Rereading this book has almost been refreshing. i realized how different the world could’ve been, how we may not have been the superior species after all, and how everything about our lives could have changed. it’s daunting to think how such a change as the extinction of all other species could create our world like this. speaking of extinction, I'm very curious indeed as to what our ancestors did to cause the disappearance of an entire species. I look at a lot of things differently now. For instance, elders say that the old ways are the correct ways (our forefathers were so healthy and lived such long lives because of the food they ate etc)
But this book made me realise that what they did or how they lived is not necessarily the “right way”
It’s just what our species evolved doing, and if we suddenly change our lifestyle, our body can’t take it as easily.
For hundreds of years the people in our region have been eating a certain type of food, and the human body of our families have got used to this type of food. So it’s not about right or wrong — it’s about what your species is habituated to.
It was also interesting to find that Arabic numbers were not really invented by Arabs, but were actually stolen from the Indian subcontinent 😂
So the author claims that the hunter-gatherers had a better life than we currently have. I mean, I can understand and agree they were more skillful for handcraft stuff, hunting, gathering, etc, than we are. But that set of skills was necessary and essencial for them. Nowadays, we don't need those skills, we need other types of skills to survive in our own world. I believe it was more a matter of necessity than "they were handier and more skilful". They needed to be to survive, like we need to have other skills nowadays to survive.
Something else that really bothered me was the comparison between a woman hunter-gatherer and a woman working on a factory. The author claims that the gatherer had a much more fulfilling and simpler life because they didn't have to wash dishes, vacuum. But is it really fair to compare this 2 realities? People had a life expectancy of what, 20 years? They died eaten by animals, with diseases, with hunger. Not that doesn't happen nowadays, because it does, but I mean, we can't actually say they lived a better life.
For me, that's the same as saying that in the 1800's, women had a much better life because they didn't need to work or worry about jobs and politics, they could just stay home and play with their children and gossip with their friends... Which is absurd, right? I don't know, this rubbed me the wrong way.
I might need to look more into this, because I can't understand if this is a school of thought or if it is just the author's opinion.
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