Title: Transcendence
Subtitle: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
Description: 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.
Subjects: Evolution, Ethnology, Biology, Social history, Evolutionary psychology, Human evolution, HISTORY / Civilization, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social