Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Thursday, 3 September 2009
How Humans Became Such Other-Regarding Apes
Really nice essay on the essential differences between humans and the rest of the higher primates from an old friend of mine, the anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy - based on her most recent book MOTHERS AND OTHERS. Hrdy argues that the crucial wide differences between the species come in the social realm and involve huge increases in the human propensities for mutual tolerance, social communication and intention-reading.
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