Second Nature: Economic Origins of Human Evolution

by Haim Ofek

This book spans two million years of human evolution and explores the impact of economics on human evolution and natural history. The theory of evolution by natural selection has always relied in part on progress in areas of science outside of biology. By applying economic principles at the borderlines of biology, Haim Ofek shows how some of the outstanding issues in human evolution, such as the increase in human brain size and the expansion of the environmental niche humans occupied, can be answered. He identifies distinct economic forces at work, beginning with the transition from the feed-as-you-go strategy of primates, through hunter-gathering and the domestication of fire to the development of agriculture. This highly readable book will inform and intrigue general readers and those in fields such as evolutionary biology and psychology, economics, and anthropology.

Genres: Economics, History

268 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 1997

Reviews

[Arman Behrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was just brilliant. JUST BRILLIANT.

[Bogdan Kalmuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author makes a very interesting point that the division of labor and market exchange (starting with trade in fire) played a decisive role in human evolution (by developing our brains).
At the same time, this hypothesis, it seems, still needs more evidence, for trade to be firmly put as an important factor of pre-Cro-Magnon Homo history.