A must-read for Human Ethologists

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. Darwin's unfinished symphony (of course a nod towards Franz Schubert), refers to his strong intimations that culture evolved just as did physical and behavioural characteristrics of animals. Laland, a thoroughgoing Zoologist, points out how human culture is so hugely different from anything in even primates or other large brained mammals and how this has had consequences for the success of our species, in particular in the way cultural knowledge cumulatively rachets up, it autocatalyses, such that "in the last 10-12 thousand years of cultural evolution, humanity has been to the moon, split the atom, built cities, complied encylopaedic knowledge, and composed symphonies."(page 235). By approaching the topic from a thoroughly zoological perspective and noting the uniqueness and strangeness of this complex, cumulative autocatalytic culture, he is able better to see the many factors, and what combination of factors, might be crucial to the evolution of human culture. So the central question he asks is how did this remarkable Richer, J.M. (2020). A must-read for Human Ethologists. Human Ethology, 35, 27-31. https://doi.org/10.22330/he/35/027-031