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289 - Joe Henrich: How Culture Made Humans Weird

289 - Joe Henrich: How Culture Made Humans Weird

Robinson's Podcast vor 1 Monat

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1:01:04

Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological
Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at
Harvard University. His research focuses on cultural evolution,
human psychology, sociality, prestige, cooperation, and the
emergence of complex societies. In this episode, Robinson and Joe
discuss how culture transformed human evolution and enabled our
species to build increasingly large and complex societies. More
particularly, they talk about the tools of paleoanthropology,
hunter-gatherer societies, the rise of massive cities, and why
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic—or
WEIRD—people are psychologically unusual. They also discuss
dominance hierarchies, attractiveness and prestige, the evolution
of morality, and the importance of punishment in human societies.
Joe’s most recent popular book is The WEIRDest People in the
World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and
Particularly Prosperous (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020).

Joe’s Website: https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu

The WEIRDest People in the World: https://amzn.to/3F3wUY7

OUTLINE

00:00 Tools of Paleoanthropology

07:31 Two Hunter-Gatherer Societies

13:12 How Culture Enabled Massive Cities

19:08 The WEIRDEST People in the World

25:59 Dominance Hierarchies

35:40 Attractiveness and Prestige

46:01 The Evolution of Morality

52:33 Punishment

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of
mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD
candidate in the Law School.