Not by Genes Alone

How Culture Transformed Human Evolution

Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd

332 pages, parution le 23/06/2006

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Résumé

Humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. While we are similar to other mammals in many ways, our behavior sets us apart. Our unparalleled ability to adapt has allowed us to occupy virtually every habitat on earth using an incredible variety of tools and subsistence techniques. Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammal's. In this stunning exploration of human adaptation, Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd argue that only a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution can explain these unique characteristics.

Not by Genes Alone offers a radical interpretation of human evolution, arguing that our ecological dominance and our singular social systems stem from a psychology uniquely adapted to create complex culture. Richerson and Boyd illustrate here that culture is neither superorganic nor the handmaiden of the genes. Rather, it is essential to human adaptation, as much a part of human biology as bipedal locomotion. Drawing on work in the fields of anthropology, political science, sociology, and economics-and building their case with such fascinating examples as kayaks, corporations, clever knots, and yams that require twelve men to carry them-Richerson and Boyd convincingly demonstrate that culture and biology are inextricably linked, and they show us how to think about their interaction in a way that yields a richer understanding of human nature.

In abandoning the nature-versus-nurture debate as fundamentally misconceived, Not by Genes Alone is a truly original and groundbreaking theory of the role of culture in evolution and a book to be reckoned with for generations to come.

L'auteur - Robert Boyd

Professeur d'anthropologie à l'Université de Californie de Los Angeles, codirecteur du MacArthur Preferences Networks, il s'intéresse à la théorie évolutive et plus particulièrement à l'évolution de la coopération et au rôle de la culture dans l'évolution humaine.

Sommaire

Acknowledgments
Culture Is Essential
Culture Exists
Culture Evolves
Culture Is an Adaptation
Culture Is Maladaptive
Culture and Genes Coevolve
Nothing about Culture Makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution
Notes
References
Index

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	The University of Chicago Press
Auteur(s)	Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd
Parution	23/06/2006
Nb. de pages	332
Format	15 x 23
Couverture	Broché
Poids	446g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780226712123
ISBN13	978-0-226-71212-3