Unbound: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
Richard L. Currier
Top 10 Best Quotes
“the tribal cultures that had evolved during the Upper Paleolithic with the emergence of symbolic communication enabled people who might have been strangers to feel a collective sense of belonging and solidarity. It was the formation of tribes and ethnicities that enabled the strangers of the large Neolithic towns to trust each other and interact comfortably with each other, even if they were not all personally acquainted.”
“Whether our species is capable of a final act of fusion—in which all living people achieve a shared identity as members of a single global culture and civilization—is a question that will determine the future not only of our own species but also of most forms of life on Earth. This is, in fact, the question that lies at the heart of this book.”
“Each of the four metamorphoses that had already taken place had transformed the biology of our ancestors in significant ways. The technology of spears and digging sticks transformed us from quadrupedal into bipedal animals. The technology of fire and cooking resulted in the loss of our body hair, a massive expansion in the size of our brains, and the disappearance of our tree-climbing anatomy. The technology of clothing and shelter enabled us to migrate out of the tropics and made it possible for our “premature” newborns to survive in cold climates. And the technology of symbolic communication involved significant changes in our brains, freeing us from the slow pace of biological evolution and enabling us to take advantage of the speed and flexibility of cultural evolution.”
“But the Stone Age was not a distinct period or age at all, since it includes the entire evolutionary history of the hominids, from their earliest appearance several million years ago to the fully modern humans of today’s world. This immense period of time encompasses many of the technologies described in this book, including the domestication of fire, the invention of clothing and dwellings, the development of symbolism, the adoption of agriculture, and the beginnings of urban civilization. In fact, the Stone Age technically began to end only when the techniques of metallurgy were first developed a few thousand years ago.”
“And while our bodies are no longer capable of climbing trees to dizzying heights with the ease of apes and monkeys, we still find a singular pleasure in being perched in high places with commanding views.”
“with four distinct types of social bonds that are also fundamental building blocks in all human societies. These are: 1) the maternal relationship between mother and offspring; 2) the social hierarchies that bind individuals together in relationships of dominance and submission; 3) the friendships and alliances that can form between any two individuals; and 4) the sexual relationships that are formed and maintained between adult males and females.”
“metamorphosis, however, describes a sweeping change in every aspect of culture and society: diet, habitat, social relationships, economic behavior, group size, technology, evolutionary pressures, and even human anatomy itself. There have been thousands of revolutions in the course of humanity’s evolution and history, but there have been only a few genuine metamorphoses.”
“ever since the idea of marrying for love became the norm in modern society, men and women expect the intimacy, companionship, mutual attraction, and sexual satisfaction that typically accompanies new partnerships to continue indefinitely, and there is much bitterness and disappointment when, as so often happens, these benefits tend to disappear as the years go by.”
“but the fact remains that a society composed almost entirely of people who work under the direction of other people—who in turn provide them with a regular supply of money—is an entirely new phenomenon in human history.”
“Yet the human family survives and will continue to survive. Men and women will continue to form sexual partnerships, and they will continue to have children. Those who are not inclined to procreate will contribute neither their inherited biological predispositions nor their learned cultural preferences to future generations. While the “traditional family” has become obsolete, the human family has not. Our innate human natures, the product of millions of years of human evolution, ensure that the human family will survive as long as our species endures.”
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Book Keywords:
global-civilization
