The Bridge to Humanity: How Affect Hunger Trumps the Selfish Gene explores the relationship of biology and culture in the evolution of human behavior. Building upon several of the theoretical issues he first addressed in Man's Way, renowned anthropologist Walter Goldschmidt presents a unique look at how human culture functions through biological mechanisms that have evolved from our distant past. "Affect hunger"--the need for affective expressions from others--underlies nurturance and mutuality. Goldschmidt contends that affect hunger--in combination with other factors unique to the human species--in effect "trumps" the selfish gene and is therefore the essential missing key to understanding human behavior. Employing discussions of primate behavior, ethnographies, cognitive studies, psychological research, and hormonal and neurological studies, he demonstrates how affect hunger not only provides a reward system for learning language and other cultural information, but also remains a motive for social behavior throughout life. Transforming the debate on nature versus culture to one on nature and culture, The Bridge to Humanity provides a fresh perspective on the ways that biology and culture fit together. Indeed, in this book Goldschmidt reinterprets anthropological knowledge, profoundly affecting all students concerned with human behavior and reaching far beyond the discipline's borders.

Preface Chapter 1. Nature and Nurture The Confrontation and Its Background Public Interest in the Issue Toward a Resolution of the Conflict Chapter 2. Heritage from the Distant Past The Issue of the "Selfish Gene" Fundamental Elements for Humanity Learning Our Ancient Heritage Chapter 3. Tools for the Transition The Evolutionary Gamble The Relevance of Human Speech to Tool-Making On the Origin of Language Language and the Brain The Emotions Ritual Psychological Miscellany Chapter 4. Affect Hunger Definition The Ethology of Infancy The Chemistry of Affect Hunger The Brain and Affect Hunger Affect Hunger and the Social Order Chapter 5. Revolution in the Nursery Summary of Our Heritage The Nature of the Revolution "Intrinsic" Indoctrination of Personality An Unanticipated Experiment Affect and Adulthood Chapter 6. Culture Definition of Culture Language as Communication of Cultural Understanding Ritual as Communication of Cultural Sentiment Careers Reinforcement Cultural Adaptability Summary Chapter 7. Cultural Evolution The Nature of Cultural Evolution The Search for Eden Ecological Adaptations Belonging and the Self: Kinship Clans Urban Transformations Possessions and the Self Arete Affect Deprivation Chapter 8. Body and Soul The Ontology of Reality Body Soul The Soul and Culture Chapter 9. A View of the Bridge Duality Affect Hunger Love Language Fabrication Communicating Feeling Cultural Worlds The Symbolic Self Affect Hunger and Cultural Evolution Self and Other One Final Thought Coda References Cited Index

Walter GoldschmidtProfessor of Anthropology, Psychiatry, and Sociology, UCLA (Emeritus)

"Finally, a cultural anthropologist who understands biology! Graced with the gifts of clarity and brevity, Goldschmidt has contributed the best short book on human nature and culture that has appeared in many years."--Melvin Konner, M.D., Ph.D., author of The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit and Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Anthropology, Emory University |k No