So Much Alarmed Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous…
Nightmare of Devastating Surprise Embedded in Nature Think of civilization as a living treasury of self-protective culture and technology developed to avoid devastating surprise. Civilization maintains early warning systems, sponsors safer building practices, encourages an educated citizenry, builds hospitals, signs treaties, and shares sacred covenants in part to protect against destructive surprise. The Most Devastating…
So now we know that early humans bred with Neanderthals and Denisovans. We know this because genome sequences from these “evolutionary cousins” make up from 4% to 6% of the genomes of some humans. And we’ve recently learned that some of the genetic material introduced by this cross-breeding included an upgrade of our immune system’s…
Dangerous Denials If a general in command of forces engaged in an epic struggle for your survival, discounts and ignores vital reconnaissance because the new information contradicts his traditional perspectives, you insist that general be replaced by a leader who is willing to consider new possibilities. Those who close their minds to the history of human…
Six thousand to 7,000 years ago, the pairing of domesticated oxen and primitive plows triggered an agricultural revolution in the fertile Tigris and Euphrates valley. Before the plow, women using sticks and hoes were the managers of Mesopotamian agriculture. After the physically more challenging plow was adopted, men became the managers of agriculture in Mesopotamia….
Can you name the great historians of the 21st century? We don’t know their names, but we can make a reasonable guess about the primary focus of their inquiries. If humans have existed for 200,000 years, then humanity has 200,000 years of history. The great historians of the 21st century will focus on all of…
Human capacity to recognize, absorb and integrate new information about our history is limited, because we are rightfully preoccupied with the here and now; nervous about new information, which may undermine details of the history we believe in; unfamiliar with the methodologies used to verify the information’s accuracy; and uncertain that information about the long-term…
Human artifacts from 25,000 years ago were unimaginable until recently. History is the primary source of more accurate information about human nature. In studying it we find the roots of humanity’s strengths and weaknesses in order to build upon those strengths and defuse the self-destructive weaknesses. From the Deccan Herald, San Sebastian, Spain, Aug. 11,…
Human gender never has been and never will be a superficial alliance, subject to the shifting tides of cultural history. Chatter about the relationship breaking down ignores the obvious. The genders male and female have co-managed society since Homo sapiens’ first day.