Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood

by Brenna Hassett

Brings the science of biological anthropology to bear on understanding how our evolutionary history has shaped a phenomenon everyone has experienced – childhood.

Tracking deep into our evolutionary history, anthropological science has begun to unravel one particular feature that sets us apart from the many, many animals that came before us – our uniquely long childhoods. Growing Up Human looks at how we have diverged from our ancestral roots to stay 'forever young' – or at least what seems like forever – and how the evolution of childhood is a critical part of the human story.

Beginning with a look at the ways animals invest in their offspring, the book moves through the many steps of making a baby, from pair-bonding to hidden ovulation, points where our species has repeatedly stepped off the standard primate path. From the mystery of monogamy to the minefield of modern parenting advice, biological anthropologist Brenna Hassett reveals how differences between humans and our closest cousins lead to our messy mating systems, dangerous pregnancies, and difficult births, and what these tell us about the kind of babies we are trying to build.

Using observations of our closest primate relatives, the tiny relics of childhood that come to us from the archaeological record, and the bones and teeth of our ancestors, science has started to unravel the evolution of our childhood right down the fossil record. In our species investment doesn't stop at birth, and as Growing Up Human reveals, we can compare every aspect of our care and feeding, from the chemical composition of our milk to our fondness for formal education from ancient times onwards, in order to understand just what we evolved our weird and wonderful childhoods for.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Parenting, Psychology, History, Anthropology, Evolution

385 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 30, 2022

Reviews

[Petra - Online but emotionally in airplane mode · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a 10 star book based on one chapter alone. Milk. Astounding fact: human milk is identical to zebra milk, not cow's milk or formula, or bean juice that some fool themselves into thinking is 'soy milk'. Zebra milk and human milk are abot 4% fat 1.3% protein, 7.2% carb-sugar-lactose and 90% water. Baby hooded seals drink 60% fat milk, put on over 15.6lb a day and are weaned in four days. Accelerated growth!

Breast milk, however, changes constantly according to the baby's immediate needs. The very first milk, after colostrum, is full of 'immune boosting-factors' to suit tiny tummies. The first milk in a feeding is heavy on the sugar and water, and then becomes fattier. It is fattier in the afternoon too. When it's hot, the milk is more plentiful and more watery (and in zebras). Morning milk is full of 'get-up and go cortisol', night time milk has melatonin and tryptophan to make baby sleepy. Some babies anyway. And milk continues to change over the first year, according to baby's needs.

I didn't know any of that. I would have breastfed* a lot longer if I had. What mystifies me is how the baby formula manufacturers haven't cottoned on to this and made morning, afternoon and evening milk? Just think of how first-time mothers at least would be buying every variety that the women's and parenting magazines would be sure paid to recommend.

*I couldn't breastfeed. My breasts swelled to something like G cup, nice chin rests, with these little pink nipples hidden and not coming out hardly at all, so I pumped milk. I had a tiny baby, 5lb 7.5 oz. so he had supplementary formula as well to start with, which I didn't like but was necessary until I got going

The hospital kindly loaned me an industrial-strength pump, the size of a small aquarium and then I went for it. My downstairs neighbour, a single man who offered overnight accommodation for aspiring models, as one might say, banged repeatedly on his ceiling. Eventually he came up to complain that the milk pump was making too much noise and disturbing him. Asshole

I came back to the Caribbean when my son was 6 weeks old, time to get married and settle all the citizenship issues, but I came back sans pump. So formula it was. I don't think it hurt him. I would definitely have been in the market for three different formulae a day though.
__________

The rest of the book is 3.5-5 stars. Spider babies eating their mothers is kind of zombie-ish, like the The Girl with All the Gifts. I enjoyed the science from a female point of view, much as I did with Bitch: On the Female of the Species. This one doesn't have the over-the-top gender woke signalling of Bitch, has more science than Mary Roach, but the same sort of chatty tone and personal anecdotes that makes for an easy read in the genre of pop science.

It's a very good read, there is a great concentration on evolution, especially of mammals and primates, and how it has led to human childhoods not being anything like any of them! (But you could see where it came from). I learned quite a lot, not just the milk, which was astounding because other than colostrum being different from milk, I hadn't thought any further. Astounding enough for 10 stars!

[Tanja Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An account comparing how humans are conceived, grow and eventually become adults - and how this compares to other mammals. It's really funny and snarky in parts, I absolutely love the foot notes.

[The Atlantic]

"To solve the mystery of our protracted childhood, Hassett turns to her academic expertise in analyzing human remains, offering the few glimpses we have of prehistoric childhood from the archaeological record. A few conclusions emerge. For one, human youth lasts a long time because evolution shifted most of our growth to outside the womb. (Deer can begin walking just minutes after being born; human babies cannot even hold their head up at this stage.) Second, our brain needs time to develop, and we have a hell of a lot to learn in order to navigate complex human societies.

If these deductions seem obvious, Hassett’s other purpose—her vendetta against studying human evolutionary history for insights into raising children—offers more material to argue with. She wants to make the case that the research, however fascinating for her as a scientist, shouldn’t be forced on contemporary parents as a guide for the most natural way to tend to a growing human."

https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...

[Stefanie]

I didn't think I'd be interested in this topic until I read an article with an excerpt from this book with this line: "That may be our story: Human babies are costly, weird, and absolutely useless—and it’s a minor miracle we have them at all."

I can get down with that approach, lol.

[Lois Bujold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book I've long wanted about human evolution and never got -- what the women (and other parents) were doing all this time, to which some very clever and subtle modern bone-and-tooth and other science has learned to tease out more answers than previously thought possible.

It's a consideration of, among other things, the course and impact of human extended childhoods on human development, so fundamental and so ignored by the "Man (sic) the (stone) Tool User" crowd. The smooth and rippling style, with some of the funniest footnotes since Terry Pratchett, tucks the author's very considerable erudition out of the way (literally, in the 20 or 30 pages of bibliography and references in the back) instead of parading it in front of the prose to trip over, as would be more usual in the sort of academic writing dressing to impress rather than impart.

Now I want a re-drawing of that famous picture of the succession of male primate figures, from left to right, of ape to proto-human to modern guy with spear (or, sometimes, briefcase) done with women and their kids hanging off them.

Very highly recommended to just about everyone, but especially anyone interested in biology. Or who has biology.

Ta, L.

[Chaitalee Ghosalkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pandemic book. I wish to make this distinction, because lately I have found out that books written in the time period when we were all home bound have a different flavor to them. They are less generic, more focused (whatever be the genre) and if I find some more books to my liking that have been written 'in quarantine', I might go on to create a new shelf on Goodreads.

The book starts with a pizza rat; a subject that doesn't quite hold your interest. But soon enough, this animal with humble origins (New York sewers in this case) goes on to becomes the flag bearer of one of the most equally informative and entertaining books of this year. Evolution has never seemed so much fun!

[Mark Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book. It is not a how-to but rather an explanation of why as humans we have such long childhoods compared to other animals, other mammals, even other other monkeys and great apes !!
Covering everything from our unique life cycles to our unusual birth event to our extended babyhood, childhood and adolescence you will definitely learn something here
Written with great knowledge and a biting almost sarcastic sense of humor Brenna both educates and entertains
If you are involved with children in any way this is a must tead

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting view of how humans compare to other animals with regard to mating, pregnancy, care and development of the young. It made me laugh over certain things, and definitely tried to show the biases of previous theories and scientists in this field, particularly where female roles were overlooked or misinterpreted.

[Jeanne Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brenna satisfied my life-long curiosity about what makes us human. From the ways in which we conceive to the length of time it takes to raise our young, I was fascinated with her attention to detail and easy manner of explaining complex issues. I am a Lactation Consultant and Maternity nurse with 30 years of experience to confirm the accuracy of Brenna's findings.

[tree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really interesting bits that taught me a lot but really couldn’t deal with the amount of footnotes. I think the book could have had a much better flow and been a much easier read if the footnotes had been axed.
Enjoyed learning about the investment in human childhood for both survival and social capital but honestly skimmed lots of the anthro bits

[De]

In Chapter one, it says a baby giraffe is some odd 70kg at birth and an adult is about 1350kg, and says so a baby giraffe is about 20% of adult weight. Typo? No. It keeps using this 20% to contrast baby rat’s weight ratio (5%) to try to make a point.
Plus personally I’m not a fan of the writing style (trying to be snarky and funny) and countless footnotes.

[Pratik Satpute · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fan-freaking-tastic!! The author's wit makes a long, complex journey more enjoyable than ever, and points out so many things in culture that relate to evolution that we don't even think about. Excellent read, highly recommended.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the most entertaining book of anthropology that has been written to date. There are a lot of sarcastic side comments. The book is very informative as well. Well worth the time it takes to read it.

[Viktoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. Few authors can successfully manage a snarky but scientific story. This covers a great deal of history and archaeology, never falling into the trap of just-so evolutionary psychology. Sensitive subjects are handled well.

[Matthew Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author was entertaining and had a lot of character. She made some complex areas of research very comprehensible.

There was a conscientious effort here to 'decolonise' certain areas of science from my interpretation (a term I am hearing more from the younger academics on twitter/X sometimes in a very irritating manner...). However, I think the author handled this quite well. Antiquity has been interpreted almost entirely by middle/upper class men until recently but this author provided some interesting examples of a newer female perspective on established old interpretations.

Overall, easy to read for beginners, full of good trivia, the author has a solid world view and did make me laugh a few times. Would recommend.

[Sabrina Vieira · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

4.5