Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Scientifically intriguing and a responsible step by step journey from biologic responsiveness to consciousness, giving a new appreciation for where primate ancestors were and to where homo sapiens sapiens has come. A bit heady but well worth the investment of time. Cheers

I bought this book to fulfill an assignment for a class I'm taking in a doctor of liberal studies class, but I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the topic of how language was developed. It's like a good detective novel--a real page turner. Humans evolved without a language for many years. Try to imagine that if you can. Then we began to talk and tell stories, but we didn't have anything to read. Unthinkable. Alphabets, of course, are only one way of writing and reading and there are reasons why. Now we are post-lingual. We no longer have to remember everything because we have external symbolic systems to remember them for us. Fascinating stuff for anyone who might have thought we are just talking monkeys.

I work as an agricultural business consultant providing a variety of services to individual farms and various agricultural groups around the world. I find it very helpful to better understand why people think the way they do. Some times there is a cultural base for the decisions they make and sometimes there may be genetic predispositions. Donald did a very nice job of covering the state of knowledge on the evolutionary underpinnings of our cognitive processes and how they intertwine with cultures. Even though it is a bit dated it provides a great framework to build on.

An important precursor to Donald's key book "A Mind So Rare". This one introduces the theory of human consciousness evolving from three stages of development involving the culture of proto-humans. A masterful idea that is the best theory we have of how our remarkable conceptual abilities have arisen so distinctly from the primates we arose from.

Well written, easy to follow and a fascinating topic. I really enjoyed this book. Might re-read it.

Provided quality background information about understanding people.

Donald does a fine job of tracing human cognitive abilities. I highly recommend this book.

good read