#458 Lesley Newson & Peter Richerson - A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution
Dr. Lesley Newson is honorary post-doc at University of California, Davis. She studies the cultural evolutionary process known as “modernization” which most human populations are now experiencing. Her first degree was in biology. After that she worked for over 20 years as a science writer and television producer before getting a PhD in psychology.
Dr. Peter Richerson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis. He’s a biologist with interest in cultural evolution, animal social learning and mathematical models. He’s also the author of books like Culture and the Evolutionary Process, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, and The Origin and Evolution of Cultures, all written in collaboration with Dr. Robert Boyd.
They are both authors of a recent book, A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution.
In this episode, we focus on A Story of Us. We start with general questions: the relationship between biology and culture; gene-culture coevolution; human behavioral flexibility; and human universals. We then get into the evolutionary story presented in the book, and go through: our last common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos; bipedal apes from 3 million years ago; early humans from 1.5 million years ago; humans from 100.000 years ago; human societies from 30.000 and 10.000 years ago; and modernity. We also discuss the concept of “social tools”, and the importance of our life history in our evolution. We talk about current and future challenges. We then go back to some general questions, and discuss some criticisms of evolutionary psychology; group selection; social selection; and “human nature”. We finish with a question from a patron.
Time Links:
Intro
Biology, culture, gene-culture coevolution, and behavioral flexibility
Our last common ancestor
3 million years ago, and 1.5 million years ago
100.000 years ago
30.000 years ago, and 10.000 years ago
Modernity, and our future
Can we intelligently design our cultures?
Criticisms about evolutionary psychology
Social selection
Is there a “human nature”?
A question from a patron
Follow Drs. Newson and Richerson’s work!
Follow Drs. Newson and Richerson’s work:
Dr. Richerson:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2P7pKhJ
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3wb1Z8Q
Books: https://amzn.to/39oCdUU
Dr. Newson:
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3cy0Ccw
A Story of Us: https://amzn.to/3w8vmsA