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16 - Thinking Outside the Head

Cognitive Ecologies and Evolutionary Psychology

from Part IV - Group Living

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Louise Barrett
Edited by
Lance Workman ,
Will Reader  and
Jerome H. Barkow
Lance Workman
Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Will Reader
Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University
Jerome H. Barkow
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
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Summary

Humans have colonized virtually every habitat on the planet and have transformed the Earth’s environments to such an extent that there is a strong push to name the current geological epoch the “Anthropocene” (Smith & Zeder, 2013; Steffen et al., 2011). Understanding how humans have achieved such a feat – and how to deal with the unforeseen consequences of these actions – requires a massive, multidisciplinary effort, in which evolutionary-informed analyses of human behavior must surely play a part. Indeed, some researchers claim that an evolutionarily-informed and integrated social science is essential in order to make any headway on this issue (e.g., Mesoudi, 2011). In particular, great claims have been made about the revolutionary promise of evolutionary psychology (EP): how it will transform and unite the social sciences, providing us with a better, more complete explanation of the human mind (e.g., Tooby & Cosmides, 1992, 2005).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior , pp. 194 - 206
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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