History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures

Average customer rating:

A classic!
I Liked It!
Why Read Fiction?
A contribution to cultural anthropology...
Cannibals and Kings: A Disorganized View of Culture

Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures
Marvin Harris
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067972849X
Release Date: 1991-06-04

Book Description

In this brilliant and profound study the distinguished American anthropologist Marvin Harris shows how the endless varieties of cultural behavior -- often so puzzling at first glance -- can be explained as adaptations to particular ecological conditions. His aim is to account for the evolution of cultural forms as Darwin accounted for the evolution of biological forms: to show how cultures adopt their characteristic forms in response to changing ecological modes.

"[A] magisterial interpretation of the rise and fall of human cultures and societies."

-- Robert Lekachman, Washington Post Book World

"Its persuasive arguments asserting the primacy of cultural rather than genetic or psychological factors in human life deserve the widest possible audience."

-- Gloria Levitas The New Leader

"[An] original and...urgent theory about the nature of man and at the reason that human cultures take so many diverse shapes."

-- The New Yorker

"Lively and controversial."

-- I. Bernard Cohen, front page, The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

A classic!.......2007-03-01

Great work in the realm of cultural materialism.

A very good toss into Dr. Harris.

I Liked It!.......2006-11-10

I had to read this book for a class and I was plesently surprised. The author brings up some interesting topics that really make you think.

Why Read Fiction?.......2006-08-26

Marvin Harris' "Cannibals and Kings" is one of those classic anthropological, historical studies that makes reading non fiction fun. The phenomenon of solving riddles of humanity with a smile on your face, constantly nodding and saying stuff like "yeah that makes sense" and "damn this guys good" begs the question: Why care about Harry Potter? While Harris is more theatrical and less scientific in nature than predecessor's like Jared Diamond, the sheer wit of his arguments will move you. Furthermore unlike reading most fiction, during "Cannibals and Kings" you really are growing sager with each turn of the page. So if you're looking for a practical understanding of human evolution that's more entertaining than fiction then buy this book.

A contribution to cultural anthropology..........2005-05-08

I had to read this book for my introduction to cultural anthropology class last semester. Though I found parts of it to be dry, the work as a whole was eye opening. It does a good job of identifying patterns and evaluating the evolution of civilizations from hunting to aggrerian to imperialist societies, and onward.

However, I felt that Harris took a very naturalistic approach and underestimated the power of free will. He described everything as being systematic and, although he mentions free will in his conclusion, makes the evolution of civilization seem controlled solely by circumstance and necessity.

Nevertheless, he provides a plausible explanation for why civilizations evolve the way they do and why some advance faster or in different ways than others. I recommend this book for those interested in a possible explanation of cultural evolution. For those looking for a more introductory book to cultural anthropology that covers more ground (but is more brief), I recommend "Culture as Given, Culture as Choice" by Van Der Elst.

Cannibals and Kings: A Disorganized View of Culture.......2001-01-22

This book focused on several of the components of culture. It was disorganized because there is little continuity between topics and the general theme is that resources produce cultures. Complicated at times, the book was not difficult to read, but tedious. Another problem with Cannibals and Kings is its focus on female infanticide. It never clearly described why exactly females were killed insted of males. It answers the title by describing why there are/were cannibals in the world and later talk about kings and how kingdoms evolved. This book does give the reader a better understanding of how civilizations formed. The conclusion was inconclusive at best. The Epilogue explains that unless technology improves, the living standard will inevitably fall. Although this may be true, it does not account whether this will be true for the western world only or for the third world or both. This book is worth reading to get a better understanding of the connection between supply and demand and why cultures evolved.

Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution

Average customer rating:

Culture? Or izzit still genetics in disguise?
Thoughtful and readable insights
Nothing About Culture Makes Sense Except in Light of Evolution
Genes and Culture working together.
Great article in NY Times

Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution
Peter J. Richerson , and Robert Boyd
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)
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Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society
The Ethical Brain

ASIN: 0226712125

Book Description

Humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. While we are similar to other mammals in many ways, our behavior sets us apart. Our unparalleled ability to adapt has allowed us to occupy virtually every habitat on earth using an incredible variety of tools and subsistence techniques. Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammal's. In this stunning exploration of human adaptation, Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd argue that only a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution can explain these unique characteristics.

Not by Genes Alone offers a radical interpretation of human evolution, arguing that our ecological dominance and our singular social systems stem from a psychology uniquely adapted to create complex culture. Richerson and Boyd illustrate here that culture is neither superorganic nor the handmaiden of the genes. Rather, it is essential to human adaptation, as much a part of human biology as bipedal locomotion. Drawing on work in the fields of anthropology, political science, sociology, and economics—and building their case with such fascinating examples as kayaks, corporations, clever knots, and yams that require twelve men to carry them—Richerson and Boyd convincingly demonstrate that culture and biology are inextricably linked, and they show us how to think about their interaction in a way that yields a richer understanding of human nature.

In abandoning the nature-versus-nurture debate as fundamentally misconceived, Not by Genes Alone is a truly original and groundbreaking theory of the role of culture in evolution and a book to be reckoned with for generations to come.

“I continue to be surprised by the number of educated people (many of them biologists) who think that offering explanations for human behavior in terms of culture somehow disproves the suggestion that human behavior can be explained in Darwinian evolutionary terms. Fortunately, we now have a book to which they may be directed for enlightenment . . . . It is a book full of good sense and the kinds of intellectual rigor and clarity of writing that we have come to expect from the Boyd/Richerson stable.”—Robin Dunbar, Nature

“Not by Genes Alone is a valuable and very readable synthesis of a still embryonic but very important subject straddling the sciences and humanities.”—E. O. Wilson, Harvard University

Customer Reviews:

Culture? Or izzit still genetics in disguise?.......2007-05-24

I have to admit that with a title that makes as straighforward a declaration as this one does, I anticipated an imaginative, full frontal assault against the increasing dependence on genetics, DNA, & biology to explain our human nature. Instead, Richerson & Boyd divide the pie pretty equally among genetics, culture, and environment, noting that these three factors are mutually dependent and interactive. Fair enough, but I was disappointed how far they leaned into the genetics camp and how little they credit to human creativity. In fact, they state there really is no such thing as individual creativity but only individuals who are able to carry forth mass cultural trends that have been underway for some time. "Culture usually evolves by the accumulation of small variations" (p. 50). One should note here the early emphasis on the concept of evolution because their book turns out to take Darwin's foundational principles of biological evolution and directly apply them to cultural evolution. Culture, itself, they state, is an adaptation.

Other animals have exhibited certain local behaviour patterns that others have termed cultural, but "only humans show much evidence of *cumulative* cultural evolution. By cumulative cultural evolution, we mean behaviors or artifacts that are transmitted and modified over many generations, leading to complex artifacts and behaviors" (p. 107). In this way, complex artifacts are not "invented by individuals; they evolve gradually over many generations" (p. 107). So human cultural evolution, though not inspired by "great person breakthroughs" is still unique, depending as it does on external memory storage and teaching-learning. I liked this, as I am an educator.

I also liked the point that culture and genes co-evolve. Still it seems to me, they tend to see the human species in a more mechanical manner than is necessarily the case: Everything is ultimately done for survival. Cases where cultural choices like human sacrifice or mass witch-hunts have been undertaken are seen as mistaken attempts at survival. I wonder how this accounts for the suicide cults that have appeared and, not surprisingly, rapidly disappeared? They explain altruism or kindness in the same way, as leading to survival of the group. They even seem to disparage efforts to control population growth. Such efforts, mostly in the middle & upper classes of industrialized countries, are said to be the result of "selfish cultural variants" (p. 169). "Modern low fertility does not maximize fitness" (p. 173). Surely this puts them firmly in the evolutionary biology camp.

The writing is most often turgid & uninspired, with the many examples of cultural continuity or adaptation being local, mundane, & unimpresssive. They end by pleading for the wide acceptance of "a proper evolutionary theory of culture" since that "should make a major contribution to the unification of the social sciences" (p. 246). They call for the development of a mass of quantitative detail on cultural variation to equal the detail found in the study of genetic variation, simply equating the two.

I felt let down at the easy way cultural symbolism & artistic experession were simply dismissed by suggesting a little quatitative analysis would reveal them as simple functionalism. By now I was bored. By the time they snidely state that "So many older scientists try their hand at philosophy that it can practically be regarded as a normal sign of aging" (p. 254), I was glad to finish the book and close it.

Thoughtful and readable insights .......2007-01-16

If you are curious as to why human behavior is often described in terms of culture or nature, and felt something was missing, this is a must read book. The authors make a thoughtful and readable presentation of their compelling insights into the mechanism of evolution as it applies to humans.

Nothing About Culture Makes Sense Except in Light of Evolution.......2006-12-27

All social scientists and psychologists should read this book, or another introduction to Dual-Inheritance Theory.

Genes and Culture working together........2006-03-01

Not By Genes Alone by Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd explains something that should seem simple. Genes made us, we made culture, so genes shaped culture. Yet culture also helped shape us, so genes and culture interact together and work together to make us. But HOW do you do research on culture and link it to genes? Well, if culture also acts like genes, then what you want to do it treat it like genes.
And that is what the book does. It studies culture from an evolutionary point of view, breaking it down to traditions and values, making these the genes of culture. Cultures evolves, adapts and sometimes even cause problems, bringing about the extinction of the culture. One culture might work better than another and overwhelm the weaker, less fit culture.
By using the ideas and knowledge that Darwin has passed down to us the authors were able to understand how genes and culture worked together to shape US. LOTS and lots of detailed, data rich, chapters. Take your time and enjoy.

Great article in NY Times.......2005-05-27

The Science section for 5/10/05 had a great review and discussion of this book and its concepts. Made me order toot sweet.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30814FA39540C738DDDAC0894DD404482&incamp=archive:search

DPS/Seattle

The Origin and Evolution of Cultures (Evolution and Cognition)

Average customer rating:

The Baldwin effect writ large
Bridgeing natural and social sciences: the case of cultural evolution

The Origin and Evolution of Cultures (Evolution and Cognition)
Robert Boyd , and Peter J. Richerson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019518145X

Book Description

Oxford presents, in one convenient and coherently organized volume, 20 influential but until now relatively inaccessible articles that form the backbone of Boyd and Richerson's path-breaking work on evolution and culture. Their interdisciplinary research is based on two notions. First, that culture is crucial for understanding human behavior; unlike other organisms, socially transmitted beliefs, attitudes, and values heavily influence our behavior. Secondly, culture is part of biology: the capacity to acquire and transmit culture is a derived component of human psychology, and the contents of culture are deeply intertwined with our biology. Culture then is a pool of information, stored in the brains of the population that gets transmitted from one brain to another by social learning processes. Therefore, culture can account for both our outstanding ecological success as well as the maladaptations that characterize much of human behavior. The interest in this collection will span anthropology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and political science.

Customer Reviews:

The Baldwin effect writ large.......2007-05-15

Over a hundred years ago, James Baldwin posited that through the development of a good trick individuals could give themselves a survival advantage over individuals lacking such a good trick.

As a simple illustration, monkeys using sticks to extract ants from an anthill would have an advantage over monkeys who fail to use such a tool. Likewise, vampire bats who share their evening take with less successful bats and thereby are reciprocated on nights when they themselves are unsuccessful at the hunt would be another example.

Significantly, through culture, human opportunities to acquire knowledge of useful tools and acquire society through which to obtain reciprocal benefits have sort of created a Baldwin effect writ large...an uber good trick that has enabled them to populate pretty much every biosphere on the planet.

This book is a very articulated discussion of the delicate calculus of this process in human society propogated on all levels...from the reasons for its origins to comparisons in interdisciplinary study of its findings.
Relevant to law, economics and religious studies, it's a significant and helpful read.

Bridgeing natural and social sciences: the case of cultural evolution.......2006-07-06

This book is a splendid and well-organised collection of papers in which the authors developed and argued for their understanding and explanation of humans and human societies. This theory is known as the theory of dual inheritance.

The book consists of 5 parts: the evolution of social learning; ethnic groups and markers; human cooperation, reciprocity and group selection; archaeology and culture history; and finally links to other disciplines.

Being a social scientist whose interest in long-term historical processes increasingly stretched out until it comprised the evolution of hominids and homines and who learnt a lot of the biological and archaeological part of the story from books by Robert Boyd and colleagues, this book adds a kind of finishing touch.

From other work by Boyd I learnt that there are alternatives or rather extensions to socio-biology and evolutionary psychology that preserve a lot of sociological wisdom on the nature and mechanisms of institutional change. The key is that cultural change, which is predicated on the evolutionary acquired capacities to (observational) learning and cooperation by mostly credulous beings, can lead to cumulative adaptive changes which could not have been caused by natural selection.

Robert Boyd and Joan B. Silk, How Humans Evolved, W.W. Norton & Company, New York. London, 2003, 3rd ed.) already convinced me of the wisdom and validity of the approach. The most attractive feature of the book under review here lies in the fact that the ideas put forward and explained in the Boyd-Silk textbook can be found argued in a much more detail and scientific finesse.

In my view the book is indispensable for social scientists trying to find their way in the controversies that still surround this important field of intellectual endeavours

One personal note: I still do not completely understand the following enigmatic paragraph in Boyd and Silk (2003, p. 475):
"If aging is due to antagonistic pleiotropy, there will be many synchronized causes of aging.
Organisms are complex systems with many different, partially independent subsystems, each potentially subject to aging. The kinds of failures leading to aging of the teeth are likely to be quite different from the kinds of failures leading to aging of the heart, eye, or brain.
To see why these processes should be synchronized, suppose that one cause of aging, such as heart disease, acts at much earlier ages than all of the other causes of aging.
Then selection would either favor the postponement of the expression of genes that cause heart disease so that heart disease becomes synchronized with other forms of aging, or it would favor earlier action of all the other causes of aging, so that they become synchronized with heart disease.
In either case selection would cause all forms of aging to occur simultaneously.
Thus if aging, is due to antagonistic pleiotropy, it is unlikely that curing one, or only a few processes would lead to indefinitely long life."

Frans Kerstholt

Average customer rating:

Very nice overview, with problems
Neither "bold" nor "new," but excellent nonetheless
Misleading cover!
Misleading Cover
A nice book for beginners and the informed alike.

The Dawn of Human Culture
Richard G. Klein
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471252522

Book Description

A bold new theory on what sparked the "big bang" of human culture

The abrupt emergence of human culture over a stunningly short period continues to be one of the great enigmas of human evolution. This compelling book introduces a bold new theory on this unsolved mystery. Author Richard Klein reexamines the archaeological evidence and brings in new discoveries in the study of the human brain. These studies detail the changes that enabled humans to think and behave in far more sophisticated ways than before, resulting in the incredibly rapid evolution of new skills. Richard Klein has been described as "the premier anthropologist in the country today" by Evolutionary Anthropology. Here, he and coauthor Blake Edgar shed new light on the full story of a truly fascinating period of evolution.

Richard G. Klein, PhD (Palo Alto, CA), is a Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University. He is the author of the definitive academic book on the subject of the origins of human culture, The Human Career. Blake Edgar (San Francisco, CA) is the coauthor of the very successful From Lucy to Language, with Dr. Donald Johanson. He has written extensively for Discover, GEO, and numerous other magazines.

Customer Reviews:

Very nice overview, with problems.......2007-08-19

As other reviewers have noted, this book presents a very nice summary of the current (as of 2002) knowledge about the history of the hominid lineage(s). (I know I'm supposed to say "hominin." Can't bring myself to do it.) The title, however, promises a "bold new theory" about the apparent very rapid flowering of human cultures roughly 50K years ago, and I have two problems with the book in that regard. First, I think "theory" is too strong a word for Klein's idea, because a scientific theory should be a solid and testable explanation that takes account of all the known facts. Klein presents a plausible-sounding hypothesis -- that some sort of genetic change, probably concerning language functioning, took place 50K years ago in Africa, but he adduces little evidence to support that idea. A genetic change is a reasonable idea of what might have happened, but Klein admits he sees no way to test that idea. He just thinks it's the best explanation for the explosion of culture seen in the archeological record shortly after 50K. My second objection is more substantive: his hypothesis conflicts with the genetic and archeological evidence that human beings had spread over a very large part of the world, including all the way into Australia, well before 50K years ago. For his hypothesis to be correct, all those pre-50K humans would have to have been swept away by the new improved version, and the genetic evidence that is available shows nothing of the sort. (For a thorough exposition of the genetic evidence based on mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, including much information about the times at which various important genetic events must have occurred, see Oppenheimer's "The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out Of Africa.") Either the other evidence about when modern humans spread across the globe is wrong (unlikely but not ridiculous, given the uncertainties of dating), or Klein's 50K genetic change is wrong. They can only be reconciled by reconciling the dates -- maybe Klein's hypothesized genetic change took place 30K or 40K years sooner than he thinks. That, however, would place the genetic change far before the great cultural explosion that Klein supposes it to have caused.

Neither "bold" nor "new," but excellent nonetheless.......2006-07-27

Professor Klein and science editor Blake Edgar refer to "innovation" as the key to the great leap forward made by humans about 50,000 years ago. This was the beginning of human culture--the "dawn" as they call it. It wasn't a change in physiology--humans had been anatomically modern for something like 150,000 years. What changed was the wiring in the brain, or the chemistry in the brain or the linkage between the modules in the brain, or, as they express it, there was a "neurological shift"--at any rate, something that would never show up in a fossil.

This is Klein's theory and it is a persuasive one, albeit one that can never be proven--well, probably can never be proven. If under some ice sheet (as the planet continues to warm) we find a 100,000-year-old human intact, perhaps an examination of his or her brain and a comparison with the modern brain will give us the proof. Barring that very unlikely event, there is no way we can see what changed.

But it doesn't matter. Formal proof of Klein's conjecture (and of course, he is hardly the first to present such a theory) is unnecessary. We know from the behavioral changes that took place in something like a twinkling of an eye that humans beginning about 50,000 years ago were suddenly different. They had a culture that developed from the use of what might broadly be called symbolism. We can see this in the petroglyphs and cave art and artifacts that they left. We can also see it in the way they displaced the Neanderthals in Europe and left no trace of Homo erectus elsewhere in the world, and how quickly they spread to the far corners of the planet.

It is easy to see that they must have had symbolic language as well. Indeed, I think language really is the key to what happened, and this is Klein's point as well. The key idea is that "language is almost a kind of sixth sense, since it allows people to supplement their five primary senses with information drawn from the primary senses of others." (p. 146)

Today's mighty culture would be impossible without written language or some means of taking down and recording and maintaining human knowledge. Prior to written language this was done through an oral tradition handed down from one generation to the next. Myths, stories, poetry, ideas, information and methods were memorized and recited. Prior to that however, prior to the use of symbolic language, there would have been only a limited ability to pass ideas down from one generation to the next. It would have been difficult to even share some ideas with a contemporary. But once symbolic language developed, people could demonstrate events and things not present with others through the use of words--that is, symbols standing for the actual objects or events--nouns and verbs.

From a representation symbolically of something seen or something that happened, it was only a step to a representation of something never seen before--such as a net for catching birds or fish or a stampede of wildebeests over a cliff.

This is the innovation that Klein refers to. This is the difference between the Late Stone Age culture and the Middle Stone Age culture, between the Upper Paleolithic and the Mousterian. A human arm can throw a spear, but a human arm extended with a lance can throw the spear farther and with more force. People could travel only so far without water, but a people who carried water in skins or watertight baskets (not preserved in the fossil record obviously!) could travel much farther. Actually I imagine that the first truly modern humans carried soup--yes, soup with its sterile, boiled water--in skins on their backs!

What this book is about then is a close and detailed description of the progression from archaic humans to fully modern humans. It is a carefully constructed argument that shows that the change was not gradual, as some would have it, but abrupt. Whatever one may think about Gould and Eldredge's punctuated equilibrium, Klein makes it clear that in the case of human evolution, a key transformation--indeed THE key transformation--occurred quickly. The most persuasive part of their argument is that the "new" humans were able to not only dazzle us with their symbolic art, etc., they were able to grow their populations and thrive in places where humanoids had never survived before.

This book is also full of interesting information about archeology and anthropology, including how fossils are dated and theories developed. One of my favorite tidbits is this: the size of archaic human populations could be surmised by the size of tortoise bones! Since tortoises were relatively easy to catch, the biggest ones, "the most visible and the most meaty" would have been taken first. So as "the number of collectors increased, average tortoise size declined." (p. 166)

For many readers, the most interesting part of the book might be the distinction that Klein and Edgar make between Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens: "It doesn't follow that Neanderthals and modern humans couldn't interbreed or that they never did, but the DNA results strongly support fossil and archeological findings that if interbreeding occurred, it was rare...this inference, together with fossil evidence...justifies their assignment to...separate species..." (pp. 185-186)

This is not an easy book, but it is not unnecessarily difficult either. I think Klein and Edgar did a good job of treading that fine line between being too technical (and jargony) and not technical enough.

By the way, despite the sensational subtitle (which only appears on the cover), the authors scrupulously and wisely avoid using the word "consciousness" throughout, and nowhere do they speak of a "Big Bang of Human Consciousness."

Misleading cover!.......2006-06-01

A book on human morfologic evolution
and ancient tools (stones).
A few words on culture precisely.
If you donýt want to read about
bones, stones, more bones and more
stones read instead "The Prehistory
of the Mind", by Steven Mithen.

Misleading Cover.......2006-03-26

There are in-depth reviews on this site that do justice to this otherwise excellent book. I would like to focus here on the one singularly troubling aspect (of this book) that has not received much attention in the other reviews.

The book's cover gives the impression that it reveals and expounds on a significant new theory on the genesis of human consciousness. At the least, a glance at the cover will give the impression that this theory is the central thesis of the book.

Much to my surprise and disappointment, however, I had to wait till the last 3-4 pages to discover what this 'bold new theory' was! Klein merely speculates in a few paragraphs that there was a fortuitous genetic mutation, circa 50,000 years ago, that resulted in a significant advance in human brain fuction.

There is no discussion on where this mutation occurred. If Homo Sapiens had already spread out of Africa by this time (as Klein states), how did the mutation effect all of humanity? If this is such a 'bold new theory', why does Klein spend so little space discussing it? Klein admits that no physical evidence for such a hypothesis can be found - the theory is not testable. Nevertheless, this does not let him off the hook for giving his thesis the detailed exposition that it deserves.

Undoubtedly, Richard Klein is one of the greatest anthropologists today. Given that, I am disappointed that he would (ostensibly) resort to a flashy title to increase this book's popularity. Klein's theory may well be actually what happened, but then it surely deserves a more in-depth treatment than what is presented here.

If you want to read a succinct account of human evolution and tool making, this book will satisfy you. There are a few other books, however, that are better in this respect. I was expecting more.....

A nice book for beginners and the informed alike........2006-03-10

The Dawn of Human Culture provides the reader with a thorough presentation of the evidence for the advance of culture from its earliest appearance in the Paleolithic among our early ancestors to its more mature form during the Neolithic among fully modern humans. It is a very readable book, providing short definitions of some of the terms for those without a paleontology/anthropology background, and introducing some of the techniques used in professional archaeology, like DNA studies, carbon 14 dating, etc. His writing style tends to bring his material to life for the reader.

Many of the primary pieces of information that the author introduces are more recent finds and the reinterpretation of earlier finds. I found this very helpful, since I don't generally read the journals, and I'm not as familiar with the recent work in the field. He also adequately describes the present day state of affairs in paleontology, discussing issues like the pitfalls in dating and in the taphonomy of artifacts--that is, what has occurred to the remains during the several thousand if not millions of years since the death of the subject.

Although Professor Klein discusses the "out of Africa" hypothesis, he doesn't really discuss it's opponent the multiple origins theory, so the point of view of the book is somewhat biased or at least less balanced than it might be. Certainly the data is predominantly in favor of the former theory over the latter, but I think that there is still much to say about the multiple origins theory that a student might like to know and probably should know to make sense of the overall out of Africa argument.

The author also doesn't really discuss the issues that arise from "splitting" or "lumping" finds. This is something that probably needs to be thoroughly explained to the uninitiated so that they understand the effects on interpretation of assigning a specimen to a defined species as opposed to a new one. This basic understanding is essential to understanding why one paleontologist believes one thing while another proposes something completely different. This is especially significant for high school students. No one expects the professionals to really come to an agreement any time soon, but a clear explanation of the cause of their disagreements might give paleontology itself greater credibility among those who only know it from the outside.

Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World is Making Us Sick

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This book should be required reading in all the schools
Evolution in Health and Disease
Excellent introduction to the ideas of evolutionary medicine

Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World is Making Us Sick
Noel T. Boaz
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Evolutionary Medicine

ASIN: 0471352616

Book Description

Human illnesses can be understood as damage to those adaptations that we took on at various stages in our evolution from pre-life molecules to modern Homo sapiens. Preventing these illnesses entails avoiding what causes the damage-- which too frequently are the everyday hazards of twenty-first-century life, as the chart below shows:

Level of Evolution	Cause of adaptive failure	resulting disease or problem
Pre-life	Environmental poisons	Certain birth defects
Single cell (bacteria and amoeba-like)	Viral infection	Colds/flu/HIV
Morula (sponge-like)	Cellular stress	Cancer
Chordate	Physical stress	Back pain
Fish	Excess dietary salt	Hypertension/heart disease
Amphibian	Tobacco smoke	Lung cancer/emphysema
Lower primate	Excess dietary sugar	Diabetes mellitus
Higher primate	Vitamin C deficiency	Scurvy
Ape	Excess dietary protein	Gout
Homo sapiens	Reduced dietary variety	Nutritionaldiseases/food allergies

Customer Reviews:

This book should be required reading in all the schools.......2007-09-30

This is one of the four or five best books I have ever read. It explains our most important health problems in their evolutionary context, and it explains why diet and lifestyle changes are far superior to pills and surgery. Everyone should read this book in their youth, so that they can prevent the health problems that come with a lifetime of bad choices and bad medical care. Buy this book, and buy more copies for all your relatives and friends --- and buy one for your doctor so that she can do a better job for you.

Evolution in Health and Disease.......2005-09-18

This is a fascinating book, written in clear, lucid, and descriptive prose, and written for the non-specialist and specialist alike, exploring the impact of evolution on health and disease. The book introduces "evolutionary medicine" to help the reader make informed choices about his or her own health. No one who wants to live a long, healthy life can afford to ignore the important insights gleaned from evolution in this book. What worked when we were hunter-gatherers on the African savannas no longer works in modern society, and the changes in our modern environments have caused Homo sapiens to adapt poorly.

One of the key evolutionary concepts is an entity's adaptation to its environment: When all the body's organs and systems are operating optimally under the ideal evolutionary environments, both internally and externally, our bodies are concordant. When our bodies are out of sync with either environment, they begin to fail, and our bodies become discordant. The former is homeostasis and health, the latter is disease and dysfunction.

After a very short introduction to the essential Darwinian concepts, excellently and easily recapitulated, the author turns to the seventeen stages of human evolutionary development, beginning with prokaryotes as stage one and ending with Homo sapiens as stage seventeen millions of years later, and describing all the intermediary stages in between. Although not difficult, it's the only place where the reader might become pensive, if not impatient, thinking the author is off course. But the key to understanding the rest of the book depends on understanding the material presented in Chapter Two. Here are some of the insights in columnar outline:

LEVEL OF EVOLUTION, ADAPTIVE FAILURE, CONSEQUENCE

Pre-life, Environmental poisons, Birth defects
Single cell, Viral infection, Cold/Flu/HIV
Morula (sponge-like), Cellular stress, Cancer
Chordate, Physical stress, Back pain
Fish, Excess dietary salt, Heart disease
Amphibian, Tobacco smoke, Lung disease
Lower primate, Excess dietary sugar, Diabetes mellitus
Higher primate, Vitamin C deficiency, Scurvy
Ape, Excess dietary protein, Gout
Homo sapiens, Reduced dietary variety, Allergies

This is a partial list. Each of the seventeen stages co-exist in humans; this complexity is both to our advantage, and can be our downfall. Understanding how each stage of evolution works within us unlocks a wealth of information.

Obviously, the emphasis is on prevention, not treatment, although there are constructive, non-medical, non-surgical options discussed. Some of the ideas are extremely valuable and helpful, others are highly speculative and dubious. For example, one particularly difficult concept advocated by Boaz is a return to a Paleo Diet that is high in animal products (especially gamey meats), while avoiding indigestible beans, grains, and dairy. It might be the "ideal" diet, but it's an impossible one to follow, and even more difficult to find. Still, the insights can help guide one to nutrition from an evolutionary perspective. The chapter on our musculoskeletal system was by far my favorite; I suffer from many of the system's dysfunctions, and now realize why. I knew it was a failure to adapt, but exactly how was new to me.

Nearly every anatomical and physiological system is evaluated in evolutionary terms. I'd run out of space just outlining them. Suffice it to say, this is not the only book on evolutionary medicine. This new field is literally exploding. Certainly an excellent alternative is Randolph Nesse's and George Williams' "Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine." Both are equally competent and informative, the only difference is a matter of style and approach. Take a look at both books and find the one that suits your temperament best. I truly enjoyed both. Ignore either to your health's detriment.

Excellent introduction to the ideas of evolutionary medicine.......2003-03-10

This works as a general introduction to the nascent field of evolutionary medicine. Note well the word "health" in the title. One of the central ideas in evolutionary medicine is preserving health, and in general looking at medicine from the point of view of the healthy instead of from an overweening concentration on the sick. An ounce of prevention in evolutionary medicine is worth a whole ton of cure.

Another important idea is to look, in so far as possible, to our adaptations as evolutionary beings to see what we might be doing wrong today. For example, grasses with plump seeds of carbohydrates were in short supply before the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. There were wheats and ryes, wild oats and such, but their seeds were relatively small and required a lot of labor to harvest. Consequently, our ancestors on the savannahs and in the woodlands ate grain carbohydrates in small amounts. Now, of course, grains--especially rice, wheat and corn--are the staple foods everywhere in the world and we eat massive amounts of them.

Is this a problem? As Professor Boaz points out, evolutionary medicine suggests that it is. We are "carbohydrate intolerant" (Boaz uses the term "glucotoxicity," page 133) and cannot shut down our appetite for all the carbohydrates so tantalizingly available to us. They are especially enthralling when served up with salt and fats.

In the prehistory there were no supermarkets open 24-hours a day. Instead there were freezing winters and droughts that might last for months or more, sure to visit almost every human eventually. So when there was a bountifulness in the land we chowed down big time. And those of us who had the ability to put on fat could live out the times of famine better than any prehistoric runway model. And so our chubby guy- or chubby gal-genes were favored. Boaz calls this the "thrifty genotype."

However that virtue has become a fault. What to do? Boaz recommends exercise, for one thing. In the pre-history our ancestors managed to walk all the way around the world. They had no cars or easy chairs. That we can solve our fat problem by looking at the way our ancestors lived and emulate them, is the somewhat bitter pill of this book. And, by the way, this "medicine" (hard to take, as we all know) also works against heart attacks, gout and other modern diseases.

Boaz has gone to some considerable trouble to associate various "diseases" with 17 evolutionary levels of human structure and function. (There's a table on pages 19-25.) These levels are like the idea that "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" in that some of the levels are similar to those stages in the embryo's development from single cell through bony fish and amphibian to mammal, all the way to us. What Boaz is adding here is the idea that certain diseases are associated with each level of development. For example, emphysema is associated with the amphibian level of adaptation while viral infections go all the way back to when our ancestors were just single cells.

This scheme is useful in helping us to understand disease. It is even helpful in treatment. But Boaz's formulation is no magic pill or cure-all. For the chronic diseases that plague those of us in the developed world there is no easy cure. Boaz recognizes a "discordance" between our evolutionary selves and the modern environment that is leading to these diseases. He uses a concept he calls "adaptive normality" that can guide us away from the discordance.

This is a very readable book requiring no prior expertise. It is obvious that Boaz wanted to reach the educated lay person with his ideas. For those of you new to the idea of evolutionary medicine, this will be an exciting book. Boaz does an excellent job of teaching us is how to think from an evolutionary perspective, which is something we all need to do.

Another interesting book on this subject is Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine (1994) by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams which I also recommend.

Coming Into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness
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Soulful mind improvisation

A book that changed me.

A scholar and intellectual, at full gallop

Vintage Thompson Mind-Jazz

Buy this book. It has ALL of Thompson's work.

Coming Into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness
William Irwin Thompson
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Blue Jade from the Morning Star: An Essay and a Cycle of Poems on Quetzalcoatl

ASIN: 0312176929

Book Description

In his best-selling The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light, William Irwin Thompson intrigued readers with his thoughts on mythology and sexuality. In his newest book, Coming Into Being: Artifacts and Texts in the Evolution of Consciousness, he takes the reader on a journey through the evolution of consciousness from the preverbal communications of early stone carvings, to the writings of Marcel Proust, around the monumental wrappings of Christo and up to the rebirth of interest in the Taoist philosophy of Lao Tzu. Owing as much to the rhythmic constructions of jazz as to established methods of scholarship, Thompson plays a riff on biology and culture seeing the birth of the mind in Proust's Madeleine, the displacement of humanity in Christo's wrapping of the Reichstag and, in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, the path forward to a new planetary culture. In Coming Into Being, William Irwin Thompson presents a fascinating vision of our past, our present, and our future that no one will want to miss.

Customer Reviews:

Soulful mind improvisation.......2007-10-05

Why is William Irwin Thompson so little read, so little known, so little talked about? I think it is because he isn't easy to read, classify or pin-down. His thinking is a performance of what he talks about: the dawning integral consciousness, fluid and insightful, a psycho-sensual expression of knowledge-art.

Thompson traverses a wide territory, touching on everything from Ken Wilber to Zecharia Sitchin, Rudolf Steiner to Marshall McLuhan, molecular biology to Egyptian mythology. Anyone interested in "integral thinking" should give him a read--an important poetic counterpoint to Ken Wilber's systemizations.

A book that changed me........2005-12-01

Thompson is one of those authors who I wish that I had encountered years ago, and yet I simultaneously wonder if I could have comprehended him years ago -- or did I need all of the years of searching as mere preparation for the moment of discovering him?

This was the first book that I read by Thompson, and although I'm glad, because I am now deeply hooked on him, I wonder how much more he has to offer. Well, I'm definitely going to order his recent books to find out!

He mixes Buddhism, Gaia theory, Gebserian new age envisioning, and top notch literary scholarship into not a reified dogmatic doctrine, like other writers (read: Ken Wilber), but something more minimalistic and thereby somehow better: mind-jazz, or Wissenkunst, as Thompson perfectly characterizes his own work. Through metaphors, digressions, and uncanny comparisons, Thompson uses the literary, religious, and artistic history of the world to tell a story with deep truth and revelatory power.

A scholar and intellectual, at full gallop.......2002-02-06

At a time when the question, "Who are America's intellectuals?" was circulating, and the mention of Susan Sontag in this regard left me queasy, I remembered my exhilaration reading Thompson's books in the 70's and 80's and wondered what he was doing lately. I didn't finish this book--some of the "texts" weren't of that much personal interest--but the first three-fourths were wonderful. The introductory essay, which was prophetic in its emphasis on the terrorist-fundamentalist forces at work in the world--is alone worth the price of admission. A brilliant, incisive mind with an insatiable curiosity to expand its range, and we are the beneficiaries.

With Thompson in the lists, I think we Americans can hold our own with intellectuals the world over.

Vintage Thompson Mind-Jazz.......2002-01-26

Reading this book is a bit like watching a Baz Lurhrmann film like "Moulin Rouge" or "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet." Although the text, superficially, is the printed record of a 1992-1994 lecture series, the lectures themselves were not designed as a linear narrative exposition, but in Thompson's words, operated as a form of mind-jazz -- an improvisational riff on ancient texts.

The texts function in the book very much the way an archetypal storyline does in Luhrmann's films -- as a structural anchor for a great whirl of pop references and images that have no temporal relationship to one another but are perceived to occupy the same ideational space. When this strategy works, the results are exhilarating.

Thompson's focus is the living interaction of consciousness and communicative form -- the way in which a consensual instrument of communication serves as the performance of tacit assumptions about what it means to be human. Influenced in this enterprise by the theories of Marshall McLuhan, Thompson demonstrates in diverse communicative fields -- art, literature, religion, myth, history, archaeology, poetry, pop imagery -- how new possibilities for meaning take hold in a culture, relegating displaced forms to folk art, and setting in motion fundamentalist movements in which the frankly archaic returns nativistically, a vocabulary wielded by those disenfranchised by the process of ideational change.

Thompson has been taken to task, in this respect, for the so-called Whig fallacy of history -- that is, for treating past social orders as though they'd been groping along, step by step, to reach our own point of conscious development. But these reviewers are equally irritated by Thompson's multidimensional approach to his subject, regarding it as a rejection of western narrative convention.

It seems to me that the book's structure is more profitably understood as a deliberate reflection of the thesis that Thompson is advancing: that all variants of a conscious perspective exist at once as performances of that perspective, whether or not they served to reflect or influence the society in which they found expression. This thematic consistency both unifies the material and allows for expansive variation, much as an ostinato binds a musical composition while allowing for constantly changing contrapuntal parts.

Although some of his ideas are certainly familiar from post-modern theory, Thompson rejects the nihilism and political utilitarianism that so often attend a deconstructionist perspective on great literature. He appeals, rather, to the reader's imagination, that intermediate psychological ground between matter and spirit, where language serves as a form of currency: a means of exchange between the sensorium and dimensions that lie beyond its direct perceptual acquisition.

This felicitous analogy allows Thompson to introduce the evidence of texts that are not usually understood to have relevance in a technologically oriented society. Like a marriage contract, whose value is not in its material existence as a piece of paper, some texts operate as a "consensual instrument," allowing, as Thompson puts it, a domain of meaning to come into play.

Like Thompson's other books, this one is not an easy read. It's in the business of limning texts as performances of the worldview in which they were generated, determined not only by culture but by gender and adaptive context. And it attempts, by its very form, to invoke as well as to describe what Thompson calls a hermeneutic of the imagination.

Understanding our current state of cultural organization as a bifurcation point, a time in which the traditional forms of literate civilization are undergoing an electronic meltdown, Thompson regards the present communicative medium as the concrete performance of a state of consciousness that is collective rather than individual. Our consensual vocabulary for understanding this evolution, however, is unremittingly technological, which has paved the way for immense corporate interests to define the emerging global landscape. Spirituality, accordingly, is devolving into archaic personal cosmologies.

"Coming into Being" is an attempt to jump, feet first, into that perceived breach between science and mysticism, between abstract scholarship and embodied folk wisdom, between self and Other, between being and Being, in order to celebrate the many textual images, both ancient and contemporary, of their potential integration. I loved this book -- even its recapitulation of "The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light" as though it were a text like any other, important for its ideas and images and not because Thompson happened to write it.

Buy this book. It has ALL of Thompson's work........2000-12-15

See my review of the hardback with 284 pages and twelve essays compared with 336 pages and fifteen essays. Hint: the last three essays bring Thompson's thoughts to a higher and more mature plane. Hence the hardback should merit four stars and the paperback rates five stars with me. Buy it! Gordon E. Beck, Ph. D., Emeritus Professor, The Evergreen State College, Olympia.

Ballet in Western Culture: A History of Its Origins and Evolution

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Good

Ballet in Western Culture: A History of Its Origins and Evolution
Carol Lee
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415942578

Book Description

Ballet in Western Culture is a history of the development of ballet designed for dance history courses. After a brief discussion of the origins of dance through the middle ages, the author then traces the beginnings of ballet to Renaissance spectacle in Italy and the beginnings of ballet in France. In the second part of the book, the maturation of ballet as a style is studied, from the 1600s through the 1800s, in France, Russia, and other major European countries. Finally, the last part of the book focuses on the changes in ballet through the 20th century, including major movements in the U.S. and Europe. Nicely illustrated with historic prints and photos, the book is easy to read and ideally suited to the dance history student, addressing both historical issues and the evolution of ballet technique.

Customer Reviews:

Good.......2007-02-25

I enjoyed this book very much, but for all its well researched statements, etc., I could not believe that the author included the following statement, which must be corrected -

"Riccardo Drigo...composed two undistiguished ballet scores in the service of the choreographer (Petipa)."

In fact Riccardo Drigo wrote 5 ballets for Petipa (two for Lev Ivanov - "The Enchanted Forest" -1887, and "The Magic Flute" -1893), which were anything but undistinguished in their time -

"The Talisman" (1889) was revered for its score, though the ballet itself was not, and even pleased such grand dames of the artistic world as Alexander Benois and Tchaikovsky himself. Drigo presented a new version of his score in 1907 for Nikolai Legat's revival.

"The Awakening of Flora" (1894, created for the celebrations held at Peterhof for the wedding of Tsar Alexander III's daughter Xenia). Drigo's score was revered by the critics of the day, and the work survived long in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet and Pavlova's company. 30 minutes of it was recorded by Richard Bonynge. The work was choregraphed by Petipa, though there is a long running error which has spread from source to source that it was Lev Ivanov's ballet.

"The Pearl" (1896, created for the festivities held at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre in honor of Tsar Nicholas II's coronation) Drigo's score was hailed as masterpiece - the ballet, set in an under-water kingdom, boasted a score that featured an offstage choir.

"Harlequin's Millions" (aka Harlequinade) (1900) Drigo was mobbed after the premiere of this ballet by the Imperial audience, who were so enraptured with the score. The New York City ballet includes this work in thier repertory in Balanchine's version.

"The Romance of the Rosebud and the Butterfly" (1904) this work never premiered in light of the Russo-Japanese war and Petipa's falling out with the Imperial Theatre's new director Telyakovsky. It was later revived as "The Tale of the Rosebud" in 1919 by Fydor Lophukov, and was a success.

Maybe a second edition will fix the author's incorrect statement.

The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View

Average customer rating:

Mis-titled, controversial, in depth and highly relevant
Tracing our roots
Great insights even for nonprofessionals

The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View

Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0813527317

Customer Reviews:

Mis-titled, controversial, in depth and highly relevant.......2006-04-04

A professional trade-book, like any edited book. I recommend it for those interested in the causes behind universal modern human behaviors. It offers a more comparative and scientifically informed perspective compared to that of cultural anthropologists, who focus on single populations or areas. The authors examine in depth and test the reasons for specific behaviors, like women's use of red cosmetics and the preponderance of men of a certain age in the music industry. See especially Power's exciting re-evaluation of human sociopolitics based on studies of female coalitions surrounding fertility rituals in Sub-Saharan societies.

Most readers won't miss this, but that is just the problem: none of the authors takes the opportunity to focus on culture in non-human animals. Only Dunbar's paper takes extensive examples from other species, as his paper is based on general principles of sociality. The fact that the book's subjects range from language to the problem of the free-rider to religion, and can still be called limited with respect to its title, reveals the uselessness of the term "culture" for anything but evoking and propogating species-chauvinism.

Tracing our roots.......2003-11-27

The concept of "culture" has been long used as a lever to sever humanity from the path of evolution. The fragile nature of that lever truly is the theme of this book. By assembling a team of scientists from various fields of study, the editors have fashioned a comprehensive picture of many elements comprising human culture. Structuring the book around themes of universal interest, they establish a sound scientific base for a difficult topic. While the book is intended for an academic audience, the editors have chosen their authors carefully. The material isn't buried in arcane language. The authors use clear, straightforward prose in presenting their evidence. It's important to remember that it is evidence, not mere speculation, that is being offered in these articles.

The editors set the theme of "applying a rigorous Darwinian analysis" to human culture in their Introduction. They remind us that this is a topic that has long eluded a disciplined investigation. Darwinian approaches to human evolution are difficult, but the editors contend that solid research offers insights previous scholars have ignored or not attempted. Their selection of three major themes, society, language, art and religion, allows them to demonstrate how these areas reflect the evolutionary process in our species.

To recount the eleven essays here would effectively re-write the book. There are pieces dealing with various forms of symbolism, the application of cooperation and altruism, and courting behaviour. The authors frequently remind us that evolution goes far beyond mere "survival". A mulititude of elements interplay in determining which individuals are "fittest" in the human environment. Art, for example, has many roots, and "body painting" is but one of many of them. In Camilla Powers' essay, she demonstrates how mating rituals, community organisation and colour recognition work together to build art forms and social structure. Religion, an item of intense debate, is skillfully examined in Steven Mithen's essay on how humans came to devise the idea of the supernatural. He suggests that the idea of a "supernatural" being arose with the maturation of human cognition. Religion, therefore, arose not as a survival trait, but merely as an extension of human cognitive capability.

The information offered in each essay is thoroughly referenced at the end of the piece. There are illustrative charts and graphics summarising the information in the text. In all, this collection will stand for some time as a foundation for further work. The editorial team is to be congratulated for their effort in bringing together so many fine authors addressing a difficult topic. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Great insights even for nonprofessionals.......2000-12-22

This is a great book for anyone seriously interested in questions about the evolution of human behavior, especially questions about how human cooperation, altruism, culture, and language could have evolved. It is a great leap beyond mathematical models based on Prisoner's Dilemma.

It is an edited collection of technical essays by anthropologists engaged with evolutionary theory. It is, however, accessible to any serious reader and contains many insights that will eventually work their way into more popular books on the evolution of human behavior.

Customer Reviews:

A brand new idea about human origins.......2006-06-18

This is a book that will forever change your view of what it means to be a human being. It is a work of enormous scope, from the minutiae of neurophysiology to archaeology and anthropology to the curriculum of mediaeval schools and modern systems theory, and everywhere closely researched with evidence weighed with care and insight.
The argument is broadly this: our evolutionary cousins, the apes, have brains which enable them to represent to themselves and remember "episodes" or events, something which their evolutionary predecessors either do not have or have only in a limited form.
Homo erectus, the evolutionary link between us and the apes, extended this ability to perceive events, into "mimesis", a capacity to reproduce events they have perceived by use of their own body. Donald shows how this ability, which involves no modifications of the body and relatively modest changes in the brain, allows for the voluntary representation and communication of events of the past and emotions not actually felt concerning things not actually present, a foundation for the later development of symbolic action. Homo erectus dominated the hominid world for a million years, adapting themselves to this "mimetic" culture. According to Donald, mimetic representation remains with us as a vestige of our homo erectus ancestry, as a fully functioning, underlying mode of representation and intelligence.
Homo sapiens in turn developed this ability into speech, with a radical adaption which occurred about 500,000 years ago. According to Donald, homo sapiens had a "mythic" culture hinged around the ability to tell stories, and this ability provided a means to make sense of the world and create a shared understanding of the world. This mythic culture survives to this day, constituting a crucial mode of understanding the world.
Modern human beings, homo sapiens sapiens, emerged only about 50,000 years ago with a rapid accumulation of a myriad of forms of cultural artefacts, culminating in the beginning of writing about 8,000 years ago. This led to a "theoretic" culture for which symbols held in material forms outside the body, play an essential role. According to Donald, human beings have evolved by biological adaptation to the culture it created and lived in and was crucial to its survival strategy.
There is a lot of maybe, perhaps, possibly and if in this work, but the best books open research programs rather than completing them, and Donald has certainly done this. The basic framework is very sound and argued convincingly but his suggestion opens up a plethora of questions begging for investigation.
In particular, the idea of several (episodic, mimetic and linguistics) modes of representation coexisting in consciousness has vast ramifications.

this book is out of date.......2005-11-07

The book is 17 years out of date.

Donald writes, ""Broca's region" and "Wernicke's region" are convenient fictions, the truth being that aphasia can be caused by wide variety of legions that spare these areas, while occasionally the complete loss of these areas will spare language function altogether, provided the adjacent white matter and basal ganglia are not damaged. The implication is that higher-level integration appears to be fluid and plastic in its underlying anatomy, and the anatomy looks modular through out."

The current consensus refutes this position.

new horizons for any cognitive science reader.......2003-02-18

I am an oby-gyn specialist and readings of cognitive studies is one of my interests. Of course I prefer superficial writings and any book becomes out of touch and rejected as soon as it involves deeper issues. Paradoxically some rare books are easy to digest, yet exceedingly succesfull at promising new ways for capturing a glimpse. This work is such an attractive one. If consciousness will reveal its secrets someday, I feel that the key is evolutionary approaches and this master-piece of Donald is one of the bests in its era.

A really swell read...........2001-01-24

This is a fun book to read-- which is something for a book that credibly spreads across a number of disciplines and through some pretty dense stuff....

Donald is a credible writer and has a style that is simultaneously engaging without losing academic credibility. After opening up with a couple of chapters dealing with a review of literature stemming from before Darwin, he moves into an examination of archaeology, anthropology, and neurology trying to trace how the human mind came to function as it does (if you see it as special... or not....)

He traces through most of history. It is a broad, well-constucted swoop but one of which I still have not passed my final judgement. Perhaps it will take a couple of reads before I get to that point. What I am certain of is that this book, secondary to Julian Jaynes "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" made me THINK more about how we think than any other book I have come across.

I wholeheartedly recommend for you to buy this book if you have stumbled across this page....

Earnest, Learned and Valiant Effort.......2000-05-18

Although I didn't finish this book altogether convinced (nor altogether unconvinced) of his schema for human cognitive evolution, I was nonetheless very pleased and very grateful for Merlin Donald's clear and thorough review of the facts. Donald carefully sorts through the wealth of anthropological, paleontological, physiological, linguistic, and, most intriguingly, cognitive-psychological data, to separate the real clues from the red herrings. He expertly demonstrates the complexity and nuances of the evidence, while at the same time building his outline of a theory of the emergence of human consciousness. While I found this theory somewhat hazy and incomplete, particularly with respect to the "mimetic" stage he posits for H. erectus, it is quite acceptable in the spirit in which it is given: a tentative suggestion of what a plausible origins scenario must look like. From this perspective, his thoughts are most valuable, and by necessity provoke the reader to ruminate on the bewildering array of issues the author navigates so expertly. Merlin Donald does not adopt the strident, advocative tone that so many big-picture human evolution theorists do--rather, he lets the steady buildup of evidence and counter-evidence show you how he arrived at his ideas. The book is a dated, but still glittering, treasure of references and findings in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and animal and human cognition--I have used it quite a few times simply to remind myself--and others--of the strange but true, and of how things don't always conform to the wished-for pattern. For instance, Donald's wonderful and almost touching account of "Brother John", a paroxysmal aphasic, is a perfect rejoinder to anyone who equates "language" with "intelligence".

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