Peter J. Wilson – författare

In spite of recent advances in the study of evolution, scholars have shied away from the most intriguing problem of all—how and why animal nature became human nature.  In confronting this problem, Peter Wilson leads his readers on a fascinating exploration.  What made it possible, he asks, for one genus of the order Primates, living in Africa in the Plio-Pleistocene era, to become human and to develop culture?  Continuing the tradition of bold speculation fathered by the philosophical anthropology of Hobbes and Rousseau, Wilson seeks to unravel the evidence for such basic human adaptations as self-conscious thought, symbolic kinship, ritual behavior, and objective reasoning. While genetics may account for potentialities and limits, Wilson argues that the actual evolution of a species can be understood only in relation to the changing conditions of its environment.  Rejecting the idea of a human evolutionary leap as contradicting Darwin’s theory, Wilson shows how the continuity of the genus Homo within the order Primates is to be found in generalization.  Man was and is a promising primate, of endless potential coupled with a vulnerable need to exchange promises.  From these emerge kinship systems, society, and culture. This incisive and gracefully written book offers both a new synthesis and a fresh starting point for evolutionists in several disciplines.  Its central argument and special insights—into fatherhood, the incest taboo, marriage, and the relation of food to thought—challenge current emphasis on biogenetic determinism and provide a new approach to anthropological theorizing.

In the exciting book Peter J. Wilson takes domestication as the starting point for his continued inquiry into human evolution. Wilson argues that settling down into a built environment was the most radical and far-reaching innovation in human development and that it had a crucial effect on human psychology and social relations. The insights of this book point the way toward amendments to social theories that will challenge the professional reader and at the same time offer to the general reader an enriched understanding of human behavior and human history. “This book is a rare occurrence: a total rethinking of a set of closely related fundamental problems in the understanding of human evolution….[An] immensely ambitious undertaking.”—Paul Wheatley, Contemporary Sociology“This approach merges societies in surprising ways….It certainly leads to some provocative and stimulating generalizations.”—John Bodley, American journal of Physical Anthropology“Perhaps this book is revolutionary…asking us to rethink human nature, its causes, its cures…It holds out the real possibilities of redoing the human condition by reconceptualizing the power of our environs….[Wilson] has given is a book that is hard to put down once begun, and one whose ideas are even harder to dismiss.”—Harvey B. Sarles, Contemporary Psychology“This is definitely a book on which to sharpen one’s wits….The author invites the reader to think with him about matters not only past but also present which have much relevance for our future. This book makes lively and mind-stretching reading.”—Ashley Montagu