Details

  • Venue URL: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=parliament%20hall%20st%20andrews&oq=parliament+hall+st+andrews&aqs=chrome.0.0l5.3334j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=56340684,-2793409,150&tbm=lcl&rldimm=7143692287226804818&ved=0ahUKEwiXkY3eyOrVAhVLBsAKHer4CJYQvS4IOTAA&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2#rlfi=hd:;si:7143692287226804818;mv:!1m3!1d1531.8311042295704!2d-2.8046493!3d56.3407818!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i621!2i133!4f13.1;tbs:lrf:!2m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2

    • Information

    Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for cultural production, from the arts and language to science and technology. But recent research suggests that our culture is not only a magnificent end product of the evolutionary process, it was also a key driving force behind it. The truly unique characteristics of our species – our intelligence, language, teaching, and cooperation – are not adaptive responses to predators, disease or other external factors. Rather, humans are creatures of their own making. Drawing on his acclaimed popular-science book Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind, which drew huge crowds at the 2017 Hay book festival, Professor Kevin Laland describes how studying animal behavior – including painting elephants, dancing cockatoos, and innovating orangutans – sheds new light on human origins. In a whistle-stop tour through three decades of research, Laland explains how the cultural activities of our ancestors transformed the evolutionary dynamic, to generate a species unlike all others.

    40-minute talk + 20-minutes Q & A

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