Transcendence : how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty, and time /
Vince, Gaia,
Transcendence : how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty, and time / Gaia Vince. - First edition. - viii, 335 pages ; 25 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Genesis: Conception -- Birth -- Fire: Landscaping -- Brain building -- Cultural levers -- Word: Story -- Language -- Telling -- Beauty: Belonging -- Trinkets and treasures -- Builders -- Time: Timekeepers -- Reason -- Homni.
What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Readers of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution -- a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones -- caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements -- fire, language, beauty, and time -- our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.
0465094902 9780465094905
Evolutionary psychology.
Human evolution.
Social history.
GN281.4 .V56 / V563 2020
599.93/8
Transcendence : how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty, and time / Gaia Vince. - First edition. - viii, 335 pages ; 25 cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Genesis: Conception -- Birth -- Fire: Landscaping -- Brain building -- Cultural levers -- Word: Story -- Language -- Telling -- Beauty: Belonging -- Trinkets and treasures -- Builders -- Time: Timekeepers -- Reason -- Homni.
What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Readers of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution -- a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones -- caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time. She explains how, through four key elements -- fire, language, beauty, and time -- our species diverged from the evolutionary path of all other animals, unleashing a compounding process that launched us into the Space Age and beyond. Provocative and poetic, Transcendence shows how a primate took dominion over nature and turned itself into something marvelous.
0465094902 9780465094905
Evolutionary psychology.
Human evolution.
Social history.
GN281.4 .V56 / V563 2020
599.93/8