Thursday, January 26, 2017

Week 2: Jan 27 Questions (Chapt 2, 3, 4)


Chapter 2: The Tree of Knowledge


1. P. 21 “The “Cognitive Revolution.” Accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens, enabling them to think in unprecedented ways and to communicate using an altogether new type of language. We might call it the Tree of Knowledge mutation.”

What does he mean by the “Tree of Knowledge mutation”? Why do you think he uses that term? Why is this an appropriate/good name (or not!) for this shift in our cognitive abilities? Given the Christian history, does that place a moral judgement or value on that shift?

2. P. 22 - Our language developed as “a means of sharing information about the world. But the most important information that needed to be covered was about humans, not about lions and bison. Our language evolved as a way of gossiping.”

How was gossip pivotal to our development? What would you say is its role today?

3. P. 24/25 - Sapiens seem to be the only animal capable of imagining things they have never seen, including the creation of legends, myths, gods and religions. How has this helped us to “rule the world”? How might this be our downfall?

4. P. 28 -The author writes that there are “no human rights…outside the common imagination of human beings.”

Do humans innately ‘have’ rights, or have we decided as a species, to grant ourselves those rights? (What about other animals?)

5. pg 31 - The author writes, “An imagined reality is not a lie.”

Do you agree or disagree? (What would Trump or Kelly Conway say?) :)

6. P. 32 - “Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens has thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as gods, nations, and corporations.” DISCUSS.

7. Pg 34 Our new ability to tell stories enabled cooperation of large groups of people (beyond 150), allowing us to transform social structures, interpersonal relations, economic activities within decades.

Our storytelling served a purpose; we ‘evolved’ quickly - not biologically, but societally and culturally. Does it still serve us? Will something else evolve in us? What do you think might be the next evolution for us as a species?

8. P. 35/36 - Trade. Seems pragmatic, but can’t happen without trust between strangers; we appeal to common myths to bring trust between strangers.

We are starting to see this today re: world markets — Brexit/EU, USA/Mexico, — closing down borders, putting up walls, decreased trust, re-negotiations of trade agreements.

How could common stories help our world right now?
How are some of the ‘stories’ being told affecting the world?

Chapter 3: Adam and Eve

 

1. P. 40 “For nearly the entire history of our species, Sapiens lived as foragers. …(E)volutionary psychology argues that many of our present-day social and psychological characteristics were shaped during the long pre-agricultural era.”

Our current “environment gives us more material resource and longer lives than those enjoyed by any previous generation, but it often makes us feel alienated, depressed and pressured.”

Plague of obesity because we are programmed to gorge on high-calorie sweets and fats — ripe fruit, in short supply for them, doughnuts and french fries for us.
What can we learn from our ancestry/ DNA to help us with today’s challenges?

2. Pg 43: Artefacts tell the story of the society to future generations.

Our ancestors, the foragers, moved all the time so “had to make do with only the most essential possessions…the greater part of their mental, religious and emotional lives was conducted without the help of artefacts.” 
In the digital age, are we moving away from artefacts, once again?

3. P. 46 “…they still spend the vast majority of their time in complete isolation and independence…there were no permanent towns or institutions. The average person lived many months without seeing or hearing a human from outside of her own band, and she encountered throughout her life no more than a few hundred humans.”

Imagine! Would you prefer a life like that, or ours today (seeing millions at one gathering, alone)!

4. p. 49 - “The human collective knows far more today than did the ancient bands. But at the individual level, ancient foragers were the most knowledgable and skillful people in history.”

They were smarter, more skilled, more capable, more knowledgable, than we are, as individuals. More tuned in to nature and to their own bodies. (Fit as marathon runners, observed foliage, great physical dexterity, moved silently etc.)

How do you think our movement from being outside, connected to nature, in tune with our bodies etc. into enclosed, concrete, out-of-the-elements environments has affected modern-day humans?

5. pg.54 - Animism:

“The belief that almost every place, every animal, every plant and every natural phenomenon has awareness and feelings, and can communicate directly with humans.” 

Why do you think animism was the primary belief of the foragers?
How do theism (belief in a god-being) and animism compare?
If animism made a come-back today, what would be the result?

6. P. 57 - The pic of the hands — It seems we have always wanted to ‘make our mark’, to be remembered, to say, “we were here.” Is this some sort of quest for immortality? Wanting future generations to see something of us? Or is it some sort of communication with ourselves, to be a reflection of our OWN worth?

Chapter 4: The Flood

 

P 64: “The journey of the first humans to Australia is one of the most important events in history, at least as important at Columbus’ journey to American or the Apollo 11 expedition to the moon…Homo sapiens climbed to the top rung in the food chain on a particular landmass and thereafter became the deadliest species in the annals of planet Earth.”
P. 66: - more than 90% of Australia’s megafauna disappeared
Homo sapiens was still overwhelmingly a terrestrial menace.
“ecological serial killer.” (Australia, New Zealand, Arctic Ocean…all islands…)
P 68: - Had mastered “fire agriculture” - “completely changed the ecology of large parts of Australia within a few short millennia (which, in turn, “influenced the animals that ate the plants and the carnivores that ate the vegetarians”.)

P 69 - To America: Even larger ecological disaster, this time in America
- within 2000 years - most species gone. 34/47 genera of large mammals (along with thousands of smaller mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, parasites.
“…(T)he inevitable conclusion is that the first wave of Sapiens colonization was one of the biggest and swiftest ecological disasters to befall the animal kingdom.”

Author asks, ‘Perhaps if more people were aware of the First Wave (spread of the foragers) and Second Wave (the spread of the farmers) extinctions, the’d be less nonchalant about the Third Wave they are part of. If we knew how many species we’ve already eradicated, we might be more motivated to protect those that still survive.

Do you think that’s true? Would this knowledge make a difference in our collective behaviour?

Our ancestors were operating without the scientific information we have today (e.g., weather patterns, other species) and were also operating from a ‘survival perspective’. Today, we have the ability to do more than survive - yet we are creating a Third Wave of Extinction. What do you think our descendants will say about this period in time?

Given our level of awareness and scientific information (as compared with our ancestors who were just trying to survive and were unaware of the devastation they were wreaking) — what is our moral responsibility to the other species of the world, if any?

Or, is this just nature (survival of the fittest) continuing its natural path?

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Additional Articles


You may be interested in this article about the peopling of our planet and genomics:

http://www.nature.com.sci-hub.bz/nature/journal/v541/n7637/full/nature21347.html


Archaeological evidence shows human settlement in Yukon much earlier than previously thought:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-first-humans-north-america-1.3936886



Related articles:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_Hill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadowcroft_Rockshelter
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/14/archaeology-florida-sinkhole-ancient-humans-mastodon-knife-bones-bering-strait
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Verd


The book Europe and the People Without History gives a somewhat different interpretation of global history ~1400 - 1900 CE (Wikipedia).  It is regarded as a classic in the field.

Europe and the People Without History is a book by anthropologist Eric Wolf. First published in 1982, it focuses on the expansion of European societies in the Modern Era. "Europe and the people without history" is history written on a global scale, tracing the connections between communities, regions, peoples and nations that are usually treated as discrete subjects.[1]

A global history[edit]

The book begins in 1400 with a description of the trade routes a world traveller might have encountered, the people and societies they connected, and the civilizational processes trying to incorporate them. From this, Wolf traces the emergence of Europe as a global power, and the reorganization of particular world regions for the production of goods now meant for global consumption. Wolf differs from World Systems theory in that he sees the growth of Europe until the late eighteenth century operating in a tributory framework, and not capitalism. He examines the way that colonial state structures were created to protect tributary populations involved in the silver, fur and slave trades. Whole new "tribes" were created as they were incorporated into circuits of mercantile accumulation. 
The final section of the book deals with the transformation in these global networks as a result of the growth of capitalism with the industrial revolution. Factory production of textiles in England, for example transformed cotton production in the American south and Egypt, and eliminated textile production in India. All these transformations are connected in a single structural change. Each of the world's regions are examined in terms of the goods they produced in the global division of labour, as well as the mobilization and migration of whole populations (such as African slaves) to produce these goods. Wolf uses labor market segmentation to provide a historical account of the creation of ethnic segmentation.[2] Where World Systems theory had little to say about the periphery, Wolf's emphasis is on the people "without history" (i.e. not given a voice in western histories) and on how they were active participants in the creation of new cultural and social forms emerging in the context of commercial empire.[3]


Wei Djao

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Week 1: Jan 13 Questions (Chapt 1)

Chapter 1: An Animal of No Significance


1. According to the author, who were our "cousins" and "siblings"?

2. Harari argues that different human species did not develop in a straight line. What are his reasons?

3. What were the costs to Homo Sapiens for being wise?

4. What is the author trying to say in the following passages? Do you agree with him? Explain.

Pg 3 - Do you agree with the author’s use of the word “history”? i.e., history is only the ‘development of human culture’ and not the previous 13 billion years?

Pg 5 - What do you think/feel when you consider the author’s statement that: “Just 6 million years ago, a single female ape had 2 daughters. One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees, the other is our own grandmother.”

Pg 5/6 - Homo sapiens were not the only ‘humans,;’ we had brother and sister species as well. How does that affect how you see the place of humans today in the world (if at all)?

Pg 6 - The author states he thinks it is “…doubtful whether Homo sapiens will still be around a thousand years from now.” From your reading of the chapter and/or your understanding of humans today, what might be some of his reasons for making that statement? Do you agree or disagree?

Pg 10 - The author suggests that ‘humans are born early and underdeveloped compared to most animals’, coming out more like ‘molten glass than glazed earthenware from a kiln.’ He argues that this initial malleability is what makes it possible today to “educate our children to become Christian or Buddhist, capitalist or socialist, warlike or peace-loving.” Does this suggest that humans are born innately amoral (being neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’) and it is solely our lived experience that drives our development into the children and adults we become? Or, do humans have a natural/innate tendency to be good? Or bad?

Pg 14/15 - The Interbreeding Theory vs. Replacement Theory

What are the differences? (See pg 14/15) Why is this potentially political dynamite? What will it mean, if the initial DNA reports that indicate some interbreeding happened, are true?

Pg 18 - The author asks, “What kind of cultures, societies, and political structures would have emerged in a world where several different human species coexisted?” Your thoughts?

Pg 18 - “Our lack of brothers and sisters makes it easier to imagine that we are the epitome of creation, and that a chasm separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. When Charles Darwin indicated that Homo sapiens was just another kind of animal, people were outraged. Even today many refuse to believe it.” If we were to accept that we are not the epitome of creation, that there isn’t that big a chasm between us and other animals (as science is increasingly demonstrating), what would the implications be?

Pg 11/12 - The author suggests that our position at the top of the food chain is not only a relatively new occurrence, but it happened in a “spectacular leap” from the middle to the top. In other words, while the other ‘top’ species (lions etc.) evolved slowly into that position, we jumped up the chain (by our use of fire, for example). He argues that this quick leap has not ‘enabled the ecosystems to develop checks and balances’ which might prevent us from ‘wreaking too much havoc.’ Unlike most other ‘top predators’ on the planet, we have ‘fears and anxieties over our position, making us doubly cruel and dangerous,’ and that it is this that has resulted in our deadly wars and ecological catastrophes.



Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Next Meeting 7:30 pm, Friday, January 27

For our next meeting, please try to read:

Chapter 2 The Tree of Knowledge
Chapter 3 A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve
Chapter 4 The Flood

We look forward to seeing you Friday, January 27 at 7:30 pm. Judging from our first meeting, the group discussions are sure to be interesting!

If you are unable to attend this or any other meetings, please feel free to post comments or questions using the comments link below.

2017 Book Study Schedule


Session/Date (Fridays)
Chapters for Discussion
1.  January 13
Timeline of History; Chapter 1 An Animal of No Significance
2.  January 27
Chapter 2  The Tree of Knowledge
Chapter 3  A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve
Chapter 4  The Flood
3.  February 10
Chapter 5  History’s Biggest Fraud
Chapter 6  Building Pyramids
Chapter 7  Memory Overload
4.  February 24
Chapter 8  There is no Justice in History
Chapter 9    The Arrow of History
Chapter 10  The Scent of Money
5.  March 10
Chapter 11  Imperial Visions
Chapter 12  The Law of Religion
Chapter 13  The Secret of success
6.  March 24

Chapter 14  The Discovery of Ignorance
Chapter 15  The Marriage of Science and Empire
7.  April 7
Chapter 16  The Capitalist Cree
Chapter 17  The Wheels of Industry
Chapter 18  A Permanent Revolution
8.  April 21
Chapter 19  And They Lived Happily Ever After
Chapter 20  The End of Homo Sapiens
Afterword:  The Animal That Became a God
9.  May 5
Review – Feedback – Evaluation
Suggestions of book study in 2018
Potluck supper!!!

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Our Winter Book Study kicks-off in the lounge at West Hill on January 13th at 7:30 p.m. We invite you to read the introduction through to page 19 and join us for some great conversation!

Special thanks to Wei Djao, Deb Ellis and Jeanne Hamel for facilitating the return of this wonderful program!

Our book this year is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. Copies are still available for $15 from the office. If you need one please contact Annie at 416-282-8566, or email admin@westhill.net.

Welcome to the WHU Book Study Blog

For over twenty-five years, between January and May of each year, on alternating Friday evenings, a group of enthusiastic learners has gathered in the lounge of West Hill United Church to uncover the kernels of wisdom found in that year's chosen book.  Because each book has had a provocative edge to it, the Book Study Group has been the crucible within which much of the theological shift that the congregation has seen over those twenty years has taken place.

Participants are not always West Hill congregants and the Book Study is always open to new voices who are interested in respectfully engaging the many ways we are challenged to live radically ethical lives.  Please do join us for an intriguing and animated discussion.  The book study takes place in the lounge at West Hill from 7:30 to 9:30 on alternating Fridays.  You don't need to have come to the first to still join us.  You can pop in mid-way through.  Check out our calendar to find out the next time the book study is meeting.