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The Roots of Human Creativity: Fire-Talks and “Hammocking” in the Runaway Species

  • Henrik Høgh-Olesen
Published/Copyright: February 13, 2021
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Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture
From the journal Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture Volume 3 Issue 1

Abstract

Humans are neophile, curious, and explorative animals with impressive capabilities for creative problem-solving. I discuss some of the ultimate roots behind human creativity while reviewing two books on creativity and problem-solving. To E. O. Wilson, the driv­ing force behind creativity is our instinctive love of novelty, and creativity’s ultimate goal is “self-understanding.” I elaborate on and question this assumption. The theories of inclu­sive fitness and group selection are discussed, with Wilson in favor of the latter. Finally, the theory of gene-culture coevolution is introduced as fundamental to the unity of science and the humanities and to closing the gap between these two cultures. Eagleman and Brandt’s volume is more of an entertaining history of design and human inventiveness than a study in creativity as such. We hear about the three main operations of creative process: bending, blending, and breaking, and these operations are the primary means by which all ideas evolve, according to the authors.

Keywords: creativity; evolution; gene-culture coevolution; group selection; inclusive fitness; neophilia; novelty-seeking; problem-solving
Published Online: 2021-02-13
Published in Print: 2019-12-01

© 2020 by Academic Studies Press

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Title
  2. Table of Contents
  3. TARGET ARTICLE
  4. “First we invented stories, then they changed us”: The Evolution of Narrative Identity
  5. RESPONSES TO TARGET ARTICLE
  6. Narrative Identity: A Cautionary Tale
  7. Narrative Self-Understanding Helps Construct the Unity of Self across Time
  8. Narrative Identity—Uniquely Human?
  9. Prompting Monopods, or The Options and Costs of Narrative
  10. Hard Truths and Comforting Fictions: Does Narrative Actually Construct Identity?
  11. “A life without stories is no life at all”: How Stories Create Selves
  12. Description, Explanation, and the Meanings of “Narrative”
  13. The Functionality of Self-Narratives
  14. The Implicit Narrativity of Objects and Ornaments—Widening the View
  15. Evolutionary Personality Psychology: Integrating the Many Functional Adaptations That Make Us Who We Are
  16. Of IPT and Archetypes
  17. The Creation of Stories: For the Person or for the Group?
  18. Can You Tell Stories about Human Intentional Agents without Words?
  19. Human Choices
  20. REJOINDER
  21. Identity, Narrative, Language, Culture, and the Problem of Variation in Life Stories
  22. REVIEW ESSAYS
  23. Beyond the End of the World: Narratives of Gain and Resilience in the Anthropocene
  24. The Roots of Human Creativity: Fire-Talks and “Hammocking” in the Runaway Species
  25. Philosophical, Neurological, and Sociological Perspectives on Religion
  26. BOOK REVIEWS
  27. Lisa F. Barrett, Michael Lewis, and Jeannette M. Haviland Jones, eds. Handbook of Emotions, 4th ed
  28. Russell Bonduriansky and Troy Day. Extended Heredity: A New Understanding of Inheritance and Evolution
  29. Pascal Boyer. Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create
  30. Peter Corning. Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind
  31. Philip Lieberman. The Theory That Changed Everything: “On the Origin of Species” as a Work in Progress
  32. Andrew W. Lo. Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
  33. Ekkehart Malotki and Ellen Dissanayake. Early Rock Art of the American West: The Geometric Enigma
  34. Martin N. Muller, Richard W. Wrangham, and David R. Pilbeam, eds. Chimpanzees and Human Evolution
  35. Gil G. Rosenthal. Mate Choice: The Evolution of Sexual Decision Making from Microbes to Humans
  36. Judith Saunders. American Classics: Evolutionary Perspectives
  37. Steve Stewart-Williams. The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve
  38. Contributors
https://doi.org/10.26613/esic.3.1.127
Keywords for this article
creativity; evolution; gene-culture coevolution; group selection; inclusive fitness; neophilia; novelty-seeking; problem-solving

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Title
  2. Table of Contents
  3. TARGET ARTICLE
  4. “First we invented stories, then they changed us”: The Evolution of Narrative Identity
  5. RESPONSES TO TARGET ARTICLE
  6. Narrative Identity: A Cautionary Tale
  7. Narrative Self-Understanding Helps Construct the Unity of Self across Time
  8. Narrative Identity—Uniquely Human?
  9. Prompting Monopods, or The Options and Costs of Narrative
  10. Hard Truths and Comforting Fictions: Does Narrative Actually Construct Identity?
  11. “A life without stories is no life at all”: How Stories Create Selves
  12. Description, Explanation, and the Meanings of “Narrative”
  13. The Functionality of Self-Narratives
  14. The Implicit Narrativity of Objects and Ornaments—Widening the View
  15. Evolutionary Personality Psychology: Integrating the Many Functional Adaptations That Make Us Who We Are
  16. Of IPT and Archetypes
  17. The Creation of Stories: For the Person or for the Group?
  18. Can You Tell Stories about Human Intentional Agents without Words?
  19. Human Choices
  20. REJOINDER
  21. Identity, Narrative, Language, Culture, and the Problem of Variation in Life Stories
  22. REVIEW ESSAYS
  23. Beyond the End of the World: Narratives of Gain and Resilience in the Anthropocene
  24. The Roots of Human Creativity: Fire-Talks and “Hammocking” in the Runaway Species
  25. Philosophical, Neurological, and Sociological Perspectives on Religion
  26. BOOK REVIEWS
  27. Lisa F. Barrett, Michael Lewis, and Jeannette M. Haviland Jones, eds. Handbook of Emotions, 4th ed
  28. Russell Bonduriansky and Troy Day. Extended Heredity: A New Understanding of Inheritance and Evolution
  29. Pascal Boyer. Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create
  30. Peter Corning. Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind
  31. Philip Lieberman. The Theory That Changed Everything: “On the Origin of Species” as a Work in Progress
  32. Andrew W. Lo. Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought
  33. Ekkehart Malotki and Ellen Dissanayake. Early Rock Art of the American West: The Geometric Enigma
  34. Martin N. Muller, Richard W. Wrangham, and David R. Pilbeam, eds. Chimpanzees and Human Evolution
  35. Gil G. Rosenthal. Mate Choice: The Evolution of Sexual Decision Making from Microbes to Humans
  36. Judith Saunders. American Classics: Evolutionary Perspectives
  37. Steve Stewart-Williams. The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve
  38. Contributors
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