This is the first Q&A for History of Mankind. Paid subscribers received an email soliciting questions and, well, I got some, not too many, but enough for a start. So I’ll have the questions listed below, with my responses. Looking forward do this on video as well, at some point in the future.
There we go.
Question 1 – (by Lucas Morron): “In the first few entries for the series, you put a lot of emphasis on cultural aspects of human evolution in the pre-history, and how culture was shaped by local conditions. How would you describe the relative importance of culture vs genetics for human evolution.”
Answer – Great question to start off with, Lucas. I think genetics has been very underrated for a long time, and is now in danger of being overrated. Genetics has a massive impact on how humans act, so it has a massive impact on history. To start with, it’s genetic differences that made Homo Sapiens Sapiens triumph over, and displace, other Homo species like Neanderthalensis and Denisovans. For whatever reason (and there are various theories, that I only hint at in the text, since there’s no way to put more weight on one or the other) the African interlopers completely displaced these competing human varieties, to the point that they went quickly extinct, even though the planet is huge. I would say that this a great example of how genetics (let’s say, the software) had a decisive impact on how the Sapiens Sapiens culture (the hardware, to stick with this metaphor) helped them take over the entire planet. The Sapiens Sapiens were better at fighting, at talking, at dancing, whatever, but that difference was imprinted first in their genes and then in the culture resultant from their clannish-tribal interactions.
Question 2 – (by Gervasio Montenegro): “It’s pretty common that in panoramic books of history about prehistory and the dawn of mankind the start of civilization is described as a logical endpoint, as something that everything else was leading to. Would you agree to that?”
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