The Myth of Mankind: And the True Science of Human Evolution

From an anthropologist renowned for overturning outdated evolutionary dogma, a lively, myth-busting, and transformative new portrait of human evolution

What if it turns out that most of the stories we tell about human evolution are false—apart from evolution itself? One hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Darwin legitimized the notion that “man has ultimately become superior to woman,” and misleading ideas about natural selection have been used to justify antiquated, patriarchal biases ever since.

For the first time, evolutionary anthropologist Holly Dunsworth brings together the latest research with her own groundbreaking original work, overturning the long-held idea that men’s physical and social dominance, racial biological hierarchy, and our supposedly fated tribalism are all rooted in evolution. She debunks many of the prevailing myths of evolutionary biology, from the notion that women are programmed to prefer stronger men to the theory that babies are born too early because women’s hips are too narrow. Evolution, she shows us, is not a process of optimization, driven by competition. Instead, she reveals what we learn about our past from the actual facts of evolution: anatomy, the fossil record and change over deep time.

Human nature is not something to overcome; it is our greatest gift. In The Myth of Mankind, Dunsworth writes the sexism out of our past, the gender essentialism and racism out of our present, and new possibilities into our future.