Memes, Societies and Human Evolution ― How Humans Came to Dominate the Planet and Then Threaten Its Ecology

Why has the human species been so successful? Richard Dawkins suggested in The Selfish Gene that it was the ability to transmit memes (or ideas) from generation to generation that distinguished humans from all other animals. Roger Heppleston has developed the concept of memes to explain how humans came to be the most successful large mammal on the Earth. An ambitious synthesis of history, anthropology, paleoanthropology, evolutionary theory and ecology, Memes, Societies and Human Evolution can claim to be the first complete history of human society written from this evolutionary perspective.The very success of humans is now threatening their future, as the level of human population and wealth has reached the limits that planet Earth can support. The study of human evolution gives an insight as to why humans seem unable to co-operate to avoid ecological threats like global warming. At the end of the book the author comes to an unexpected conclusion about the actions necessary to save the planet for our children.