The Great Wall of China.
A walk on the moon.
Genome sequencing.
How did we humans, who share almost all of
our DNA with chimpanzees,
end up doing all that, while they ended up pretty much where they started?
Some scientists will tell you it was language
... No, it was tools!
No, it was brainpower!
Another group of researchers has come up with
a new and surprising theory - that something
else came first.
The real secret to our success?
It has to do with how we raised our kids.
Huh?
Let’s set the stage.
We’re going to go way back ...
We’ve got lots of different apes milling around.
Oh and look, we have some parenting going
on.
At least two very different types of parenting.
Take a look at this ape family.
They’re the ancestors of modern chimpanzees.
First thing you might notice, mom is pretty much the only parent.
Does she seem a little overprotective?
Now look at this pre-human ape family.
Mom seems more relaxed.
Grandma gets to hold baby, then dad, wait, even cousin Thog?
This baby-sharing seems pretty unremarkable
to us.
To a chimp, though, it probably looks like
a very strange thing to do.
Chimps don’t share that much.
So what?
Well this new theory claims that sharing,
first of babies and food, then later even
feelings and intentions, was the original
secret of our species’ success.
Without it, we might have occasionally hunted
in a group like other apes, but human civilization
requires a little more than some male bonding to hold it together.
So why did we evolve this ability to be
so ultra-social?
Ultra-sharing?
Why not chimps?
Here’s what these scientists think may have
happened ...
A climate shift has dried out our forest and
turned it into a grassy savanna.
The fruit and leaves our ancestors used to
eat are gone.
Food is now harder to come by.
For modern hunter-gatherers who still live
here, the average meal is mostly plant tubers.
They’re hard to find and even harder
to dig up and cook.
If our pre-human moms and babies are going
to survive here, they’re going to need a lot of help.
In this new environment, where help and sharing
are the keys to survival,
new skills became important.
Even for little kids.
Because unlike chimps, they still needed care
and feeding after they were weaned.
Those who were just a little bit better at
reading the thoughts and intentions
of other people - who might help, who might hurt
- would have been more likely to survive.
Grandmothers and others had to pitch in to
help feed the kids in this new environment.
At first, it was a matter of survival.
But eventually, it freed up mom to have babies
at a faster rate than any other great ape
could, and still can, manage.
With everyone working together, at some
point, instead of a shortage of food,
we’ve got plenty.
With extra calories and extra time, our brains
can begin to grow bigger and bigger,
making many more things possible - like language
and tools and travel!
Just think of that next time you’re feeling
selfish.
