Richard W. Wrangham's Books

Demonic Males

Apes and the Origins of Human Violence

By: Richard W. Wrangham,Dale Peterson

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Demonic Males

Apes and the Origins of Human Violence

By: Richard W. Wrangham,Dale Peterson

Whatever their virtues, men are more violent than women. Why do men kill, rape, and wage war, and what can be done about it? Drawing on the latest discoveries about human evolution and about our closest living relatives, the great apes, "Demonic Males" offers some startling new answers to these questions.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

372

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published Date

ISBN 10

0395877431

ISBN 13

9780395877432

The Goodness Paradox

The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution

By: Richard W. Wrangham

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Goodness Paradox

The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution

By: Richard W. Wrangham

Highly accessible, authoritative, and intellectually provocative, a startlingly original theory of how Homo sapiens came to be: Richard Wrangham forcefully argues that, a quarter of a million years ago, rising intelligence among our ancestors led to a unique new ability with unexpected consequences: our ancestors invented socially sanctioned capital punishment, facilitating domestication, increased cooperation, the accumulation of culture, and ultimately the rise of civilization itself. Throughout history even as quotidian life has exhibited calm and tolerance[,] war has never been far away, and even within societies violence can be a threat. The Goodness Paradox gives a new and powerful argument for how and why this uncanny combination of peacefulness and violence crystallized after our ancestors acquired language in Africa a quarter of a million years ago. Words allowed the sharing of intentions that enabled men effectively to coordinate their actions. Verbal conspiracies paved the way for planned conflicts and, most importantly, for the uniquely human act of capital punishment. The victims of capital punishment tended to be aggressive men, and as their genes waned, our ancestors became tamer. This ancient form of systemic violence was critical, not only encouraging cooperation in peace and war and in culture, but also for making us who we are: Homo sapiens"--

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

402

Publisher

Pantheon

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101870907

ISBN 13

9781101870907

Unbound

How Eight Technologies Made Us Human and Brought Our World to the Brink

By: Richard L Currier

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Unbound

How Eight Technologies Made Us Human and Brought Our World to the Brink

By: Richard L Currier

Like Guns, Germs, and Steel, a work of breathtaking sweep and originality that reinterprets the human story. Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins. The fabrication of weapons, the mastery of fire, and the technologies of clothing and shelter radically restructured the human body, enabling us to walk upright, shed our body hair, and migrate out of tropical Africa. Symbolic communication transformed human evolution from a slow biological process into a fast cultural process. The invention of agriculture revolutionized the relationship between humanity and the environment, and the technologies of interaction led to the birth of civilization. Precision machinery spawned the industrial revolution and the rise of nation-states; and in the next metamorphosis, digital technologies may well unite all of humanity for the benefit of future generations. Synthesizing the findings of primatology, paleontology, archeology, history, and anthropology, Richard Currier reinterprets and retells the modern narrative of human evolution that began with the discovery of Lucy and other Australopithecus fossils. But the same forces that allowed us to integrate technology into every aspect of our daily lives have also brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe. Unbound explains both how we got here and how human society must be transformed again to achieve a sustainable future. Technology: “The deliberate modification of any natural object or substance with forethought to achieve a specific end or to serve a specific purpose.”

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

490

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1628727764

ISBN 13

9781628727760

The Goodness Paradox

The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution

By: Richard W. Wrangham

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Goodness Paradox

The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution

By: Richard W. Wrangham

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

402

Publisher

Pantheon

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101870907

ISBN 13

9781101870907

Catching Fire

How Cooking Made Us Human

By: Richard Wrangham

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Catching Fire

How Cooking Made Us Human

By: Richard Wrangham

In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

318

Publisher

Profile Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1847652107

ISBN 13

9781847652102

Book's by Richard W. Wrangham

Demonic Males

Demonic Males

The Goodness Paradox

The Goodness Paradox

Unbound

Unbound

The Goodness Paradox

The Goodness Paradox

Catching Fire

Catching Fire

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email