Several Homo species: siblings of ours
Large brains cost more energy, which needed more food and atrophied muscle
Bipedalism developed toolmaking and such but results in back aches and stiff necks: also favored earlier births when infant small enough to exit
Takes a tribe to raise kids, which favors strong social ties
Humans in the middle of food chain for a long time
Stone tools for cracking into bone marrow: niche use
Domestication of fire for defense, warmth, cooking, which changed our biology
Quicker cooking/eating = smaller teeth, shorter intestines, bigger brains
Humans 150,000 years ago looked just like us now
Interbreeding Theory vs. Replacement Theory vis a vis Sapiens and other species: breeding with different species created modern day races? Or we just killed them off
Neanderthals: “they were too familiar to ignore, but too different to tolerate”
70,000 years ago Sapiens left Africa and expanded; 70-30K years ago invented boats, oil lamps, bow & arrow, language, art – Cognitive Revolution
Sapiens language “amazingly supple” with sounds for infinite number of sentences and meanings
Language for gossip essential for social cohesion, trust, information
Sapiens first animal to transmit info about things that don’t exist: legends, myths, religions
Fictions/myths “give Sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers”
Maximum natural size of a group is 150 individuals, but fictions can unite larger groups
Sapiens only animal to trade
History: unstoppable alterations within cultures
Cognitive Revolution when history separated from biology
“The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mythical glue that binds together large numbers of individuals, families and groups. This glue has made us the masters of creation.”
Hunter-gatherer existence predominates our present characteristics
Trying to document the Stone Age (really the Wood Age) like explaining 21st century teens by their mail use
Human collective knows far more now than ever, but individually we know far less than the hunter-gatherer
Foragers had varied diet, exercise, no epidemics, but also unforgiving conditions, child mortality, health hazards
Hands Cave in Argentina
“Curtain of silence” in front of forager era: no true evidence of sociological happenings
“The wandering bands of storytelling Sapiens were the most important and most destructive force the animal kingdom had ever produced”
Journey of first humans to Australia as important as Columbus to America or Apollo 11
Sapiens ecological serial killers: caused mass extinction of megafauna wherever they went
12-10K years ago pioneers extend from Alaska to south of South America
Transition to agriculture ~9,500 years ago
Agricultural Revolution “history’s biggest fraud”: harder life, population explosion, worse diet
Wheat, rice, potatoes domesticated humans, not vice versa
Transition to farming the result of small incremental changes made with hopes but unforeseen consequences – the “luxury trap” of always needing more
Discrepancy between evolutionary success and individual suffering
“History is something that very few people have been doing while everyone else was ploughing fields and carrying water buckets.”
Declaration of Independence a myth, as equality and liberty don’t exist biologically
“Imagined orders” not evil conspiracy or useless mirages, but only way large numbers of humans can cooperate effectively
Romanticism: having as many new experiences as possible – Romantic Consumerism
Inter-subjective: exists between subconscious, consciousness of many individuals
Imagined hierarchies reinforced by pollution mindset, creating vicious cycle even after direct oppression ends
“Biology enables, Culture forbids.”
What accounts for universality and stability of patriarchy? Not just muscle or aggression
Culture: network of artificial instruments of how to think, behave, want, and follow certain rules to cooperate effectively
Reconciling cultural contradictions constantly: Christianity vs. chivalry/crusades, equality vs. freedom
Universal orders of mankind: 1) economic/monetary, 2) political/imperial, 3) religious
First coins from 640 BC in Anatolia
ID mark of king testified to trustworthiness of coin
Money is also the “apogee of human tolerance”, trust system that can bridge any cultural gap and doesn’t discriminate
Empire brought goods to other cultures (law enforcement, urban planning) along with bad (taxes, conscription)
Religion: a system of human norms and values that is founded on a belief in a superhuman order
Polytheism inherently open-minded, whereas 5-10,000 French Protestant Christians slaughtered by Catholics in 1572 St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
Monotheism absorbed some dualistic beliefs, like independent evil force (Satan) against all-powerful God
“The average Christian believes in the monotheist God, but also in the dualist Devil, in polytheist saints, and in animist ghosts.” (syncretism)
Soviet Communism and capitalism no less religions than Islam – “fanatical and missionary”
Liberal humanism (individual), socialist humanism (collective), evolutionary humanism (evolution)
“We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural not inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.”
Scientific Revolution not of knowledge but ignorance = we don’t know answers
Scientific Revolution and modern imperialism inseparable
1775 Asia accounted for 80% of world economy
European domination from 1850 onward due to military-industrial-scientific complex
Darwin was asked to join Royal Navy expedition
Vespucci an Italian sailor who argued North America was new land, not India
North America a foundational event in Scientific Revolution: observations over traditions, searching for new knowledge
Aztecs unaware of Spanish conquering of Caribbean, so Cortes arrival in 1519 was like alien invasion; vanquished four years later after Cortes’ sneaky takeover
Pizarro repeated tactics to unknowing Incas
Europeans interested in linguistics to better understand and conquer foreign peoples – “white man’s burden”
Adam Smith argued green is good essentially; higher profits benefit everybody
Capitalist-consumerist ideal “first religion in history where followers actually do what they are asked to do”
Industrial Revolution upheavals: adapting to industrial time, urbanization, democratization and collapse of family/community
Imagined communities: nation, consumer tribe
“Peaceful retirement” of European empires in 20th century, relatively
Positive feedback loop: nuclear holocaust fosters pacifism, pacifism reduces war and boosts trade, trade increases peace profits and cost of war
“Was the late Neil Armstrong, whose footprint remains intact on the windless moon, happier than the nameless hunter-gatherer who 30,000 years ago left her handprint on a wall in Chauvet Cave? If not, what was the point of developing agriculture, cities, writing, coinage, empires, science and industry?”
18 year old now more likely to feel inadequate due to ads and mass media; 18 year old 5,000 years ago had few others to compare to
“A meaningful life can be extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.”