Ambitious and elegant, this book builds a bridge between
evolutionary theory and cultural psychology. Michael Tomasello is
one of the very few people to have done systematic research on the
cognitive capacities of both nonhuman primates and human children.
"The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition" identifies what the
differences are, and suggests where they might have come from.
Tomasello argues that the roots of the human capacity for
symbol-based culture, and the kind of psychological development
that takes place within it, are based in a cluster of uniquely
human cognitive capacities that emerge early in human ontogeny.
These include capacities for sharing attention with other persons;
for understanding that others have intentions of their own; and for
imitating, not just what someone else does, but what someone else
has intended to do. In his discussions of language, symbolic
representation, and cognitive development, Tomasello describes with
authority and ingenuity the "ratchet effect" of these capacities
working over evolutionary and historical time to create the kind of
cultural artifacts and settings within which each new generation of
children develops. He also proposes a novel hypothesis, based on
processes of social cognition and cultural evolution, about what
makes the cognitive representations of humans different from those
of other primates.
Lucid, erudite, and passionate, "The Cultural Origins of Human
Cognition" will be essential reading for developmental psychology,
animal behavior, and cultural psychology.
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