The Rig: New season
Buy new:
£32.75
FREE delivery Friday, 10 January
Dispatches from: Speedyhen UK
Sold by: Speedyhen UK
£32.75
FREE delivery Friday, 10 January. Details
Only 1 left in stock.
££32.75 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££32.75
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatches from
Speedyhen UK
Speedyhen UK
Dispatches from
Speedyhen UK
Returns
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Item can be returned in original condition for a full refund within 30 days of receipt unless seller’s return policy specifies more favourable return conditions. For seller’s return policy click on seller's name located in the "Sold by" section.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
£19.67
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, 7 January. Details
Or fastest delivery Tomorrow, 5 January. Order within 12 hrs 46 mins. Details
Only 1 left in stock.
££32.75 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££32.75
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind Hardcover – Illustrated, 21 Mar. 2017

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 58 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"£32.75","priceAmount":32.75,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"32","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"75","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"DzJ9zvb8Rzq5I1VuwU1KeaYFhp1kqEhvGVZ%2FiqJJjWisGY7f3H9fCaN0bv8m9Bh%2FEsHYjl1f2mSMA93GfjvdTk9yzkEHo1omRY6A%2B85s%2Bs%2B4f5PPPSzA2goA8IAZqkbfs%2Beb6GxANL1j5az1XqsvNEHn%2BY3GJsbftrpgEJqKvIJjfKdDqfR4Mg%3D%3D","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"£19.67","priceAmount":19.67,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"67","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"DzJ9zvb8Rzq5I1VuwU1KeaYFhp1kqEhvtWGcXF85ViYdV%2FsUqFtJq5NgHwMxqHtP5FCrQ4AW9wZAHDqMBm9oYVQvc9QmGVEh7FgiLG3OTgUYdipOv8fj0pYDTdDEJv3x6YxlptYE8DHkQF%2FjIoN7fh8c5qxQbBxiHI8FlhVbnAv2m0FY%2FZi23%2BPPqWR9EbWw","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

How culture transformed human evolution Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for cultural production, from the arts and language to science and technology. How did the human mind--and the uniquely human ability to devise and transmit culture--evolve from its roots in animal behavior? Darwin's Unfinished Symphony presents a captivating new theory of human cognitive evolution. This compelling and accessible book reveals how culture is not just the magnificent end product of an evolutionary process that produced a species unlike all others--it is also the key driving force behind that process. Kevin Laland shows how the learned and socially transmitted activities of our ancestors shaped our intellects through accelerating cycles of evolutionary feedback. The truly unique characteristics of our species--such as our intelligence, language, teaching, and cooperation--are not adaptive responses to predators, disease, or other external conditions. Rather, humans are creatures of their own making. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research, and bringing it to life with vivid natural history, Laland explains how animals imitate, innovate, and have remarkable traditions of their own. He traces our rise from scavenger apes in prehistory to modern humans able to design iPhones, dance the tango, and send astronauts into space. This book tells the story of the painstaking fieldwork, the key experiments, the false leads, and the stunning scientific breakthroughs that led to this new understanding of how culture transformed human evolution. It is the story of how Darwin's intellectual descendants picked up where he left off and took up the challenge of providing a scientific account of the evolution of the human mind.
Kindle Storyteller Award 2024
Check out this year's winner: 'Stateside' by J.D KIRK. Read more

Product description

Review

"[Lala] describes a decade's worth of his and others' research, culminating in a comprehensive and fascinating solution to the vexing problem of the human mind."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"An excellent and thorough discussion of how human culture in feedback loops adapted the mind to tackle ever increasing complex social and technological problems. . . . I highly recommend Kevin N. Lala's book
Darwin's Unfinished Symphony for biologists and students in the humanities alike. After decades of work and thought the book captures and explains in detailed, lucid prose important findings in cultural evolution and the extended evolutionary synthesis."---Gregory F. Tague, Consciousness Literature and the Arts

"As Lala reveals, human endeavour is a vast, cooperative effort that cannot be explained by natural selection alone. . . . Our success, he argues, is not down to language, tool-use, empathy or any other single factor, but rather a 'whirlpool' of cultural and biological processes. In this book, he scours the animal kingdom for clues to why we are a species apart."
---Stuart Blackman, BBC Wildlife Magazine

"Behavioural and evolutionary biologist, Kevin N. Lala shows how learned and socially transmitted activities of our ancestors shaped our intellectual abilities through accelerating cycles of evolutionary feedback. Drawing on his own research, Professor Lala explains how animals imitate, innovate, and have remarkable traditions of their own. . . . This engaging book will appeal to people who wish to understand human nature and civilization, whether philosophers, scientists and those with a curious mind."
---Forbes.com

"Darwin was certainly aware of the importance of human culture, but under Mr. Lala's sophisticated interpretation, cultural innovations did not merely respond to environmental challenges but also helped create the elaborate surroundings within which natural selection made us what we are today. Besides illuminating the interaction between biological and cultural evolution, he gives suitable attention to recent discoveries in the new field of 'cognitive ethology, ' which has revealed astounding mental capacities on the part of our animal relatives. . . . Mr. Lala is one of those rare biologists who have personally studied the processes--notably in fishes and rats--whereby animals learn and transmit their learning and who has also applied mathematical models to the spread of cultural traditions among human beings and other species. The evolution of learning is a well-trodden research path, but
Darwin's Unfinished Symphony may be the first book-length integrated account of the evolution of teaching."---David Barash, Wall Street Journal

"In
Darwin's Unfinished Symphony Kevin N. Lala makes a powerful case that culture drove much of our species' genetic evolution over the past few million years. . . . Darwin's Unfinished Symphony makes a compelling case that elegantly seats humans within the natural world, while at the same time explaining our peculiar uniqueness."---Joseph Henrich, Science

"Kevin N. Lala's ambitious new book is, to my mind, the best account yet. . . . A richly rewarding and powerfully argued book."
---Steven Rose, Times Higher Education

"This well-researched book establishes how cognitive processes are essential for 'cumulative' learning, finding links 'between teaching, language, and cumulative culture.' After years of studying human culture and the human mind, Lala concludes that other evolutionarily advanced animals do not possess human attributes, as is often claimed."-- "Choice"

"
Darwin's Unfinished Symphony is accessible to the general reader and well researched. It is an enjoyable and valuable place to begin or to top up your understanding of our enigmatic existence."---Mark Pagel, New Scientist

"[B]rilliant."
---Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, The Jerusalem Post

"A persuasively comprehensive account that not only brings forward exciting and thought-provoking new theses but is also accessible to a wider public."
---Anders Klostergaard Petersen, Journal of Cognitive Historiography

"All Human Ethologists should read this book. It is not that it is just well written but that the quality, style and creativity of thought behind it is an object lesson in how this area of science ought to be conducted."
---John Richer, Human Ethology

"One of Forbes.com's 10 Best Biology Books of 2017, chosen by GrrlScientist"

"Selected for Askblog's Books of the year 2017"

"This is a very impressive interdisciplinary work about cultural evolution that draws on the author's research over a 30-year period about the ways in which culture drives the development of the human mind, addressing the fundamental question about how evolutionary processes have resulted in our unique human heritage."
---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

"Winner of the 2017 British Psychological Society Book Awards, Best Academic Monograph"

"Winner of the 2018 PROSE Award in Biological Science, Association of American Publishers"

From the Back Cover

"With relentless determination and passion, Laland has accumulated a wealth of data and ideas from his experimental studies of social learning in many species. Spanning many disciplines, he weaves a rich, sophisticated, and ever-changing tapestry, showing us how the coevolution of cultural practices and products has shaped both the most mundane and extraordinary aspects of human life."--Eva Jablonka, Tel Aviv University

"A most enjoyable and rewarding book that investigates many of humans' greatest achievements--from language to art--from the perspective of animals and evolution. Ranging across many different topics, Laland brings together processes of biological and cultural evolution in unique and fascinating ways to explain what it means to be human."--Michael Tomasello, codirector of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

"Kevin Laland's wonderful book explores the evolutionary origins of human culture. He argues that what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is our particular talent for precisely imitating others, coupled with our ability to transfer potentially huge amounts of information across time and space. As such, culture is the key to explaining the 'entangled bank' of human nature--Darwin would be proud."--Nicky Clayton, University of Cambridge

"Kevin Laland is one of the pioneers in the modern study of cultural evolution. Darwin's Unfinished Symphony draws on his large and important body of work, showing how culture--socially transmitted knowledge--is what has made humans so successful as a species."--Robert Boyd, coauthor of Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution

"Truly impressive. Laland presents a new theory of cognitive evolution that is deeply grounded in evolutionary theory and comparative analyses, but which doesn't make the twin mistakes of exalting humans at the expense of other species or overplaying the continuity between the two. He also demonstrates beautifully why human cultural evolution has remained an evolutionary puzzle for so long."--Louise Barrett, author of Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; Illustrated edition (21 Mar. 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691151180
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691151182
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 3.81 x 24.13 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 58 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Kevin N. Laland
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Kevin Laland is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the University of St Andrews, where he is a member of the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Social learning and Cognitive Evolution, the Institute for Behavioural and Neural Sciences, and the Scottish Primate Research Group. After completing his PhD at University College London, Laland held a Human Frontier Science Programme fellowship at UC Berkeley, followed by BBSRC and Royal Society University Research fellowships at the University of Cambridge, before moving to St Andrews in 2002. He has published over 200 scientific articles and 11 books on a wide range of topics related to animal behaviour and evolution, particularly social learning, cultural evolution and niche construction. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Society of Biology, and the recipient of both an ERC Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
58 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • DJ_MAG
    5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirador
    Reviewed in Brazil on 1 August 2023
    Adoro teorias evolucionárias e quando elas se "encontram" com o universo da arte e da beleza é incrível! Adorei o livro.
  • Dr. Glockenspiel
    4.0 out of 5 stars La symphonie inachevée de Darwin est de situer les capacités ...
    Reviewed in Canada on 4 December 2017
    La symphonie inachevée de Darwin est de situer les capacités intellectuelles ou cognitives humaines par rapport à celles des autres espèces. Il y consacre deux ouvrages après l'Origine des espèces . La filiation de l'homme et la sélection liée au sexe (The Descent of Man and the selection in relation to sex, 1871), L'Expression des émotions chez l'homme et les animaux (1872), qui, semant différentes pistes stimulantes, laissent en plan autant de questions faute d'évidences empiriques et de concepts pour nous devenus centraux (dont l'héritabilité génotypique).
    La quête de prolongements et de réponses suscite des travaux nombreux et stimulants depuis les trois dernières décennies. Kevin Laland présente dans cet ouvrage sa contribution tenant en la synthèse des recherches menées par son équipe sur 25 ans, avec différents compléments esquissant des axes de recherches en cours.

    Laland reconstitue à grands traits la tendance qui fut d'abord considérée inséparable ou naturellement liée à Darwin, qui attribue de manière charitable aux autres espèces les mêmes classes ou catégories de capacités cognitives qui font notre orgueil (capacité morale, logique, sociale, coopérative, esthétique), capacités dont la seule différence avec les nôtres en serait de degré, capacités que les recherches scientifiques auraient encore échoué à saisir en raison de leur nombre encore modeste ou de leur manque à gagner au plan des conditions expérimentales.

    Cette tendance, dont certains films se rapprochent qui mettent en vedette des animaux résolvant des dilemmes de justice, s'ancre à travaux qui carburent à base d'anecdotes non réplicables et d'émotions proches du mysticisme (cf. Franz de Waal). En rupture avec ce point de vue, la reconnaissance d'une unicité de l'intelligence humaine résidant principalement dans sa dimension sociale, écrit Laland, fait l'objet d'un consensus actuellement. "The gap is social" (dixit Michael Tomasello figure de premier plan de ce paradigme et penseur très largement repris par Laland, citation extraite de sa contribution à P.Kappeler & J. B. Silk, 2009, Mind the Gap: Tracing the Origins of Human Universals).

    Les travaux originaux exposés dans les chapitres 2 à 5 détaillent les capacités d'apprentissage sociale, par imitation, d'espèces éloignées phylogénétiquement de l'homme telles des variétés de poisson (threespine et ninespine sticklebacks) et d'oiseaux. Ces travaux servent d'illustration au postulat central de Laland selon lequel l'apprentissage social n'est jamais inconditionnel ou automatique, mais suit différentes conditions qui le rendent efficace et adaptatif : conditions ayant trait au quand imiter (imite si 1. le coût de l'apprentissage asocial - par essai et erreur - est trop élevé en termes de prédation, imite 2. en cas d'insatisfaction envers le résultat obtenu; ou 3. en cas d'incertitude pour cause 3.1 d'environnement changeant ou 3.2 d'informations périmées); et ayant trait au qui imiter (1. la majorité, cinq individus performant une fois le même comportement, davantage qu'un individu performant cinq fois le même comportement, 2. l'individu le plus prestigieux, autour duquel gravitent 3 femelles davantage que celui autour duquel 1 femelle gravite, 3. l'individu ayant le plus de succès dans son approvisionnement - déduction via l'information publique ou comportement, de la qualité et quantité des ressources). Cette base expérimentale est, largement, à la source des apports originaux de Laland à la symphonie inachevée. L'autre portion tient en la description détaillée de la nature précise du "gap" ou écart.

    Cet écart, selon Laland, tient en la rétention des comportements à imiter au fil des générations, en la précision avec laquelle ces comportements sont transmis, en l'émergence de l'éducation (teaching) pour augmenter cette précision - cumulativité, et en l'émergence du langage pour étendre la portée de l'éducation au-delà des relations entre parents ("kin") et au-delà d'un domaine d'activités spécifiques, affaiblissant le coût de l'éducation, et redoublant la précision de la transmission.

    Précision de la transmission - éducation - langage forment les trois piliers sur lesquels l'unicité de l'apprentissage social-imitatif humain repose au sens de Laland et son équipe. Il consacre une portion de l'ouvrage à démontrer que cette hypothèse satisfait les 7 conditions à l'évolution du langage posées par Szamado et Szathmary dans un article clef (2006) : unicité, honnêteté, caractère coopératif et adaptatif, motivation à l'apprentissage, et ancrage symbolique. Une portion plus considérable de l'ouvrage tient en la reprise d'un postulat initialement formulé par Allan Wilson selon lequel, à partir d'un certain seuil, les innovations et comportements imités sont à l'origine de pressions sélectives favorisant la rétention de mutations génétiques clefs pour l'accroissement de la taille du cerveau (anatomie, connections entre aires), la consolidation du contrôle d'un organisme sur son environnement et sa modification morphologique (stabilisation des mutations responsables des modifications d'organes compatibles avec les innovations comportementales apprises et transmises).

    Laland insère cette hypothèse dans le cadre plus global de la construction de niche, auquel il a puissamment contribué à donner une formulation achevée (voir. Odling-Smee, Laland et Feldman, Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution). Ce cadre donne à la théorie défendue ici sa véritable ampleur : non seulement l'imitation transmise avec précision du fait de l'éducation et du langage forme-t-elle l'unicité de l'apprentissage social humain, mais par sa production de nouvelles pressions sélectives affectant la taille du cerveau, l'anatomie et la physiologie de l'espèce, cet apprentissage forme un processus autocatalytique au sein duquel nous distinguons deux phases. Après le règne des pressions environnementales auxquelles des réponses biologiques-adaptatives étaient apportées, Laland distingue une période caractérisée par des pressions sélectives occasionnées par des comportements-innovations auxquels des réponses biologiques-adaptatives étaient apportées (telle la tolérance au lactose, ou la rétention de gènes favorisant l'immunité aux virus proliférant en contexte de sédentarité et de proximité avec les espèces domestiquées, notamment) laquelle période fut suivie d'une autre, dans laquelle les pressions sélectives créées par des innovations suscitent, non plus seulement des adaptations biologiques, mais surtout et dans un tout premier temps, des réponses culturelles (techniques notamment).

    Les contraintes à l'innovation culturelle posées par le nomadisme et l'exigence de mobilité sont détaillées afin de mieux mettre en lumière l'ampleur du processus autocatalytique amorcée ultérieurement à partir de la conjonction de la domestication des plantes et animaux avec la sédentarisation et l'agriculture. D'une part, une mobilité réduisant le patrimoine matériel au minimum, faisant appel à tous également dans les tâches de collecte et de chasse, ne laissant place à aucune augmentation de prestige à base de ressources accumulées, et contraignant à des naissances espacées (moyenne de 4 ans d'écart entre les naissances); d'autre part, bien qu'à travers plusieurs difficultés et écueils, accumulation de ressources, division du travail, encouragement à l'innovation technique (irrigation, charrue, laboure...), augmentation démographique, naissance d'administration (décompte des récoltes), de villes, d'armée et d'états.

    Les forces de l'ouvrage :
    • un enrichissement des recherches sur l'unicité des capacités d'apprentissage sociale humaine dans un dialogue stimulant avec certaines figures clefs du domaine, sur fond d'études expérimentales nouvelles et solides (au sein d'espèces peu étudiées);
    • une cohabitation réussie du postulat de l'unicité sociale-cognitive humaine avec une extension subtile - sélective et attentive aux détails - de la capacité imitative à des espèces peu réputées pour leur intelligence;
    • un étagement successif des arguments clair et stimulant, en général;
    • une réfutation des hypothèses simplistes de la psychologie évolutionniste grand public (pour laquelle les membres de notre espèce auraient construit un environnement en décalage et inadéquation avec leurs capacité cognitives ancrées dans un environnement de Pléistocène - petits groupes liés par l'apparentement, le gossip et autres);
    • un plaidoyer convaincant sur la nécessité d'intégrer histoire culturelle et biologique, innovations culturelles et adaptations biologiques.

    Les faiblesses de l'ouvrage:
    • aucun rapprochement avec la littérature philosophique portant sur la théorie cognitive et évolutionnaire (contrairement à Michael Tomasello);
    • absence de prise en compte de certains travaux clefs postérieurs à 2013 (notamment Thom Scott-Philipps, Speaking Our Minds: Why human communication is different, and how language evolved to make it special et toutes les recherches de Tomasello ultérieurs à Why We Cooperate);
    • une certaine hétérogénéité entre les portions de l'ouvrage résumées dans ce commentaire et les autres portant sur l'agriculture, les fondements de la coopération et l'évolution culturelle de la danse;
    • beaucoup de redites, en particulier lorsqu'il convient de démontrer la pertinence d'une mise en perspective bio-culturelle d'une pratique comme la danse. L'importance et la complexité de la coordination inter-modale (coordination des perceptions - de ce qui est observé - et des actions qu'il convient d'imiter) sont réitérées à plusieurs reprises et l'apport de la mise en perspective proposée ne semble pas aller beaucoup au-delà.

    Point en suspens
    Si, comme Laland le soutient, les innovations culturelles posent des problèmes adaptatifs auxquels des réponses culturelles sont dorénavant apportées (suivant une temporalité beaucoup plus courte que celle des adaptations biologiques qui se poursuivent à la traîne), les partisans actuels des sciences sociales y verront suffisamment matière à persister dans leur voie de négligence et de désintérêt envers les développements des recherches esquissées et synthétisées ici. Il reste une différence dans l'ordre du type de questions que se posent les praticiens des sciences sociales - critiques et constructivistes pour la plupart - et les chercheurs d'ascendance néodarwinienne (Niche construction comprise) : les premiers cherchent à problématiser des rapports de force, de domination et des inégalités, et passent les idées et événements sous le bain acide de cette problématisation incessante, tandis que les rapports de pouvoir ne sont abordés qu'indirectement (lorsqu'ils le sont) par les seconds; abordés, qui plus est, sans un accompagnement revendicateur ou d'indignation, mais avec une tonalité descriptive parfois proche d'une certaine quiétude. L'écart (gap) dans l'intelligence sociale entre espèces peut être admis avec beaucoup moins de réticence que d'autres thèmes développés par l'ancienne sociobiologie notamment, et il est possible d'en tirer des éclairages nouveaux sur certains thèmes de la socio-anthropologie, notamment d'ascendance fonctionnaliste, mais il n'en demeure pas moins que cet autre écart dans la prise en compte des rapports de pouvoir reste béant entre ces domaines d'étude, que l'on doive déplorer ou se réjouir de cet état de fait.
  • Nukyen Archer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente lectura
    Reviewed in Mexico on 29 September 2017
    Es un muy buen libro, Kevin Laland ve la evolución no solo desde la perspectiva biológica sino desde la cultura. Se aborda la evolución del comportamiento de una manera sencilla, aunque si se requiere un poco de antecedentes para comprender todos los términos.
  • Marco Ferrari
    5.0 out of 5 stars Complesso e non facile
    Reviewed in Italy on 16 May 2018
    Usando tecniche moderne e sapienza classica, da Darwin in poi, Laland spiega che secondo lui la cultura umana deriva da intricate e difficili interazioni tra biologia e, successivamente cultura. E pensa che l'insegnamento, l'imitazione e la fedeltà culturale siamo indispensabili per spiegare il comportamento umano. Ricchissimo di rimandi e note, convince quasi fino in fondo. Da leggere e discutere
  • Matias Berg
    5.0 out of 5 stars The unique mechanisms behind genetic and cultural co-evolution. Presenting the Big Picture
    Reviewed in Germany on 20 July 2017
    This book certainly is one of the main contributions to the theory of cultural evolution. It is a kind of opus magnum of one of the leading figures in this field of research.

    The theory of cultural evolution comes in two flavours: the first, the theory of memes or memetics is well known after Richard Dawkins coined the word 'meme' in the seventies, but memetics is all but scientifically dead. Kevin Laland dismisses it in one sentence in footnote nr.3 „However, the modern science of cultural evolution derives very little from memetics“. Unfortunately, that is correct.

    The other theory, called Dual Inheritance Theory (DIT) - also known as gene–culture coevolution - is all but unknown to the wider public, but it is alive and kicking in academia, probably because it was linked to massive mathematical modelling right from the beginning. The best known (and most accessible) book of this theory is „Not by genes alone“ by Peter Richerson and Robert Boyd, an absolute must-read for everyone interested in the subject. (Other names busy in this field of research are L. Cavalli-Sforza, Marcus Feldman, Herbert Gintis, Joseph Henrich)

    The author starts by accentuating the gap that separates the so-called proto-culture found in apes or dolphins or clever crows, on the one hand, and human culture on the other hand. Only human culture is cumulative, it works like a ratchet that knows only one direction: towards more knowledge, more complexity. Those clever chimps are still sitting in the forest, cracking nuts as they did maybe millions of years ago, whereas the advances of human culture, especially technology, are breathtaking.

    Central to Laland's argumentation is the „cultural drive hypothesis“: Due to a cultural feedback mechanism, the mammalian brain has driven its own evolution: Positive selection for better perceptual systems, more cross-modal mapping (in the brain), Theory of mind, Mental time travel, tool use, Enhanced diet quality (among others) led to bigger brains, which led to more efficient copying and – very important! - higher fidelity in the copying process, which is a necessary condition for cumulative culture.

    This is the main reason why (proto-)cultures in animal population never „take off“: too low fidelity in social learning resp. copying. And the main reason why human social learning is so effective is of course language. Laland devotes a whole chapter to the question: Why did language evole the way it did? His answer: for effective teaching, for an active transmission (with a high degree of fidelity) of knowledge from teacher to pupil. That too is unique to Homo sapiens. The enormous success of our species rests on this faculty of hi-fi copying, enabling lineages of cumulative knowledge.

    Human culture is, according to Prof. Laland, not only a magnificent end product of an evolutionary process, like the tail of the peacock or the elaborate nest of bowder birds. Culture is an important part of the very process, it is our specific environment. Human adapted during their evolution not only to their natural environment, but even more and increasingly so to their own culture, their own product! „Human minds are not just build for culture; they are build by culture.“ (p.30)
    Humans, like no other animal before, created its own niche: „Our ancestors didn't just evolve to be suited to their world; they shaped their world. The landscape of human evolution did not pre-exist us; we built it ourselves.“ (page 229).

    Those are the main lines of Laland's reasoning. Are they are convincing? I think so. I think it is outdated to treat culture as a kind of by-product of genetic/biological evolution. If culture, as E.O.Wilson famously put it, is „on the leash of genes“, it is (a) a long and flexible leash, and (b) the dog is very big and wayward, and it is often not clear which side is tugging stronger...
    Therefore gene-culture coevolution should become the standard paradigm in human evolution. Sociobiology or Evolutionary psychology are important contributions , but they are too one-sided and unable to explain the whole picture, to account for culture's enormous influence on human evolution.

    But I think that there is a weak spot in DIT / gene-culture coevolution: Laland somewhat fails to account for the fact that the niches that humans create, our cultural environment with all its artifacts, ideas, traditions... - that it has „a life of its own“. The sphere of culture and its entities is the RESULT of human activity, but not of human DESIGN. Humans didn't design the agricultural or industrial world, they stumbled into it. Cultual evolution shows often enough unintended consequences of intentional behaviour, whether it's on a small or a big scale. There is a lot of talk in this book about feedback mechanisms and runaway processes, but it is all about cognitive faculties and the „hardware“ behind them, not about the entities of culture themselves.
    There is one sentence in this book where Kevin Laland alludes to this „life of its own“ of human inventions : „When our ancestors first devised agriculture, they opened up a Pandora's box, and let lose the evil of the Anthropocene.“
    It's the last sentence of chapter 10, just an isolated remark, nothing more.

    It was one of the strong sides of the so-called „meme's eye view“ to stress this independent dynamic in the noosphere. I would like to read a book that combines the insight of both perspectives: the selectionst focus on „memes“ and the kinetic focus on social learning and teaching, as in the DIT.

    Laland has written an important book, presenting an up-to-date summary of the research in DIT. Unfortunately, it is not a pure pleasure to read it, because the style is somewhat dry and academic (more than 1400 endnotes, very few of them give additional information!). Readers already acquainted with the theory of cultural evolution have to read it. For beginners, I can recommend „Not by genes alone“ (the classic text!), or „The Secret of our Success“ by Joseph Henrich, which too is up-to-date theory of the DIT variety, but which is more fun to read.