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The Ape That Understood the Universe

How the Mind and Culture Evolve

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The Ape That Understood the Universe

By: Steve Stewart-Williams
Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
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About this listen

The Ape That Understood the Universe is the story of the strangest animal in the world: the human animal. It opens with a question: How would an alien scientist view our species? What would it make of our sex differences, our sexual behavior, our child-rearing patterns, our moral codes, our religions, our languages, and science? The book tackles these issues by drawing on ideas from two major schools of thought: evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory.

The guiding assumption is that humans are animals, and that like all animals, we evolved to pass on our genes. At some point, however, we also evolved the capacity for culture—and from that moment, culture began evolving in its own right. This transformed us from a mere ape into an ape capable of reshaping the planet, travelling to other worlds, and understanding the vast universe of which we're but a tiny, fleeting fragment.

©2018 Steve Stewart-Williams (P)2019 Steve Stewart-Williams Biological Sciences Evolution Evolution & Genetics Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science
All stars
Most relevant
Skilfully delivered. A great overview offering insight into the deep mechanisms that govern not just human beings but nature itself.

Gene Meme machines!

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I wouldnt recommend this one instead of the other. Moral animal atleast aknowledges that even though women are carers and men breeders, culture doesnt need to emphasise it as it does anymore as we are evolved past primitive functions.

This is just a poor, misogynistic version of the book Moral Animal

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