Just Finished Reading: The Domesticated Brain by Bruce Hood (FP: 2014)

What is it that makes humans such social creatures? Why do we care what other people think? Why is shunning and being ostracised one of the worst things you can do to anyone? Why is solitary confinement a worse punishment than torture? Why are human brains so sophisticated for their size?

These are just a few of the questions that the author considers using brain physiology, the fossil record, evolutionary speculation coupled with primate studies, child development work and much else besides. With fascinating breadth, incisive in depth observations focusing on step-by-step physical development and a scattering of witty anecdotes the author shows what it is to be human, immersed in a social environment which forced our ancestors to put themselves in their neighbours paws and feel as they felt – to anticipate when an attack might come or when a sexual advance might be rejected (or accepted) by another males ‘partner’. Our brains became the powerhouse we know them to be by being required to cope with complex and overlapping social situations. When mistakes can get you killed – either in straight-up combat or being ejected from the group into a hostile environment without anyone literally watching your back – it most certainly paid to get along with the rest of the tribe and being able to do that, being able to learn and maintain that, effectively made us human. Consciousness, thinking, planning, identity, putting yourself in the minds of others, judging the moral content of actions, attributing agency to others – even other non-humans – ‘reading’ people and situations, memory, spatial awareness and a million other things (slightly exaggerating here) grew from that need – the need to domesticate ourselves to increase our chances of survival in a world where most other creatures appeared (at least on ‘paper’) to be far more dangerous than we were.

Almost every page turned resulted in a raised eyebrow or an exclamation of ‘so that’s why X happens’ and resulted in numerous conversations with some of my team members about their children’s development and those points where something has clearly ‘clicked’ into place and an ability suddenly manifests itself (the latest thing from a colleagues 1 year old daughter was suddenly understanding how pointing works – resulting in her pointing at everything!). This gem of a book is full to the brim with those sorts of things relating not only to cognitive development but experiments which show developmental stages in moral as well as ‘technical’ reasoning – from a surprisingly early age.

This book was a delight to read and I’m pleased to discover (yes, I really have so many books I don’t always realise that I have several books by the same author) that I have another book by this author to look forward too. This also reminded me that I really should be reading more up to date works of science (popular or otherwise) to keep up with things. I’ll certainly try to do more of this in future.