A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love.
Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity.
After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer's Odyssey and Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience's attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd's study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism.
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INDEX
Page numbers in italic refer to illustrations.
Aboriginals (Australia), 84
abstract art, 6
Acheulean hand-axes, 114, 121, 189; and sexual selection, 78
Achilleus (Odyssey), 236–237, 240, 255
action, 91, 174–175
adaptation: cognitive, 189–190, 198, 205; defined and explained, 34–38, 41, 80–81, 92, 381; evolutionary, 1, 13–14, 15–16, 31–32, 40–41, 420n7; multifunctionality in, 113, 206; selection level of, 53
Aesop, 194, 379
affiliation, 140
agency: arouses attention, 136–137, 198, 207, 282; human, 163–164; versus nonagents, 115, 136–137; overattribution of, 115, 137, 200; as prototype of cause, 115, 137, 200–201, 282, 378; tracking of, 157–158
agent, 91, 115; efficiently tracked, 233; focal, 158
agential bias, 198, 200, 281–282
agonistic structure, 444n29
agriculture, invention of, 294, 300, 407, 410
alarm calls, 160, 169
allegory, 323
alliances, 109, 300, 303, 304
Althusser, Louis, 387
altruism, 26, 52, 57–58, 59, 64, 171, 375. See also cooperation
Ambassadors, The (Holbein), 124
amnesia, 156–157, 160
amygdala (brain), 30, 93, 139
analogy (in biology), 102, 106
anamorphosis, 124
Ananse, 107
Anatomy of Criticism (Frye), 380
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (Seuss), 333, 371, 376
animacy, 88, 115, 143, 186; as intuitive category, 136
animals: animal alertness to kinds, 137; in art, 7, 8, 200; children’s fascination for, 6, 44–45, 137, 178–179, 200, 328; Seussian fascination for, 328–329, 354; visual cortex and, 156
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), 244–245, 368, 393
ant, 51, 88, 348
anterior insula (brain), 196
anthem, 84, 382
anthropology, 2, 20, 21–22
antifoundationalism, 419n36
antithesis, principle of (Darwin), 330
Apache, 288...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Animal, Human, Art, Story
- Book I: Evolution, Art, and Fiction
- Book II: From Zeus to Seuss: Origins of Stories
- Conclusion: Retrospect and Prospects: Evolution, Literature, Criticism
- Afterword: Evolution, Art, Story, Purpose
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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