Radical Anthropology<p>In our view,, the most important and influential book on human evolution this century is Sarah Hrdy's 'Mothers and Others' (2009, Harvard UP). Hrdy, a longstanding <a href="https://c.im/tags/Darwinian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Darwinian</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/feminist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>feminist</span></a> should be far better known than any of the Pinkers, Hararis, Wranghams et al. She is way more knowledgeable about what made us human.</p><p>The focus in 'Mothers and others' is on the evolution of our mutual-mindreading capacities -- which are really not there in other great apes. She roots this in babysitting -- human mothers hand over young infants to the care of diverse others. She argues the onset of such childcare practice would emerge early Pleistocene with H erectus. The outcome of ability to mesh emotional states preceded and was the foundation for <a href="https://c.im/tags/evolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>evolution</span></a> of <a href="https://c.im/tags/language" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>language</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/evolutionaryanthropology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>evolutionaryanthropology</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/cooperativechildcare" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cooperativechildcare</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/intersubjectivity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>intersubjectivity</span></a> <br> <br>Image description: cover of Mothers and others with a baby being lifted high in a carer's arms (who may not be actual mother)<br><a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Mothers_and_Others.html?id=dsiksDFQPDsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">books.google.co.uk/books/about</span><span class="invisible">/Mothers_and_Others.html?id=dsiksDFQPDsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false</span></a></p>