A Different Kind of Animal

“Boyd is at his best when he explains how norm construction occurs and how cultural transmission of complicated information can spread throughout a group. The work is thought-provoking.” * Publishers Weekly *“In this lucid, well-argued treatise, anthropologist Robert Boyd avers that we are ‘culture-saturated creatures’, and that it is culturally transmitted knowledge that sets us apart and explains our dramatic range of behaviours, from rampant violence to great feats of cooperation.”—Barbara Kiser, Nature“A Different Kind of Animal is a fascinating introduction to a fertile field of cultural research that should be better-known. Approachable and clearly argued, it is a brave revival of the autonomy of culture and a breath of fresh air for those tired of the narrow claims of evolutionary psychology.” * Cosmos *“Boyd’s latest book is a clear exposition of his cultural evolutionary view of human evolution.”—Thomas J.H. Morgan, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

Robert Boyd is Origins Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His books include How Humans Evolved, Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, and The Origin and Evolution of Cultures. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.