Thinking Big: How the Evolution of Social Life Shaped the Human Mind - Hardcover

A dramatic demolition of the 'stones and bones' approach to archaeology. --New Scientist

A triumph of collaboration, as well as a gripping detective story. --New Statesman

Retains the Thames & Hudson tradition of thinking clearly, and writing well ... You will not read a more important book this year. It could make us a little wiser about ourselves. --Minerva

Written in a style that so admirably avoids technical vocabulary and sociological jargon that you need no more than an ordinary human brain to read and understand it ... a very valuable summary of what we currently know about human evolution and the possible origins and development of [such] human attributes and skills ... Thinking Big is like the Big Bang: it probably isn't the total answer, but there is no doubt that it answers a large number of observable phenomena, and it will serve as the dominant model for debating and refining our ideas about the origins and evolution of human cognition for decades to come. --Society of Antiquaries Newsletter

Fascinating, page-turning. --Current World Archaeology

An important, provocative essay on human evolution, argued with great eloquence and skill. --Current Archaeology

When, why and how did the human brain evolve? These fundamental questions find innovative and stimulating answers in this outstanding book. It emphasizes that what makes us human was not the tools that form the bulk of the archaeological record, but rather the social world within which our ancestors lived. The result is a text that will delight the general reader as much as it will become a landmark for students and scholars. --Peter Mitchell, Professor of African Archaeology, University of Oxford, and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology

The triumphant result of seven years collaborative research, this provocative, thoughtful book focuses on what the authors call the 'social brain'. It has much to tell us not only about human behaviour in the past, but also about the importance of networking in our complex world today. Thinking Big is destined to become a classic. --Brian Fagan, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara and author of The Attacking Ocean

Forget the tweets, blogs and PDFs; big ideas need books, and this one reminds us exactly why palaeoanthropology is the most exciting science of the 21st century. This Curiosity Rover of the mind explains the major developments that made us human. The result is effervescent, compelling, and certainly required reading for anyone with an interest in our own origins. --Paul Pettitt, Professor of Archaeology, Durham University, and author of The Palaeolithic Origins of Human Burial

Clive Gamble is a British archaeologist and anthropologist, and Professor of Archaeology at Southampton University. He has been described as the 'UK's foremost archaeologist investigating our earliest ancestors'. John Gowlett is Professor of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at Liverpool University. He is involved in fieldwork in eastern and southern Africa. Robin Dunbar is a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist specialised in primate behaviour. He is currently head of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research Group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. He is best known for formulating Dunbar's number, a measurement of the 'cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships'.