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How Children Invented Humanity
Author(s) -
Bjorklund David F.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13020
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , psychology , neoteny , cognition , cognitive science , humanity , evolutionary psychology , ancestor , cognitive development , child development , human evolution , evolutionary developmental biology , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , evolutionary biology , sociology , ecology , anthropology , neuroscience , philosophy , history , theology , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science , biology
I use the commentaries of Legare, Clegg, and Wen and of Frankenhuis and Tiokhin as jumping‐off points to discuss an issue hinted at both in my essay and their commentaries: How a developmental perspective can help us achieve a better understanding of evolution. I examine briefly how neoteny may have contributed to human morphology; how developmental plasticity in great apes, and presumably our common ancestor with them, may have led the way to advances in social cognition; and how the “invention” of childhood contributed to unique human cognitive abilities. I conclude by acknowledging that not all developmentalists have adopted an evolutionary perspective, but that we are approaching a time when an evolutionary perspective will be implicit in the thinking of all psychologists.