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raejeanr's review
4.0
This wasn't the kind of book I was expecting, but it was a fascinating anthropological study on human creativity.
claudia_is_reading's review
4.0
A very interesting and easy to follow analysis of the interconnected ways in which brain development and creativity boosted human evolution.
The different chapters discuss different aspects of humanity: language, art, spirituality, cooking, domestication and the way in which each of them changed not only humans but also their environment.
Full of interesting facts, this was a very rewarding read, and strangely enough, the narration by the author wasn't bad at all *laughs*
The different chapters discuss different aspects of humanity: language, art, spirituality, cooking, domestication and the way in which each of them changed not only humans but also their environment.
Full of interesting facts, this was a very rewarding read, and strangely enough, the narration by the author wasn't bad at all *laughs*
caidyn's review against another edition
4.0
This review and others can be found on BW Book Reviews.
Being a psychology major, you have to have a passing familiarity with evolution. Not just our old ancestors, but more than that. Knowing that you can track the progression of human brain growth and how/when skills might have been acquired by looking at the size of a skull. Then you can compare humans and apes, seeing what may or may not match up. How humans could have become the way they are.
Then, there's evolutionary psychology with how things have stayed throughout the centuries. Why things stick and then others don't. How traits carry on through the years despite them seeming undesirable.
While I don't plan on going into evolutionary psychology or theory (although it's fascinating) I know all of this thanks to my classes. Not just psychology, but cultural anthropology. My professor started out talking about the last common ancestor (LCA) and sort of on through there since you have to know the basics of hominids.
All of that being said, I have ample background on this topic. Practically everything Fuentes mentioned in his book I had either heard before or it was a slightly different twist on it. I wish he had spent more time on some things, but I love the spin on it. The reason why we have all of these abilities that are uniquely human is that of creativity. It's, well, creative. And how he used facts and showed them in a new light, it really helped make his point.
For anything else, I'd want this book for reminders about human evolution and to use for any research I have to do in the future since it's such a good resource point. I definitely recommend this book more to beginners on this topic than people who know a lot.
Being a psychology major, you have to have a passing familiarity with evolution. Not just our old ancestors, but more than that. Knowing that you can track the progression of human brain growth and how/when skills might have been acquired by looking at the size of a skull. Then you can compare humans and apes, seeing what may or may not match up. How humans could have become the way they are.
Then, there's evolutionary psychology with how things have stayed throughout the centuries. Why things stick and then others don't. How traits carry on through the years despite them seeming undesirable.
While I don't plan on going into evolutionary psychology or theory (although it's fascinating) I know all of this thanks to my classes. Not just psychology, but cultural anthropology. My professor started out talking about the last common ancestor (LCA) and sort of on through there since you have to know the basics of hominids.
All of that being said, I have ample background on this topic. Practically everything Fuentes mentioned in his book I had either heard before or it was a slightly different twist on it. I wish he had spent more time on some things, but I love the spin on it. The reason why we have all of these abilities that are uniquely human is that of creativity. It's, well, creative. And how he used facts and showed them in a new light, it really helped make his point.
For anything else, I'd want this book for reminders about human evolution and to use for any research I have to do in the future since it's such a good resource point. I definitely recommend this book more to beginners on this topic than people who know a lot.