1. THE SCIENTIFIC t
_-s
MOVEMENTS
a
LEADINC TO S.' I
EVOLUTIONARY a--
PSYCHOLOCY
debris from the
Or rn"archeologist dusted off the dirt and
left side of the
.tlt",orr, she noticed something strange: The
alatge dent, apparently from a ferocious blow'
skull had
and the rib cage-also o"1n" left
side-had.the head of a
deter-
rp"".i"ag"A iln it. Sa"t in the laboratory' scientists ':
man who
mined that the skeleton was that of a
Neanderthal
known
t ai"a roughly 50,000 years ago' the earliest
"J
rro_l"ia" victi-m.-uis killer,ludging from
the damage to the
II
in his right hand'
skull and rib cage, bore the iethal weapon I
reveals two strik-
The fossiirecord ofinjuries to bones
Trinkaus &
ingly common patterns (Juimain et al'' 2009;
iii^"r^un, t98z; Walt<er, 1995)' First' the skeletons ofthe skele-
-", .or,uin f* more fractures and dents than do
tonsofwomen.Second,theinjuriesarelocatedmainlyon
,f-r" f"f, frontal sides ofthe skulls
and skeletons' suggesting
cannot tell us
.igtt -ttunO"O attackers' The bone record alone Evt
a central feature
with certainty that cornbat among men was
with certainty that
of human anlestral life' Nor can it tell us
aggressive sex' But
men evolved to be the more physically
piece
Jeletal remains provide clues that yield a fascinating
forces that shaped
of tfr" purrt" of where we came from' the
today'
who wL are, and the nature of our minds
The huge human brain, approximately 1'350 cubic
structure in
centimeters, is the most complex organic
mind/brain
the known world' Understanding the human
mechanisms in evolutionary perspective is the goal of the
psychology'
n"w .cientific discipline caled evolutionary
key questions:
Evolutionary psychologl' tocuses on four
( 1) lVlzv is tfre mind dggnecf the-way$-ftat is' what causal
-::,
processes createcl. ru''ionto- oEfriF6Ilhe human mind into
it, crrnent form? (2) Hol is the human mindllesignlf-what