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Virtually all theories of how humans have become such a distinctive species focus on evolution. Here, Michael Tomasello proposes a complementary theory of human uniqueness, focused on ontogenetic processes. His data-driven model explains how those things that make us most human are constructed during the first years of a child's life. Tomasello assembles nearly three decades of experimental work with chimpanzees, bonobos, and human children to propose a new framework for psychological development between birth and seven years of age. He identifies eight pathways that starkly differentiate humans from their closest primate relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms, and moral identity. In each of these, great apes possess rudimentary abilities. But then, Tomasello argues, the maturation of humans' evolved capacities for shared intentionality transform these abilities into uniquely human cognition and sociality. The first step occurs around nine months, with the emergence of joint intentionality, exercised mostly with caregiving adults. The second step occurs around three years, with the emergence of collective intentionality involving both authoritative adults, who convey cultural knowledge, and coequal peers, who elicit collaboration and communication. Finally, by age six or seven, children become responsible for self-regulating their beliefs and actions so that they comport with cultural norms. Built on the essential ideas of Lev Vygotsky, Becoming Human places human sociocultural activity within the framework of modern evolutionary theory, and shows how biology creates the conditions under which culture does its work.--

Developmental psychology. --- Evolutionary psychology. --- Ontogeny. --- Socialization. --- Piaget. --- Vygotsky. --- collective intentionality. --- cooperative thinking. --- false belief. --- great apes. --- joint attention. --- joint intentionality. --- shared intentionality theory.

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A number of researchers have tried to characterise the anatomy and behavioural systems of early hominid and early modern human populations in an attempt to understand how we became what we are. Can archaeology, palaeo-anthropology and genetics tell us how and when human cultures developed the traits that make our societies different from those of our closest living relatives? In which cases are these differences substantial, and when do they simply reflect our definitions of culture, species, the image we have of their evolution or of ourselves? From Tools to Symbols, a collection of twenty-seven selected papers from a South African-French conference organised in honour of the well-known palaeo-anthropologist Phillip Tobias, provides a multidisciplinary overview of this field of study. It is based on collaborative research conducted in sub-Saharan Africa by South African, French, American and German scholars in the last twenty years, and represents an excellent synthesis of the palaeontological and archaeological evidence of the last five million years of human evolution.

Hominids --- Paleoclimatology --- Hominidés --- Paléoclimatologie --- Tobias, Phillip Vallentine --- Tobias, Phillip V. --- Festschrift - Libri Amicorum --- Hominidés --- Paléoclimatologie --- Geologic climate --- Palaeoclimatology --- Paleoclimate --- Climatic changes --- Climatology --- Great apes --- Hominians --- Hominidae --- Homininae --- Hominins --- Homonids --- Man-like primates --- Pongidae --- Apes --- Primates --- Tobias, P. V.

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Eating Apes is an eloquent book about a disturbing secret: the looming extinction of humanity's closest relatives, the African great apes-chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. Dale Peterson's impassioned exposé details how, with the unprecedented opening of African forests by European and Asian logging companies, the traditional consumption of wild animal meat in Central Africa has suddenly exploded in scope and impact, moving from what was recently a subsistence activity to an enormous and completely unsustainable commercial enterprise. Although the three African great apes account for only about one percent of the commercial bush meat trade, today's rate of slaughter could bring about their extinction in the next few decades. Supported by compelling color photographs by award-winning photographer Karl Ammann, Eating Apes documents the when, where, how, and why of this rapidly accelerating disaster. Eating Apes persuasively argues that the American conservation media have failed to report the ongoing collapse of the ape population. In bringing the facts of this crisis and these impending extinctions into a single, accessible book, Peterson takes us one step closer to averting one of the most disturbing threats to our closest relatives.

Apes --- Wildlife conservation --- Ape meat industry --- african apes. --- african forests. --- american media. --- ape populations. --- ape slaughter. --- asian companies. --- bonobos. --- bush meat. --- central africa. --- chimpanzees. --- color photographs. --- commercial ape meat. --- conservation. --- consumption of animals. --- easy to read. --- endangered species. --- environmental loss. --- european companies. --- evolutionary relatives. --- expose piece. --- extinction. --- gorillas. --- great apes. --- karl ammann. --- logging. --- nonfiction. --- population collapse. --- primates. --- primatology.

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This volume, the fifth in the important Koobi Fora series on human origins, reports archaeological finds from excavations at East Turkana in northern Kenya from 1969-1979. It concentrates on the evidence from the period between 1.9 and 0.7 million years ago for reconstructing the behavior of early human ancestors. During this research study, new interdisciplinary methods of survey, mapping, excavation, experimentation, and analysis were developed. The study investigated the geology, stratigraphy, site formation processes, technology of the stone assemblages, and associated fauna of the region. This book is a unique record for this time period in Kenya, and this work is a benchmark in the field of human evolution.

Fossil hominids --- Hominidés fossiles --- Hominids. --- Hominidés. --- Paleoecology --- Paléoécologie --- Geology --- Géologie. --- Antiquités --- Kenya --- Antiquities. --- -Paleoecology --- -Fossil hominids --- Hominids --- Geognosy --- Geoscience --- Earth sciences --- Natural history --- Great apes --- Hominians --- Hominidae --- Homininae --- Hominins --- Homonids --- Man-like primates --- Pongidae --- Apes --- Primates --- Early man --- Fossil hominins --- Fossil man --- Hominids, Fossil --- Hominins, Fossil --- Human fossils --- Human remains (Archaeology) --- Primates, Fossil --- Paleoanthropology --- Palaeoecology --- Ecology --- Paleobiology --- Hominidés fossiles --- Hominidés. --- Paléoécologie --- Géologie. --- Antiquités

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Animal physiology. Animal biophysics --- Biological anthropology. Palaeoanthropology --- Africa --- Fossil hominids --- Hominids --- Homme fossile --- Hominidés --- Congresses. --- Congrès --- Africa, Sub-Saharan --- Afrique subsaharienne --- Antiquities --- Antiquités --- Great apes --- Hominians --- Hominidae --- Homininae --- Hominins --- Homonids --- Man-like primates --- Pongidae --- Apes --- Primates --- Early man --- Fossil hominins --- Fossil man --- Hominids, Fossil --- Hominins, Fossil --- Human fossils --- Human remains (Archaeology) --- Primates, Fossil --- Paleoanthropology --- -Africa, Black --- Africa, Subsaharan --- Africa, Tropical --- Africa South of the Sahara --- Black Africa --- Sub-Sahara Africa --- Sub-Saharan Africa --- Subsahara Africa --- Subsaharan Africa --- Tropical Africa --- -Congresses --- -Antiquities --- Hominidés --- Congrès --- Antiquités --- Congresses --- Africa, Black