The cultural origins of human cognition
By: Michael Tomasello.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
Subjects: Cognition and culture; Cognition in children
Description: "From an Evolutionary point of view, human cognition is a puzzle. Human beings have been a distinct species for only a very short time, but in this short time we have developed the skills needed to create complex tools and technologies, languages and other symbol systems, and complex social institutions like governments and religions.".

"Many current theories of human cognition stress its biological roots, while others stress its cultural roots. Tomasello demonstrates that both of these perspectives are essential in creating a unified account of the evolution, history, and development of human cognition.

He makes a powerful case that while human cognition is biologically based, this biological adaptation's key contribution is that it permits the flowering of the cultural-historical and ontogenetic processes that have actually made the varieties of human cognition what they are today."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-240) and index.