There are many controversies about what happened in human evolution. But there's no debate that there were two dramatic changes in what biologists call our 'life-history': Besides living much longer than our primate relatives, our babies depend on adults for much longer.
有关人类进化史上发生过哪些事情的争议有很多,但没有争议的是,生物学家所说的“生命史”上曾经有过两次重大变化:除了寿命在灵长类亲戚基础上大大延长以外,人类婴儿依赖成年人的时间也大大延长了。
Young chimps gather as much food as they eat by the time they are 7 or so. But even in forager societies, human children pull their weight only when they are teenagers. Why would our babies be helpless for so long? That long immaturity helps make us so smart: It gives us a long protected time to grow large brains and to use those brains to learn about the world we live in. Human beings can learn to adapt to an exceptionally wide variety of environments, and those skills of learning and culture develop in the early years of life.
幼年黑猩猩到七岁左右时采集的食物已经足够自己吃,人类儿童即便是在狩猎采集社会中,也要到十几岁的时候才能自给自足。我们的孩子为什么这么长的时间无法自立?这一漫长的未成熟期帮助我们变成了如今这般的聪明,因为它给我们很长的受保护的时间来长成硕大的大脑,并用这些大脑去了解周围的世界。人类可以学会适应各种各样的环境,而这些学习以及文化技能是在生命的早年形成的。
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