Routledge Our Story: How Cultures Shaped People to Get Things Done

The story of human evolution, or Our Story, is about the development and refinement of cultures. Individuals cannot do things on their own, this book argues; their choices are driven by heuristics, biases, illogical preferences, and irrational assumptions about the nature of reality. So how did humanity survive? By forming more and more successful cultures, which are teams of people who share a specific vision of the world. Because cultures-as-teams are more effective if there is a strong correspondence among the members, they select individuals who clarify the team’s vision and force compliance to that vision. Thus, cultures-as-teams are powerful agents for change in the world. They offer the individual the opportunity to accomplish unimaginable goals, but they can also destroy him or her in the process. About the Author W. Penn Handwerker, a professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut, USA trained as a general anthropologist with an emphasis on the intersection of biological and cultural anthropology, has published in all five fields of anthropology (applied, archaeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic). He has done field research in West Africa, the West Indies, the Russia, and various regions of the United States. He developed new methods for studying cultures while doing research on human fertility, entrepreneurship, corruption, and both inter- and intra-generational power differences. His current research focuses on the possibility that the most effective collective action for community sustainability must be consistent with the cultural assumption that each person knows what's best for him or herself.