Inheritance: The Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World

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The ancient inheritance that made us who we are. The ancient inheritance that is now driving us to ruin. Every human being is endowed with an inheritance. A set of ancient biases - forged by natural selection and fine-tuned by millennia of culture - that shape every facet of our behaviour. For countless generations, this inheritance has been taking us to ever greater heights- driving the rise of more sophisticated technologies, more organised religions, more expansive empires. But now, for the first time, it is failing us. Suddenly, we find ourselves on a path to destruction. Here, a leading anthropologist offers a sweeping account of how our inheritance has shaped humanity's past and future. Unveiling a pioneering new way of viewing our collective history - one that weaves together psychological experiments, on-the-ground fieldwork, and big data - Harvey Whitehouse introduces three evolved biases that shape human behaviour everywhere- conformism, religiosity, and tribalism. He recounts how our tools for managing these biases have catalysed the greatest transformations in human history- the birth of agriculture and the invention of kingship, the rise and fall of human sacrifice and the creation of the first crusading empires. And he takes readers deep into the modern-day tribes - from Indonesian terrorist cells to Libyan militias to American ad agencies - that show how our three biases are now spiralling out of control. Above all, he argues that only by understanding our ancient inheritance can we solve our thorniest modern problems, whether violent extremism, political polarisation or environmental catastrophe. The result is a powerful new perspective on the human journey; one that transforms our understanding of where we have been and where we are going.

Author Bio

Professor Harvey Whitehouse is Chair in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. One of the world's leading experts on the evolutionary basis of human culture, Whitehouse has spent four decades conducting research in some of the most extreme places on earth- from the battlefields of the Arab Spring, via millenarian cults on Pacific islands, to violent football gangs in South America. Along the way, he has undertaken research at some of the world's most important archaeological sites, brain-scanning facilities, and child psychology labs - all with a view to pioneering a new, scientific approach to the study of human society. At Oxford, Whitehouse directs the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion and is a founding director of Seshat, a vast database on human history that enables scholars and scientists to test hypotheses about the rise and fall of human civilizations. In academic circles, he is best known as one of the founders of the 'Cognitive Science of Religion', a field that investigates the evolved psychology underlying religious thinking and behaviour. Whitehouse's work has featured in Scientific American, New Scientist, Telegraph, and Guardian. He has delivered talks at the World Economic Forum and the United Nations and served as the Chief Consultant for a BBC Two documentary series, Extraordinary Rituals. He lives in Oxford.