Inheritance: the Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World by Harvey Whitehouse (2025)

We are endowed with an inheritance—a set of ancient biases forged through countless millennia of natural and cultural selection, which shape every facet of our behavior.

This inheritance has taken us to ever greater heights for generations, driving the rise of more sophisticated technologies, more organized religions, and more expansive empires. But now, for the first time, it is failing us. We find ourselves careering towards a future of unprecedented political polarization, deadlier wars, and environmental destruction.

In Inheritance, anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse offers a sweeping account of how our evolved biases have shaped humanity’s past and imperil its future. Unveiling a pioneering new way of viewing our collective history – one that weaves together psychological experiments, on-the-ground fieldwork, and big data – Whitehouse introduces three biases that shape human behavior everywhere: conformism, religiosity, and tribalism.

These biases have catalyzed the greatest transformations in human history, from the birth of agriculture and the arrival of the first kings to the rise and fall of human sacrifice and the creation of multiethnic empires. Yet today, they are driving us to ruin. Taking us deep into New Guinea tribes, Libyan militias, and predatory ad agencies, Whitehouse shows how the tools we once used to manage our biases are breaking down, with devastating implications for us all.

By uncovering how human nature has shaped our collective history, Inheritance reveals a surprising new path to solving our most urgent problems. The result is a powerful reappraisal of the human journey, transforming our understanding of who we are and who we could be.

Credit: Adapted from Amazon

Exerpt

• Article: Do you need religion to be a moral person?

 
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