Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood

Growing Up Human reveals how our evolutionary history has shaped a phenomenon experienced by all readers - childhood.

Tracking our evolutionary history, anthropological science has begun to unravel one feature that sets us apart from the many animals that came before us - our uniquely long childhoods. Growing Up Human looks at how we have diverged from our roots to stay ’forever young’ and how the evolution of childhood is a critical part of the human story.

Beginning with the ways animals invest in their offspring, anthropologist Brenna Hassett moves through the steps of making a baby, from pair-bonding to hidden ovulation, points where our species has repeatedly stepped off the standard primate path. From the mystery of monogamy to the minefield of modern parenting advice, Hassett explains how differences between humans and our closest cousins have led to our messy mating systems, dangerous pregnancies, and difficult births, and what these tell us about our babies we are trying to build.

Using observations of our closest primate relatives, archaeological relics, and the bones and teeth of our ancestors, Growing Up Human explores the evolution of our childhood right down the fossil record. In our species, investment doesn’t stop at birth, and examining every aspect of our care and feeding, from the chemical composition of our milk to formal education, reveals what we have evolved our weird and wonderful childhoods for.

Brenna Hassett is a biological anthropologist and researcher at University College London, and a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum. Brenna specialises in using skeletons to understand how people lived and died, and how children grew (or didn’t). Her first book, Built on Bones, was well received by the LA Times, the Guardian and The Times, which named it a top 10 science book. She’s a founder of the TrowelBlazers Project, dedicated to increasing the visibility of women.

@brennawalks