Metamorphosis pt. 3.3: Your Body Is a Map of the Sky
Fight Like An Animal
English - June 21, 2023 11:00 - 2 hours - 84.5 MBScience Society & Culture evolution climate change psychology extinction empathy rage revolution policy anthropology cognition Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
We examine the neurobiological changes that brought archaic Homo sapiens into behavioral modernity, despite negligible changes in brain size. We see how complex symbolic capacities are embedded in anatomy and behavior, and describe the human brain's progressive change to a more globular shape, the increase in our neural density, and the expansion of the parietal lobe, a part of the brain relentlessly dedicated to integration. We see how we conceptualize social interactions, tools, and environments by projecting our own bodies externally, blurring the ostensible boundary between world and self. Finally, we examine the putative mythologies and rituals of ancient African peoples, reconstructed from contemporary hunter-gatherers, with their emphasis on fusions of identity and flows of power between social categories.