In Growing Up Human , bioarchaeologist Brenna Hassett brings the science of physical anthropology to bear on understanding how our evolutionary history has shaped a phenomenon every reader will have experienced - childhood. The development of a foetus is an extraordinary biological process by itself, but the story of how we grow up began long before any of us were even born. Paleoanthropological science has revealed that deep in our hominid lineage we began to diverge from other primates by giving birth to fatter, more helpless infants and developed one of humanity''s most striking adaptations - the evolution of childhood; a long period of dependence and social learning that makes us the animals we are today.Beginning with how the differences between humans and our primate cousins lead to our difficult births, it moves through the science of how our unlikely babies have spurred social and cultural adaptations, right up to things like the invention of ''teenagers'' less than a century ago. We learn how anthropologists can interpret the physical evidence of the experience of childhood, including the very real risks that children faced in the past, and what archaeological remains tell us about how our societies have treated children over the ages.This is the first book to cover both the evolution of human children as biological phenomena and the cultural impact visible in the archaeological record for a popular readership. It explains why you should expect what you expect when you''re expecting by examining every aspect of human development, from the evolution of our large-headed, helpless, high-fat babies right through to the social importance of childhood and adolescence, how this has changed over the millennia, and how we can interpret the story of childhood through the ages using teeth, skulls and bones.>

Bursting with fascinating ideas and surprising facts, Growing Up Human pulls off a masterly trick, with such lucid and entertaining writing that even complex scientific ideas slip down a treat. This is human evolution at its most captivating; clever and charming, just like our amazing babies.

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

Autorentext

Brenna Hassett is a biological anthropologist whose career has taken her around the globe, researching the past using the clues left behind in human remains. She has a PhD from University College London, where she is currently a researcher, and is also a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, London. Brenna specialises in analysing human skeleton to understand how people lived and died in the past. Her research focuses on the evidence of health and growth locked into teeth to investigate how children grew (or didn't) across the world and across time. @brennawalks

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: An Introduction Chapter 2: Pop! Goes the Weasel: Life History and Why it Matters Chapter 3: Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed: Making More Monkeys Chapter 4: A Froggy Would A-Courting Go: How Weird is Monogamy? Chapter 5: Georgie Porgie, Pudding and Pie: Conception and Fertility and Fat Chapter 6: Bake Me a Cake as Fast as You Can: the Joys of Gestation Chapter 7: Cackle, Cackle, Mother Goose: Having a Baby Chapter 8: See-Saw, Margery Daw: Cultural Adaptations to Birth Chapter 9: Bye, Baby Bunting: Caring for a Child the Old-Fashioned Way Chapter 10: Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard: the Magic of Milk Chapter 11: Hey Diddle Diddle: the Cultural Life of Milk