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Becoming Human

A Theory of Ontogeny

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Becoming Human

By: Michael Tomasello
Narrated by: Charles Constant
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About this listen

A radical reconsideration of how we develop the qualities that make us human, based on decades of cutting-edge experimental work by the former director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Virtually all theories of how humans have become such a distinctive species focus on evolution. Here, Michael Tomasello proposes a complementary theory of human uniqueness, focused on development. Building on the seminal ideas of Vygotsky, his data-driven model explains how those things that make us most human are constructed during the first years of a child's life.

Tomasello assembles nearly three decades of experimental work with chimpanzees, bonobos, and human children to propose a new framework for psychological growth between birth and seven years of age. He identifies eight pathways that starkly differentiate humans from their closest primate relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms, and moral identity.

Becoming Human places human sociocultural activity within the framework of modern evolutionary theory and shows how biology creates the conditions under which culture does its work.

©2019 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2018 Tantor Anthropology Developmental Psychology History & Philosophy Philosophy Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Anthropology Theory

Critic reviews

“Theoretically daring, experimentally ingenious, and astonishingly generative.” (Susan Gelman, University of Michigan)
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This book is written in a dry academic style which presuppose some prior knowledge of the subject on the part of the reader. In my opinion the author uses too many self-references, verging on self-promotion, without really engaging with the literature. It makes conclusive assertions while the supporting evidence does not seem all that conclusive, perhaps inevitably so. The core thesis is simple to understand and captivating (even if debatable) and could have been stated and discussed in a more charming style. Instead, the book style is more appropriate for a specialist readership and is ultimately heavy and dull. The way it is read definitely does not help.

Dense and self-promoting

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But the narrator is so monotone and devoid of any interest in the subject matter, it’s actually painful to listen to for too long.

Great material

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