Human Evolution Quotes

“There are probably two key aspects of culture that stand out as being uniquely human. One is religion and the other is story-telling. There is no other living species, whether ape or crow, that do either of these. They are entirely and genuinely unique to humans.”
― Robin Dunbar, Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction

“In primates at least, infanticide seems to have been the crucial factor driving the evolution of monogamous mating systems.”
― Robin Dunbar, Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction

“There are, in addition, some other aspects of human culture that will prove to be important. One of these is the social performance of music. To be sure, many other species can be said to produce music, including songbirds and whales, to name but the best known. But only humans seem to engage in music as a social activity. For birds, music seems to be mainly a mate advertising display. Humans use music as a mechanism for community bonding in a way that seems to be quite unique. In modern societies, we may often sit listening politely to music in concert halls, but in traditional societies music-making, song and dance are almost indistinguishable and play a crucially important role. This is something we will also need to account for. What underpins all this cultural activity is, of course, our big brains, and this might ultimately be said to be what distinguishes us from the other great apes.”
― Robin Dunbar, Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction

“Sternberg defines love in terms of three independent dimensions: intimacy, passion and commitment. Ignoring the passion element as being a peculiarity of romantic relationships, the other two suggest that relationships have two key components: ‘being close’ and ‘feeling close’.”
― Robin Dunbar, Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction

“There are probably two key aspects of culture that stand out as being uniquely human. One is religion and the other is story-telling. There is no other living species, whether ape or crow, that do either of these. They are entirely and genuinely unique to humans. We know they must be unique to humans because both require language for their performance and transmission, and only humans have language of sufficient quality to allow that. What is important about both is that they require us to live in a virtual world, the virtual world of our minds. In both cases, we have to be able to imagine that another world exists that is different to, and separate from, the world we experience on an everyday basis. We have to be able to detach ourselves from the physical world, and mentally step back from it. Only when we can do this are we able to wonder whether the world has to be the way it is and why, or imagine other parallel worlds that might exist, whether these are the fictional worlds of story-telling or para-fictional6 spirit worlds. These peculiar forms of cognitive activity are not trivial evolutionary by-products, but capacities that play – and have played – a fundamental role in human evolution.”
― Robin Dunbar, Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction