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Thinking Big
How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind
Clive Gamble, John Gowlett, Robin Dunbar
£9.99
From Stone Age networks to Digital Age networking, this book explores the ancient origins of our social lives today
Overview
How did the brains of our hominin ancestors first become human minds? When did our capacity for language and art, music and dance evolve? And why does this matter today?
This groundbreaking book contends 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. As Thinking Big shows, it seems we still inhabit social worlds that originated deep in our evolutionary past – by the fireside, on the hunt and across the grasslands of Africa.
Reviews
'An important, provocative essay on human evolution, argued with great eloquence and skill'
Current Archaeology
'A triumph of collaboration, as well as a gripping detective story'
New Statesman
'A dramatic demolition of the “stones and bones” approach to archaeology'
New Scientist
'Retains the Thames & Hudson tradition of thinking clearly, and writing well … You will not read a more important book this year'
Minerva
'An important piece of work … anyone with an interest in early human and pre-human society should add to their reading list'
Popular Science Books blog
'Compelling'
The Lady
'‘An important piece of work … anyone with an interest in early human and pre-human society should add to their reading list'
Popular Science Books blog
Product Information
Book Details
Format: Paperback
Size: 19.8 x 13.0 cm
Extent: 240 pp
Publication date: 18 January 2018
ISBN: 9780500293829
Contents List
Preface • 1. Psychology Meets Archaeology • 2. What It Means to Be Social • 3. Ancient Social Lives • 4. Ancestors With Small Brains • 5. Building the Human Niche: Three Crucial Skills • 6. Ancestors with Large Brains • 7. Living in Big Societies
About the Author
Clive Gamble is a British archaeologist and anthropologist, and Professor of Archaeology at Southampton University. He has been described as the 'UK’s foremost archaeologist investigating our earliest ancestors'.
John Gowlett is Professor of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at Liverpool University. He is involved in fieldwork in eastern and southern Africa.
Robin Dunbar is a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist specialised in primate behaviour. He is currently head of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. He is best known for formulating Dunbar's number, a measurement of the 'cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships'.
John Gowlett is Professor of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at Liverpool University. He is involved in fieldwork in eastern and southern Africa.
Robin Dunbar is a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist specialised in primate behaviour. He is currently head of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. He is best known for formulating Dunbar's number, a measurement of the 'cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships'.
