Mothers and Others

The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding

By: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

Narrated by: Helen Stern

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Somewhere in Africa, more than a million years ago, a line of apes began to rear their young differently than their Great Ape ancestors. From this new form of care came new ways of engaging and understanding each other. How such singular human capacities evolved, and how they have kept us alive for thousands of generations, is the mystery revealed in this bold and wide-ranging new vision of human emotional evolution.

Mothers and Others finds the key in the primatologically unique length of human childhood. If the young were to survive in a world of scarce food, they needed to be cared for, not only by their mothers but also by siblings, aunts, fathers, friends - and, with any luck, grandmothers. Out of this complicated and contingent form of childrearing, Sarah Hrdy argues, came the human capacity for understanding others. Mothers and others teach us who will care, and who will not.

From its opening vision of "apes on a plane;" to descriptions of baby care among marmosets, chimpanzees, wolves, and lions; to explanations about why men in hunter-gatherer societies hunt together, Mothers and Others is compelling to listen to. But it is also an intricately knit argument that ever since the Pleistocene, it has taken a village to raise children - and how that gave our ancient ancestors the first push on the path toward becoming emotionally modern human beings.

©2009 Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Brilliant analysis

Comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of how human beings came to be, and how we probably pulled our collective resources to become bigger brains, more social, and more mutually understanding.

Thorough

Maybe more thorough than most would need or appreciate, but it was interesting and enlightening. This book speaks to our humanity, history, and changing priorities; a must read for parents, those who work with children, and human beings in general.

Great for ppl interested in human evolution

Would you consider the audio edition of Mothers and Others to be better than the print version?

In Mothers and Others, Hrdy dives deeply into the nuts and bolts of human evolutionary theory while maintaining an approachable, conversational writing style that lends itself beautifully to the audiobook format. Helen Stern provides a perfect performance to match the book.

A popular book rather than a scholarly one.

Many assertions backed up by too little data, and seemingly with a pre-judged agenda. If annotated, the printed material may be better. The reader was good, but as the author is American, the text most likely would have benefitted from an American reader.