ABSTRACT
This paper explores two complementary ways of examining the relationship between evolution and cognition: the first arguing that human cognition has evolved to make sense of other evolutionary products, the second describing the impact of human cognition on the selection of domesticated plants. The first section of the paper reviews research that delineates the correspondences among different biological classification systems. The second section of the paper concerns the consequences of human strategies of discriminating and categorizing natural kinds, focusing on the relationship between classification, cultivation and selection of Aguaruna cultivars of manioc. It completes the argument that human cognition has co-evolved with the natural world; it both shapes and has been shaped by other living things. For insects as well as humans, the use of the perceptual strategy has the effect of enhancing its value for discriminating the plants. The evolution of human cognition to understand the natural world is part of a more general process among living things.
