Story of the Human Body
In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman—chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a leader in the field—gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years, even as it shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning this paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease. The Story of the Human Body brilliantly illuminates as never before the major transformations that contributed key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering, leading to our superlative endurance athleticism; the development of a very large brain; and the incipience of cultural proficiencies. Lieberman also elucidates how cultural evolution differs from biological evolution, and how our bodies were further transformed during the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. While these ongoing changes have brought about many benefits, they have also created conditions to which our bodies are not entirely adapted, Lieberman argues, resulting in the growing incidence of obesity and new but avoidable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
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- I will recommend the book "The Story of the Human Body" by Daniel E. Lieberman. In his section "Unwise Wisdom Teeth", he writes:
"Just as your limbs and spine will not grow strong enough if you don't sufficiently stress your bones by walking, running, and doing other activities, your jaws won't grow large enough for your teeth and your teeth won't fit properly if you don't stress your face sufficiently from chewing food."
A fascinating book. One observation: modern human hunter-gatherer mothers typically wean their children at age three, while a mother who is a subsistence farmer can wean her children between one and two years. Thus, humanity underwent a population explosion once we started farming instead of hunting and gathering.
- Urbanization has been a hot mess of disease for the last 5000 years. And our biological evolution hasn't had time to catch up.
See "Against the Grain", by James C. Scott (https://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-History-Earliest-States...), and also "The Story of the Human Body", by Daniel E. Lieberman (https://www.amazon.com/Story-Human-Body-Evolution-Disease/dp...).
I'm seeing guidance to, over next weeks and months, increase ventilation, open windows, and socialize outdoors instead of inside. Fortunately, it's spring here in the Northern Hemisphere.
Long term, the WFH trend may only increase. Maybe light industrial work could disperse as well?
I was struck by NY Times list of the workers who face the greatest coronavirus risks (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/15/business/econ...).
Least risk? Loggers.
- "Finding ways for people to live inside nature reserves, rather than trying to keep people out with walls, can help preserve biodiverse habitats overall."
Our immediate call to action (as yet another zoonotic disease threatens to infect _every_ urban civilization on earth) is for all people, particularly in major cities, to disperse to their homes, and isolate from groups of more than a 10 or so people. And do this for many months (up to 18 months if I read the ICL/Ferguson paper correctly).
And that's just for _this_ virus. Expect another in 10-20 years.
I'm beginning to think that urban life, with all its benefits, may not be worth it in the long run. Specifically, I'm informed by James C. Scott's recent "Against the Grain" ("Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today’s states?"), and also by Daniel E. Lieberman's "The Story of the Human Body", particularly his chapter on farming and the resultant explosion in fertility (due to women having babies every 2 years instead of the 4 years of our paleo hunter/gatherer mothers).
I will say the most (only?) delightful thing to observe is the lessening of so much political bullshit. Trump looked absolutely petrified in his speech last week.
- Sidenote: I recently finished reading The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman, in which he addresses this issue (among many others). The book is absolutely fantastic, an engaging, highly-readable page-turner packed with insights and epiphanies about how we can think about contemporary challenges from an evolutionary perspective.
- I do but also when I describe the environment in which we evolved I'm not talking about the last 10,000 years really, so not including mega civilizations like the Egyptians. I'm talking about the other 99% of our existence where you largely took food out of the ground and occasionally directly hunted wild animals. The idea is that your jaw/teeth expect chewing this kind of food and use that information to determine how your teeth should be correctly placed in your jaw as it is still growing. I don't have any specific references handy but I first read about the teeth thing in the excellent book: The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease
- Even better, The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Pr Daniel Lieberman of Harvard. An invaluable resource.
