Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind

by Charles J. Lumsden

There is a missing link in human evolution about which few facts are known and surprisingly little has been written. It is not any one of the intermediate forms connecting modern man to his apelike ancestors. It is something much more challenging -- the early human mind. How did it come into existence? And why? In this highly readable book, Charles J. Lumsden and Edward O. Wilson take us down the twisting corridors through which our species traveled in the two-million-year odyssey from Homo habilis to modern man. They ask why, out of the millions of species that have emerged and gone extinct, human beings alone took the last, abrupt journey to high intelligence and advanced culture. Lumsden and Wilson attribute the sudden emergence of the human mind to the activation of a mechanism both obedient to physical law and unique to man. This "Promethean fire" (an allusion to the original metaphor of the origin of mind) is geneculture coevolution, a mutually acting change in the genes and culture that carried man beyond the previous limits of biology -- yet restrains his nature on an elastic, unbreakable leash. The authors' argument builds umpressively from across the entire range of biological and social sciences, but their presentation is essentially lyrical. They share with the reader their reconstructions -- both stunning line drawings and colorful vignettes -- of how the primitive mind may have functioned in exercising cultural choice with genetic bias. Step by step, they guide us through the diverse categories of evidence, including recent studies of incest avoidance, color vocabulary, infant gaze patterns, taste discriminations, and phobias, which led them toward the theory ofcultural transmission based on the importance of genetic filters in individual mental development.

Genres: Science, Psychology, History

228 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 1983

Reviews

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The focus of this work is ambitious. The authors say (Page v): "What was the origin of mind, the essence of humankind? We will suggest that a very special form of evolution, the melding of genetic change with cultural history, both created the mind and drove the growth of the brain and the human intellect at a rate perhaps unprecedented for any organ in the history of life."

The authors begin with a cursory definition of mind. They then describe a possible evolutionary history to explain the origins of the human mind. The development of the mind, they argue, came about because of gene-culture coevolution, a Promethean fire. Thereafter, they consider sociobiology, rules of mental development, the social worlds of Home sapiens. They conclude by raising implications for the human sciences.

All in all, provocative reading. . . .

[Stephie Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is Edward O. Wilson’s and Charles J. Lumsden’s stab at hashing out sociobiology, making it more theoretical and experimental. Their new premise is that the human mind, and thus behavior, is produced by a marriage of genetics and cultural evolution. In the first chapter they introduce the idea of cultural evolution and how it can be studied. The second chapter focuses on sociobiology, its introduction, the attacks on it and its proponents defense, and its eventual triumph. This last I would add is for the most part. In the third chapter they present mental development and its evolution. The fourth chapter is about the social evolution of humans, which they believe to have started with homo habilis. In chapter five they get down to brass tacks and give their theoretical (computational) analysis of some animal and human traits, and this analysis’ experimental tests. The last chapter presents their program for the study of humans’ social worlds.

The authors’ gene-culture evolution theory, at least the version in the book, is not proven, but there have been some good results out of their theoretical work. However, this work falls far short of what would be needed to make a valuable contribution to human to human interaction. The authors’ fully admit this, so they are not trying to pull one over on their readers, which is the way solid scientific investigation should be. Even after a fuller theory has been shown to work, it is hard to see it becoming a fully acceptable theory, unlike well confirmed theories, such as quantum physics, special and general relativity, and evolution, where it is hard to imagine them being over turned, but not impossible. But, as Richard Dawkins said, in my words, for all intensive purposes evolution can be said to be true.

One issue I have with the authors is their various comments on freewill. They seem to think that culture somehow provides us with it. They do not say how this occurs. They seem to believe that genes are pretty much a determined structure, where culture is variable, thereby providing a non-determined force to freewill. This will not work. Our genes are determined including our bodies and brains, so they seem to think, while culture is variable. Given this the brain can only act via cultural input in a deterministic way. I only feel they throw in the reality of freewill as palliative for those who have a hard time with determinism, and their own sense of freewill. By the way, I do think we have freewill, but not in the usual way, though that is another story I will not enter into now.*

I thought there was something odd with the illustrations of homo habilis and homo erectus by Whitney Powell. These drawings show both species with short hair. I would have thought that their hair would have been uncut, so that it would be long and unkempt.

I thought that the book was interesting enough, even if there is not any cutting edge research in it, given that the book was published in the early 1980’s. I think the authors’ basic approach is sound. It only seems natural that both genes and culture would influence the evolution of mind. Their approach is similar to Terrence Deacon’s theory of the human evolution of language in The Symbolic Species. In it he presents a theory of brain/environment co-evolution with a lot more and later research given. There is a term that I cannot recall for the way a species alters its environment, that subsequently influence the evolution of their genomes. Anyway, it would be interesting to see if Lumsden’s and Wilson’s, or others inspired by their theory of gene-culture evolution, have progressed beyond what they were able to describe in the book.

I could recommend this book to someone interested in human evolution, especially the gene/culture interaction and how that might influence the evolution of the human mind. The potential reader would do well to keep in mind the datedness of the book when assessing its merits.

* For more on my thoughts about freewill you can find it sandwich in between on my blog at aquestionersjourney.wordpress.com/201...

[Johnny Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had no idea what I was getting when I saw the cover but was enthralled. A dense read but I loved how it introduced the link between genes and culture, and how they shape human evolution. Found it hard to get through some sections due to complex subject matters, found the latter half more interesting but understood why groundwork needed to be laid earlier. Would be cool to read a follow-up based on new evidence and theory.

[Riversue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting if a bit dated look at human evolution. This book is a little rudimentary.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and extremely interesting. There is certainly a lot of speculation but it's labeled as such.