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Thinking big: how the evolution of social life shaped the human mind

Thinking big: how the evolution of social life shaped the human mind
Thinking big: how the evolution of social life shaped the human mind
When and how did the brains of our hominin ancestors become human minds? When and why did our capacity for language or art, music and dance evolve? It is the contention of this pathbreaking and provocative book that it was the need for early humans to live in ever-larger social groups, and to maintain social relations over ever-greater distances the ability to think big that drove the enlargement of the human brain and the development of the human mind. This social brain hypothesis, put forward by evolutionary psychologists such as Robin Dunbar, one of the authors of this book, can be tested against archaeological and fossil evidence, as archaeologists Clive Gamble and John Gowlett show in the second part of Thinking Big. Along the way, the three authors touch on subjects as diverse and diverting as the switch from finger-tip grooming to vocal grooming or the crucial importance of making fire for the lengthening of the social day. Ultimately, the social worlds we inhabit today can be traced back to our Stone Age ancestors.
978-0-500-05180-1
Thames & Hudson
Gamble, Clive
1cbd0b26-ddac-4dc2-9cf7-59c66d06103a
Gowlett, John
dc9933c7-e50a-476c-9197-cd9efe494560
Dunbar, Robin
4484c53d-184a-4144-896e-65cab5d5886c
Gamble, Clive
1cbd0b26-ddac-4dc2-9cf7-59c66d06103a
Gowlett, John
dc9933c7-e50a-476c-9197-cd9efe494560
Dunbar, Robin
4484c53d-184a-4144-896e-65cab5d5886c

Gamble, Clive, Gowlett, John and Dunbar, Robin (2014) Thinking big: how the evolution of social life shaped the human mind , London, GB. Thames & Hudson, 224pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

When and how did the brains of our hominin ancestors become human minds? When and why did our capacity for language or art, music and dance evolve? It is the contention of this pathbreaking and provocative book that it was the need for early humans to live in ever-larger social groups, and to maintain social relations over ever-greater distances the ability to think big that drove the enlargement of the human brain and the development of the human mind. This social brain hypothesis, put forward by evolutionary psychologists such as Robin Dunbar, one of the authors of this book, can be tested against archaeological and fossil evidence, as archaeologists Clive Gamble and John Gowlett show in the second part of Thinking Big. Along the way, the three authors touch on subjects as diverse and diverting as the switch from finger-tip grooming to vocal grooming or the crucial importance of making fire for the lengthening of the social day. Ultimately, the social worlds we inhabit today can be traced back to our Stone Age ancestors.

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More information

Published date: 27 May 2014
Organisations: Archaeology

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 364351
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/364351
ISBN: 978-0-500-05180-1
PURE UUID: 1e1b2022-1097-41ec-8402-c4ddc2457ac6

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Date deposited: 02 Jul 2014 10:58
Last modified: 11 Jul 2024 17:05

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Contributors

Author: Clive Gamble
Author: John Gowlett
Author: Robin Dunbar

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