What separates modern humans from our primate cousins—are we a mere blink in the march of evolution, or does human culture represent the definitive evolutionary turn? Dwight Read explores the dilemma in this engaging, thought-provoking book, taking readers through an evolutionary odyssey from our primate beginnings through the development of culture and social organization. He assesses the two major trends in this field: one that sees us as a logical culmination of primate evolution, arguing that the rudiments of culture exist in primates and even magpies, and another that views the human transition as so radical that the primate model provides no foundation for understanding human dynamics. Expertly synthesizing a wide body of evidence from the anthropological and life sciences in accessible prose, Read’s book will interest a broad readership from experts to undergraduate students and the general public.

"How do you go from a bunch of cells to something that can think?" This question, asked by the 9-year-old son of one of the authors, speaks to a puzzle that lies at the heart of this book. How are we as humans able to explore such questions about our own origins, the workings of our mind, and more? In this fascinating volume, developmental psychologists Jeremy Carpendale and Charlie Lewis delve into how such human capacities for reflection and self-awareness pinpoint a crucial facet of human intelligence that sets us apart from closely related species and artificial intelligence. Richly illustrated with examples, including questions and anecdotes from their own children, they bring theories and research on children’s development alive. The accessible prose shepherds readers through scientific and philosophical debates, translating complex theories and concepts for psychologists and non-psychologists alike. What Makes Us Human is a compelling introduction to current debates about the processes through which minds are constructed within relationships. Challenging claims that aspects of thinking are inborn, Jeremy Carpendale and Charlie Lewis provide a relationally grounded way of understanding human development by showing how the uniquely human capacities of language, thinking, and morality develop in children through social processes. They explain the emergence of communication within the rich network of relationships in which babies develop. Language is an extension of this earlier communication, gradually also becoming a tool for thinking that can be applied to understanding others and morality. Learning more about the development of what is right in front of us, such as babies’ actions developing into communicative gestures, leads to both greater appreciation of the children in our lives and a grasp of what makes us human. This book will be of interest to anyone curious about the nature of language, thinking, and morality, including students, parents, teachers, and professionals working with children.

A dazzling insight into what gives meaning to our life and to us as a species. What makes us human? From Carlo Rovelli on the particles of dust that make us, to Caitlin Moran on the joy of Friday nights, and A C Grayling on how we express ourselves through culture: this illuminating book shares 130 mind-expanding answers to that question. We all want to understand our place in the universe and find a sense of purpose in the life. This book will help the reader navigate that journey with the help of leading names from the worlds of literature, history, philosophy, politics, sport, comedy and popular culture. Originally broadcast as a popular feature on the Jeremy Vine Show, What Makes Us Human? includes short essays from: Andrew Marr, Carlo Rovelli, Marian Keyes, Alain de Botton, Robert Webb, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry, and many more.

This book is about how water becomes people – or, put another way, how people and water flow together and shape each other. While the focus of the book is on the relationships held between water and people, it also has a broader message about human relationships with the environment generally – a message that illustrates not only that people are existentially entangled with the material world, but that the materials of the world shape, determine and enable humans to be ‘humans’ in the ways that they are. Offering a selection of anthropological examples from Kenya, Wales and Spain to illustrate how water’s materiality coproductively generates the way people are able to engage with water, this book uses cross-disciplinary perspectives to provide and promote a new analytic – one that encourages ethical, holistic and sustainable relationships with the world around us. This approach challenges representations that ignore, sidestep or are blind to the fleshy materiality of being human, and aims to encourage a re-imagining of the world that acknowledges humanity as intrinsically active-with and part of the fabric of the collection of materials we call planet Earth.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource depletion, new emerging diseases: scientists have raised awareness on the ecological and societal consequences of the unbridled development of human activities for a long time. Why do we keep destroying nature when science makes it clear that in doing so we risk our own destruction? How can we stop destroying our life-support system and reach some kind of harmony between humans and nature? This book seeks to answer these questions. It describes the inability of modern society to fundamentally modify its relationship with nature, instead engaging in collective fictions such as subject-object duality, matter-mind duality, the primacy of rationality, and the superiority of the human species over all other life. Subsequent chapters identify avenues which could allow human societies to break the current deadlock and forge a relationship with the natural world. This path is rooted in a simple observation: humans have a nature that defines them as a unique species beyond their cultural differences, and at the foundation of this nature we share a set of fundamental needs. The expression and satisfaction of these needs provide an opportunity to reconnect humans with nature in all its forms. Nature That Makes Us Human combines recent scientific discoveries in biology and psychology with deep philosophical inquiry--in addition to economic, political, and historical considerations--to understand what motivates us to keep destroying nature today and how we can engage in a new relationship with nature tomorrow. This book is for anyone interested in understanding and overcoming the current ecological crisis.

A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities. But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief--the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea--is central to the human way of being in the world.

Provides a step-by-step blueprint of cultural dynamics, defining the boundaries between matter and life, life and culture, and animal culture versus human culture. With all these basic concepts the author sets the stage for a renewal of anthropological enquiry.