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A review by crowyhead
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live by Marlene Zuk
5.0
This was fabulous and fascinating. The basic bent of the book is probably best summed up in this quote from the conclusion:
"A simpler life with more exercise, fewer processed foods, and closer contact with our children may well be good for us. But we shouldn't seek to live that way because we think it emulates our ancestors. We can mimic the life of a preindustrial, or preagricultural, society only in its broadest sense. Rather than trying to use our past to proscribe our present, or our future, we can use it as a way to understand where we came from. Paleofantasies call to mind a time when everything about us -- body, mind, and behavior -- was in sync with the environment. But [...] no such time existed. We, and every other living thing, have always lurched along in evolutionary time, with the inevitable trade-offs that are a hallmark of life." (p. 270)
Basically, Zuk, a scientist who studies ecology, evolution, and behavior, uses the fringe elements of the "paleo" movement as a jumping off point to discuss what we actually know about human evolution and human history. Key to her argument is the concept that humans did not evolve to a certain maximum level 10,000 years ago and then just stop: we are always evolving. In one particularly enlightening section, Zuk discusses the evolution of the ability to digest lactose, a capacity that appears to have arisen independently in differing areas of the globe, at different times, with a different genetic component. Lactose tolerance in some areas of Africa (mainly what is now southern Kenya and northern Tanzania) is estimated to have arisen only approximately 3,000 years ago, when people in these areas began keeping herd animals.
Overall, there is little patience here with speculation as to what humans were "meant" to do -- Zuk is mainly interested in what humans CAN do, and when these traits arose. She is particularly irked by people who talk about the "unintended" consequences of evolution, because evolution has no intentions. Traits arise that may or may not be beneficial, and there are always trade-offs. The genetic trait that makes some people more resistant to HIV infection also seems to make them more susceptible to West Nile Virus. Humans who have the tuberculosis-resistant genotype appear to be more susceptible to auto-immune diseases. The list goes on.
If you are looking for a point-by-point refutation of pop culture versions of evolutionary biology, this will be a bit of a disappointment. However, if you're interested in evolution in general and human evolution specifically, you will find this absolutely fascinating.
"A simpler life with more exercise, fewer processed foods, and closer contact with our children may well be good for us. But we shouldn't seek to live that way because we think it emulates our ancestors. We can mimic the life of a preindustrial, or preagricultural, society only in its broadest sense. Rather than trying to use our past to proscribe our present, or our future, we can use it as a way to understand where we came from. Paleofantasies call to mind a time when everything about us -- body, mind, and behavior -- was in sync with the environment. But [...] no such time existed. We, and every other living thing, have always lurched along in evolutionary time, with the inevitable trade-offs that are a hallmark of life." (p. 270)
Basically, Zuk, a scientist who studies ecology, evolution, and behavior, uses the fringe elements of the "paleo" movement as a jumping off point to discuss what we actually know about human evolution and human history. Key to her argument is the concept that humans did not evolve to a certain maximum level 10,000 years ago and then just stop: we are always evolving. In one particularly enlightening section, Zuk discusses the evolution of the ability to digest lactose, a capacity that appears to have arisen independently in differing areas of the globe, at different times, with a different genetic component. Lactose tolerance in some areas of Africa (mainly what is now southern Kenya and northern Tanzania) is estimated to have arisen only approximately 3,000 years ago, when people in these areas began keeping herd animals.
Overall, there is little patience here with speculation as to what humans were "meant" to do -- Zuk is mainly interested in what humans CAN do, and when these traits arose. She is particularly irked by people who talk about the "unintended" consequences of evolution, because evolution has no intentions. Traits arise that may or may not be beneficial, and there are always trade-offs. The genetic trait that makes some people more resistant to HIV infection also seems to make them more susceptible to West Nile Virus. Humans who have the tuberculosis-resistant genotype appear to be more susceptible to auto-immune diseases. The list goes on.
If you are looking for a point-by-point refutation of pop culture versions of evolutionary biology, this will be a bit of a disappointment. However, if you're interested in evolution in general and human evolution specifically, you will find this absolutely fascinating.