Of the origins of human intelligence she argues that our capacity for intelligence is a byproduct of evolving babyhood. Morgan focuses on the relationship between these two facts as she develops a stunning theory We are seldom reminded that over the same period infants became more helpless, more vulnerable, and more inert. We are often told how, in the course of a million years,Īdults acquired increased dexterity, adaptability, intelligence, and powers of communication. Elaine Morgan, an internationallyīestselling science writer known for her iconoclastic take on evolutionary theory, addresses these questions and more in The Descent of the Child, an intriguing and controversial look at human evolution from the point of view of infant development.īeginning with the assertion that much of our thinking about human evolution exercises an unconscious bias-that we envision an archetypal human being as an adult -Morgan sets out to explain why human infants evolved in the way they did. Why are chimp babies skinny, while human babies are so fat they float? As humans developed greater intelligence-and increased cranial capacity-how did babies and mothers adapt to increased fetal brain size? And how did humans develop our unique intelligence.
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