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The Evolution of Human Uniqueness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2017

Robert Boyd
Robert Boyd*
Affiliation:
Arizona State University (USA)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Robert Boyd. School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Arizona State University. Arizona (USA). E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The human species is an outlier in the natural world. Two million years ago our ancestors were a slightly odd apes. Now we occupy the largest ecological and geographical range of any species, have larger biomass, and process more energy. Usually, this transformation is explained in terms of cognitive ability—people are just smarter than all the rest. In this paper I argue that culture, our ability to learn from each other, and cooperation, our ability to make common cause with large groups of unrelated individuals are the real roots of human uniqueness, and sketch an evolutionary account of how these crucial abilities co-evolved with each other and with other features of our life histories.

Keywords

cooperationcultural evolutionhuman evolution
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 19 , 2016 , E97
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2017 

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