading. He lives in Oxford, England.