Basics - In a Helpless Baby, the Roots of Our Social Glue - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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Ruth Howard on 23 Mar 09Quote "Our capacity to cooperate in groups, to empathize with others and to wonder what others are thinking and feeling - all these traits, Dr. Hrdy argues, probably arose in response to the selective pressures of being in a cooperatively breeding social group, and the need to trust and rely on others and be deemed trustworthy and reliable in turn. Babies became adorable and keen to make connections with every passing adult gaze. Mothers became willing to play pass the baby. "Dr. Hrdy points out that mother chimpanzees and gorillas jealously hold on to their infants for the first six months or more of life.Dr. Hrdy wrote her book in part to counter what she sees as the reigning dogma among evolutionary scholars that humans evolved their extreme sociality and cooperative behavior to better compete with other humans." Very cool.