Editing Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (section)

===''Mothers and Others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding''===
In ''Mother Nature'' Hrdy argued that apes with the life history attributes of ''Homo sapiens'' could not have evolved unless alloparents in addition to parents had helped to care for and provision offspring, "the Cooperative Breeding Hypothesis".<ref name="Burkart">{{cite journal |last1=Burkart |first1=J. M. |last2=Hrdy |first2=S. B. |last3=Van Schaik |first3=C. P. |title=Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |date=September 2009 |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=175–186 |doi=10.1002/evan.20222 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b893/50c0cdf30829e84d74c0a019b5024f8340d6.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212011507/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b893/50c0cdf30829e84d74c0a019b5024f8340d6.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 12, 2019 |access-date=February 11, 2019|citeseerx=<!--10.1.1.724.8494--> |s2cid=31180845 }}</ref>

In 2009 in ''Mothers and Others'', Hrdy explored cognitive and emotional implications for infants growing up in what was (for an ape) a novel developmental context.<ref name="Ellison2009">{{cite journal|last1=Ellison|first1=P. T.|title=Book Review: A Growing Thought|journal=Evolutionary Psychology|volume=7|issue=3|pages=147470490900700|year=2009|issn=1474-7049|doi=10.1177/147470490900700306|doi-access=free}}</ref> Instead of relying on the single-minded dedication of their mothers, youngsters had to monitor and engage multiple caretakers as well.  Other apes possess cognitive wiring for rudimentary Theory of Mind, but with cooperative rearing, relevant potentials for mentalizing would have become more fully expressed, and thus rendered more visible to natural selection.  Over generations, those youngsters better at inter-subjective engagement would have been best cared for and fed, leading to directional Darwinian selection favoring peculiarly human capacities for intersubjective engagement.<ref name="Burkart"/><ref name="Balter">{{cite news |last1=Balter |first1=Michael |title=Human altruism traces back to the origins of humanity |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/human-altruism-traces-back-origins-humanity |access-date=February 11, 2019 |work=Science |date=August 27, 2014}}</ref><ref name="Hayssen">{{cite book |last1=Hayssen |first1=Virginia |last2=Orr |first2=Teri J. |title=Reproduction in Mammals: The Female Perspective |date=2017 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=9781421423159 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwE2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |access-date=February 11, 2019}}</ref>

In 2014, ''Mothers and Others'', together with earlier work, earned Hrdy the National Academy's Award for Scientific Reviewing in honor of her "insightful and visionary synthesis of a broad range of data and concepts from across the social and biological sciences to illuminate the importance of biosocial processes among mothers, infants, and other social actors in forming the evolutionary crucible of human societies."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=14730|title=LAURELS: Academy cites Sarah Hrdy for scientific reviewing|website=UC Davis}}</ref>

Because of her research on parenting, Hrdy is a strong advocate for making affordable [[child care]] a priority.<ref name="Dowling">{{cite news |last1=Dowling |first1=Claudia Glenn |title=Maternal Instincts: From Infidelity to Infanticide |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2003/mar/feathrdy |access-date=November 14, 2018 |work=Discover Magazine |date=March 1, 2003}}</ref>