The cultural animal : human nature, meaning, and social life / Roy F. Baumeister.

By:

Baumeister, Roy F [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: Oxford, U.K. ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005Description: xi, 450 pages ; 25 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0195167031
9780195167030

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

302 22

LOC classification:

BF57 .B35 2005

Contents:

1. Beasts for culture -- 2. The human psyche at work -- 3. What people want -- 4. How people think -- 5. How and why emotions happen -- 6. How people act and react -- 7. How people interact.

Review: "This book not only summarizes what we know about people - it also offers a coherent, easy-to-understand, though radical, explanation. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, Roy Baumeister argues that culture shaped human evolution. Contrary to theories that depict the individual's relation to society as one of victimization, endless malleability, or just a square peg in a round hole, his proposal states that the individual human being is designed by nature to be part of society. The Cultural Animal maintains that natural selection shaped the human psyche in two stages, the first for the sake of being social, and the second for the sake of being cultural. Being cultural is a step beyond being social. To be social is to have interactions and relationships, but to be cultural is to belong to a community of similar minds that collectively maintains, transmits, and accumulates information in its network. Moreover, Baumeister argues that we need to briefly set aside the endless study of cultural differences to look at what most cultures have in common - because that holds the key to human nature. Culture is in our genes, although cultural differences may not be."--BOOK JACKET.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	North Campus North Campus Main Collection	302 BAU (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		A454170B

Includes bibliographical references (pages 411-440) and index.

1. Beasts for culture -- 2. The human psyche at work -- 3. What people want -- 4. How people think -- 5. How and why emotions happen -- 6. How people act and react -- 7. How people interact.

"This book not only summarizes what we know about people - it also offers a coherent, easy-to-understand, though radical, explanation. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, Roy Baumeister argues that culture shaped human evolution. Contrary to theories that depict the individual's relation to society as one of victimization, endless malleability, or just a square peg in a round hole, his proposal states that the individual human being is designed by nature to be part of society. The Cultural Animal maintains that natural selection shaped the human psyche in two stages, the first for the sake of being social, and the second for the sake of being cultural. Being cultural is a step beyond being social. To be social is to have interactions and relationships, but to be cultural is to belong to a community of similar minds that collectively maintains, transmits, and accumulates information in its network. Moreover, Baumeister argues that we need to briefly set aside the endless study of cultural differences to look at what most cultures have in common - because that holds the key to human nature. Culture is in our genes, although cultural differences may not be."--BOOK JACKET.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.

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