The Human Revolution

Class Texts

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Aiello, Leslie C & Robin I M Dunbar:
Neocortex size, Group Size and the Evolution of Language
Aiello, Leslie C & Peter Wheeler:
The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution
Alcorta, Candace S, & Richard Sosis:
Ritual, Emotion and Sacred Symbols: the evolution of religion as an adaptive complex
Allen, Nick:
Tetradic Theory and the Origin of Human Kinship Systems

In Émergence et évolution de la parenté, ch4
Arcadi, Adam Clark:
Vocal Responsiveness in Male Wild Chimpanzees: implications for the evolution of language
Bakhtin, Mikhail:
Passages from Rabelais and his World
Bamberger, Joan:
The Myth of Matriarchy: why men rule in primitive society
Barkham, Patrick:
The Power of Speech (an interview of Daniel Everett)
Barrett, Louise & S Peter Henzi:
Constraints on Relationship Formation among Female Primates
Beckerman, Stephen & Valentine, Paul:
The Concept of Partible Paternity among Native South Americans
Biesele, Megan:
Women Like Meat: the folklore and foraging ideology of the Kalahari JU/'hoan
Bloch, Maurice:
Placing the Dead: tombs, ancestral villages, and kinship organisation in Madagascar
Bloch, Maurice & Jonathan Parry:
Death and the Regeneration of Life
Boomgaard, Peter:
Perspectives on de Waal’s Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved
Bradden, Edmund:
Chris Knight's Theory of Human Origins: an abridged account
Brown, P et al:
A New Small-Bodied Hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia
Byrne, Richard:
The Evolution of Primate Cognition
Byrne, Richard & Corp, Nadia:
Neocortex Size Predicts Deception Rate in Primates
Chomsky, Noam:
Language and Nature
Corballis, Michael:
From Mouth to Hand: gesture, speech and the evolution of right-handedness
Cowan, James:
Foreword to Kun-Man-Gur the Rainbow Serpent
Delson, Eric & Katerina Harvati:
Return of the Last Neanderthal
Dessalles, Jean-Louis:
Altruism, Status and the Origin of Relevance
Dessalles,Jean-Louis:
Language and Hominid Politics
Dunbar, Robin I M:
Coevolution of neocortex size, Group Size and Language in Humans
Durkheim, Emile:
The Origins of These Beliefs: the genesis of the notion of the totemic principle or Mana
Falk, Dean et al:
The Brain of LB1, Homo floresiensis
Finlayson, Clive et al:
Late survival of Neanderthals at the Southernmost Extreme of Europea
Gallup, Gordon G Jr:
Chimpanzees: self-recognition
Giles, Jim:
Aboriginal Remains Head for Home
Gintis, Herbert, Eric Alden Smith & Samuel Bowles:
Costly Signaling and Cooperation
Gordon, Peter:
Numerical Cognition without Words: evidence from Amazonia
Hage, Per & Jeff Marck:
Matrilineality and the Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes
Hauser, Marc D, Noam Chomsky & W Tecumseh Fitch:
The Faculty of Language: What is it, who has it and how did it evolve?

Hawkes, Kristen:
The Grandmother Effect

Henrich, Joseph & Francisco J Gil-White:
The Evolution of Prestige: freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission
Henshilwood, Christopher S & Curtis W Marean:
The Origin of Modern Human Behaviour
Henshilwood, Christopher et al:
Middle Stone Age Shell Beads from South Africa
Hill, Russell A & Robert A Barton:
Red Enhances Human Performance in Contests
Hohmann, Gottfried & Barbara Fruth:
Culture in Bonobos? Between-species and within-species variation in behavior
Hovers, Erella et al:
An Early Case of Color Symbolism: ochre use by Modern Humans in Quafzeh cave
Hurford, James:
Languages, and the Human Language Faculty
Hurford, James:
Language Beyond our Grasp: what mirror neurons can, and cannot, do for language evolution
Kaplan, Hillard & Jane Lancaster:
An Evolutionary and Ecological Analysis of Human Fertility, Mating Patterns, and Parental Investment
Kaplan, Hillard & Arthur J Robson:
The Emergence of Humans: the coevolution of intelligence and longevity with intergenerational transfers
Kaplan, Hillard, Kim Hill, Jane Lancaster & A Magdalena Hurtado:
A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: diet, intelligence & longevity
Katz, R: The Death that Kills Us All
Knight, Chris:
Family Ideology and the Crisis in Twentieth Century Kinship Theory
Knight, Chris:
The Politics of Early Kinship
Knight, Chris:
The Syntax of Sex Strike
Knight, Chris:
Revisiting Matrilineal Priority
Knight, Chris:
Ritual and the Origins of Language
Knight, Chris:
Introduction: The Evolution of Cooperative Communication
Knight, Chris:
Sex and Language as Pretend Play
Knight, Chris:
Play as Precursor of Phonology and Syntax
Knight, Chris:
Decoding Chomsky
Knight, Chris:
Decoding Fairytales (large print A4 version)
Knight, Chris:
Decoding Fairytales (booklet version)
Knight, Chris:
The Wives of Sun and Moon
Knight, Chris:
Revisiting Matrilineal Priority

In Émergence et évolution de la parenté, ch3
Knight, Chris:
Why Ritual?
Knight, Chris:
Early Human Kinship Was Matrilineal
In N. Allen & W. James (eds), Early Human Kinship. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 61-82
Knight, Chris & Camilla Power:
Grandmothers, Politics, and Getting Back to Science
Knight, Chris & Camilla Power:
The Origins of Anthropomorphic Thinking
Knight, Chris, Camilla Power & Ian Watts:
The Human Symbolic Revolution: a Darwinian account 
(text version, 706k)
Knight, Chris, Camilla Power & Ian Watts:
The Human Symbolic Revolution: a Darwinian account 
(publication version, 4 meg)
Knight, Chris, Michael Studdert-Kennedy & James R Hurford:
Language: a Darwinian Adaptation?
Kohn, Marek:
Trust. In As We Know It: coming to terms with an evolved mind, ch3, pp184-223. Granta Press, London. 1999
Kohn, Marek & Steven Mithen:
Handaxes: products of sexual selection?
Lathe, Richard:
Fast Tidal Cycling and the Origin of Life
Lathe, Richard:
Early Tides: response to Varga et al
Lattas, Andrew:
Trickery and Sacrifice: Tambarans and the appropriation of female reproductive powers in male initiation ceremonies in West New Britain
Lattas, Andrew:
The Utopian Promise of Government
Lattas, Andrew:
Living with the Past, Living with Oneself: Mimesis, Sexuality and Death in Bush Kaliai Cargo Cults
Levinson, S C:
Language and Mind: let's get the issues straight!
Lévi-Strauss, Claude:
Bororo Song - the birdnester's aria
Lévi-Strauss, Claude:
At the Scene of the Crime: the hunter Monmanéki and his wives
Lévi-Strauss, Claude:
The Savage Mind. Ch4: Totem and Caste
Lévi-Strauss, Claude:
The Wives of the Sun and Moon
Lewis, Jerome:
Forest Hunter-Gatherers and their World: a study of Mbendjele Yaka Pygmies of Congo-Brazzaville and their Secular and Religious Activities and Representations
Locke, John L & Barry Bogin:
Language and Life History: a new perspective on the development and evolution of Human language
Maccoby, Hyam:
Jesus and the Jewish Resistance
Marlowe, Frank W:
Is Human Ovulation Concealed? Evidence from conception beliefs in a hunter-gathere society
McCauley, Robert N & E Thomas Lawson:
Bringing Ritual to Mind: psychological foundations of cultural forms. Ch3: Two Hypotheses Concerning Religious Ritual and Emotional Stimulation

McClintock, Martha K:
Menstrual Synchrony & Suppression

Morgan, Elaine:
Human Evolution: the water theory
Nietszche, Friedrich:
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
Noble, Jason:
Cooperation, Competition and the Evolution of Pre-Linguistic Communication
Novellino, Dario
Contrasting Landscapes, Conflicting Ontologies. Assessing Environmental Conservation on Palawan Island (the Philippines)
Novellino, Dario
The relevance of Myths and Worldviews in Pälawan Classification, Perceptions, and Management of Honey Bees
O'Connell, J F, K Hawkes & N G Blurton-Jones:
Grandmothering and the Evolution of Homo Erectus
Orbell, John et al:
"Machiavellian" Intelligence as a Basis for the Evolution of Cooperative Dispositions
Ortner, Sherry B:
Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?

Pawlowski, Boguslaw:
Loss of Oestrus and Concealed Ovulation in Human Evolution

Penton-Voak, LS et al:
Menstrual Cycle Alters Face Preference
Pinker, Steven & Ray Jackendoff:
The Faculty of Language: what's special about it?
Power, Camilla:
Beauty Magic: deceptive sexual signalling and the evolution of ritual
Power, Camilla:
Women in Prehistoric Art
Power, Camilla:
Biological Substrates of Human Kinship: the view from life history theory and evolutionary ecology

In Émergence et évolution de la parenté, ch2
Power, Camilla & Ian Watts:
The Woman with the Zebra's Penis: gender, mutability and performance
Power, Camilla & Ian Watts:
First gender, Wrong Sex
Radcliffe-Brown, A R:
The Mother's Brother in South Africa
Rappaport, Roy:
The Obvious Aspects of Ritual
Rendell, Luke & Hal Whitehead:
Culture in Whales and Dolphins
Richards, Michael P et al:
Sharp Shift in Diet at Onset of Neolithic
Sahlins, Marshall D:
The Origins of Society
Siskind, Janet:
To Hunt in the Morning
Sperber, Dan & Lawrence Hirschfeld:
Culture, Cognition and Evolution
Staal, Frits:
The Meaninglessness of Ritual
Steels, Luc:
Creating a Robot Culture: an interview with Luc Steels
Steklis, Horst D & Stevan R Harnad:
From Hand to Mouth: some critical stages in the evolution of language
Stern, Kathleen & Martha K McClintock:
Regulation of Ovulation by Human Pheromones
Stevens, Jeffrey R:
The Selfish Nature of Generosity: harassment and food-sharing in primates
Stringer, Chris:
Out of Ethiopia
Tomasello, Michael:
Why Don't Apes Point?
Tomasello, Michael, Brian Hare, Hagen Lehmann & Josep Call:
Reliance on Head versus Eyes in the Gaze Following of Great Apes and Human Infants: the cooperative eye hypothesis
Varga P, K R Rybicki & C Denis:
Comment on the Paper "Fast Tidal Cycling and the Origin of Life" by Richard Lathe
Verhaegen, Marc & Stephen Munro:
Australopiths Wading? Home diving?
Warner, W L:
The Myth of the Wawilak Women
Watkins, Stuart:
Learning to Love Sociobiology: The ideas of Chris Knight
White, Tim D et al:
Pleistocene Homo Sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia