Inheritance

byHarvey Whitehouse

The Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World

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‘Insightful and breathtaking’ YUVAL NOAH HARARI, author of Sapiens
‘Bold and sweeping’ PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads
‘Profoundly thought-provoking’ KATE RAWORTH, author of Doughnut Economics

How has humans' evolutionary inheritance shaped global society?

Why are humans everywhere prone to believe in ghosts?
How might our tendency to imitate one another be contributing to the climate catastrophe?
And does our deep evolutionary past impel us to vote for strongmen?

In 1987, Harvey Whitehouse went to live with an indigenous community deep in the Papua New Guinea rainforest. His experiences there convinced him that, far from being wildly different, humans are fundamentally alike: their beliefs and behaviours rooted in a set of evolutionary urges that can be found in any society, anywhere.

Here, Whitehouse roves across twelve millennia and five continents to uncover how these evolved urges have both shaped and been reshaped by human history. Along the way, he shows that this ancient inheritance does not just hold the key to explaining the modern world – but perhaps also to changing it.

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‘Ranges widely across disciplines and timescales to formulate an exhilarating narrative of human history . . . Enthralling and mind-expanding’ IRISH TIMES

‘Profoundly important . . . Whitehouse shows how evolution sculpted our psychological make-up, how we overcame its limitations over the course of world history, and how we can wield this knowledge to face the challenges of the future’ LEWIS DARTNELL, author of Being Human

‘A very powerful, provocative and inspiring analysis of the human condition . . . Compelling and highly readable, this book shows why anthropology matters’ GILLIAN TETT, Financial Times columnist and Provost of King’s College, Cambridge

‘A thought provoking look at social forces, and the ways ordinary people can change the world’ GUARDIAN

A bold and sweeping analysis that ranges widely through time, across geographies and through different kinds of human societies. A book of rare ambition and scope.

PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads

About Harvey Whitehouse

Professor Harvey Whitehouse is Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion.

One of the world’s leading experts on the evolutionary basis of human culture, Whitehouse has spent four decades studying some of the most extreme groups on earth: from the battlefields of the Arab Spring, via millenarian cults on Pacific islands, to violent football fans in South America. Along the way, he has undertaken research at some of the world’s most important archaeological sites, brain-scanning facilities, and child psychology labs – all with a view to pioneering a new, scientific approach to the study of human society.

Whitehouse’s work has featured in the Telegraph, Guardian, Scientific American and New Scientist, and he has delivered talks at the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. He lives in Oxford.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9781529159158
  • Length: 368 pages
  • Dimensions: 197mm x 22mm x 128mm
  • Weight: 258g
  • Price: £10.99
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