No AccessCA* Forum on Theory in Anthropology

The Animal Connection and Human Evolution

Abstract

A suite of unique physical and behavioral characteristics distinguishes Homo sapiens from other mammals. Three diagnostic human behaviors played key roles in human evolution: tool making, symbolic behavior and language, and the domestication of plants and animals. I focus here on a previously unrecognized fourth behavior, which I call the animal connection, that characterized the human lineage over the past 2.6 million years. I propose that the animal connection is the underlying link among the other key human behaviors and that it substantially influenced the evolution of humans.

Current Anthropology

Volume 51, Number 4August 2010

Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

Article DOI

https://doi.org/10.1086/653816

Views: 913

Citations: 48
Citations are reported from Crossref

History

Submitted October 3, 2008
Accepted July 23, 2009

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