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The adaptive origins of uniquely human sociality.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Tomasello, M
Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
July 2020

Humans possess some unique social-cognitive skills and motivations, involving such things as joint attention, cooperative communication, dual-level collaboration and cultural learning. These are almost certainly adaptations for humans' especially complex sociocultural lives. The common assumption has been that these unique skills and motivations emerge in human infancy and early childhood as preparations for the challenges of adult life, for example, in collaborative foraging. In the current paper, I propose that the curiously early emergence of these skills in infancy--well before they are needed in adulthood--along with other pieces of evidence (such as almost exclusive use with adults not peers) suggests that aspects of the evolution of these skills represent ontogenetic adaptations to the unique socio-ecological challenges human infants face in the context of a regime of cooperative breeding and childcare. This article is part of the theme issue 'Life history and learning: how childhood, caregiving and old age shape cognition and culture in humans and other animals'.

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Published In

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2970

ISSN

0962-8436

Publication Date

July 2020

Volume

375

Issue

1803

Start / End Page

20190493

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Behavior
  • Learning
  • Humans
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Communication
  • Attention
  • Adaptation, Biological
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
 

Citation

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Tomasello, M. (2020). The adaptive origins of uniquely human sociality. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 375(1803), 20190493. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0493
Tomasello, Michael. “The adaptive origins of uniquely human sociality.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences 375, no. 1803 (July 2020): 20190493. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0493.
Tomasello M. The adaptive origins of uniquely human sociality. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological sciences. 2020 Jul;375(1803):20190493.
Tomasello, Michael. “The adaptive origins of uniquely human sociality.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, vol. 375, no. 1803, July 2020, p. 20190493. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0493.
Tomasello M. The adaptive origins of uniquely human sociality. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological sciences. 2020 Jul;375(1803):20190493.
Journal cover image

Published In

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2970

ISSN

0962-8436

Publication Date

July 2020

Volume

375

Issue

1803

Start / End Page

20190493

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Behavior
  • Learning
  • Humans
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Communication
  • Attention
  • Adaptation, Biological
  • 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences