What made us human?
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Bodies built for running, brains fed by cooking, grandmothers, gossip and language: the hypotheses for how our species became what it is, with the record they have to explain.
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The record
The body
The big brain
Living together
Question
What changed, and in what order, to turn an African ape into a species on every continent?
Contested
The Origins of Modern Humans
Fact
Stone Tools
Fact
Rock Art
Contested
The Homo Naledi Burial Claim
Contested
Why the Neanderthals Died Out
Contested
How the Americas Were Settled
Hypothesis
The Endurance Running Hypothesis
Hypothesis
The Obstetrical Dilemma
Hypothesis
The Savanna Hypothesis
Hypothesis
The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
Hypothesis
The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis
Hypothesis
The Cooking Hypothesis
Hypothesis
The Social Brain Hypothesis
Contested
Dunbar's Number
Theory
Theory of Mind
Fact
The Human Brain
Hypothesis
The Grandmother Hypothesis
Hypothesis
The Self-Domestication Hypothesis
Contested
The Origin of Language
Theory
Kinship Systems
Fact
Gift Exchange
Fact
Oral Tradition
Fact
Chimpanzee
Almost every card in the middle rows is a Hypothesis. The record is Fact, the explanations are still being argued.