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YOU AND I are very unusual beasts. Our ancestors, mere African primates, spread across the globe long before the origins of agriculture, the first cities, or industrial technologies. More ecologically successful than any mammal, human foragers colonized most terrestrial ecosystems, from the frozen tundra of the Arctic to the arid deserts of Australia. Yet, despite our massive ecological success, we are physically weak, slow, and relatively bad at climbing trees; any adult chimp can kick our butts and any big cat can easily chase us down. We can't distinguish edible from poisonous plants, and our gut can't detoxify poisons. We can't survive without cooked food, but we aren't innately able to make fire (or cook). Our babies are born dangerously premature, with skulls that haven't yet fused. Our females stop reproduction long before they die (menopause), yet remain sexually receptive throughout their cycle. Perhaps most surprisingly, our kind are not very bright, and our success as a species is not due to our intelligence (Henrich, forthcoming).

Skeptical? Imagine we took you and 19 friends and pitted you against a troop of 20 capuchin monkeys from Costa Rica, without equipment. We parachute both teams into the Ituri Forest in central Africa. After 6 months, we return and count survivors. Who would you bet on? Well, do you know how to make arrows, nets, and shelters? Do you know which plants are toxic (many are)? You can start a fire without matches, right?