Why Humans Have Cultures

Michael Carrithers is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Durham.

• The question - one strand, a second strand, a third strand, and all strands together; the great arc - the great arc, sea shells, between, Europe and the people without history, metamorphic life, the question again; beginning to make history - Darwinian demands, the basic sketch, social and technical intelligence, the selective advantage of sociality, an evolutionary ratchet, the invention of history, three tales; the anatomy of sociality - intersubjectivity, mind-reading, politeness, pedagogy and aesthetic standards, creativity and repetition with constant variation, speech and stories, putting it back together; reading minds and reading life - research programmes, narrative thought, Oedipus Rex, making events, recapitulation; the bull and the saint - the philosopher and the story-teller, a short, sharp story, ambiguities, Siddhasagar again, a disagreement, paradigmatic thought again, imagery.