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Transcendence : how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty, and time / Gaia Vince.

By: Publisher: New York : Basic Books, 2020Edition: First editionDescription: viii, 335 pages ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 0465094902
  • 9780465094905
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 599.93/8 23
LOC classification:
  • GN281.4 .V56 V563 2020
Contents:
Genesis: Conception -- Birth -- Fire: Landscaping -- Brain building -- Cultural levers -- Word: Story -- Language -- Telling -- Beauty: Belonging -- Trinkets and treasures -- Builders -- Time: Timekeepers -- Reason -- Homni.
Summary: 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.

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.

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