The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans ExceptionalA bold new synthesis of paleontology, archaeology, genetics, and anthropology that overturns misconceptions about race, war and peace, and human nature itself, answering an age-old question: What made humans so exceptional among all the species on Earth? Creativity. It is the secret of what makes humans special, hiding in plain sight. Agustín Fuentes argues that your child's finger painting comes essentially from the same place as creativity in hunting and gathering millions of years ago, and throughout history in making war and peace, in intimate relationships, in shaping the planet, in our communities, and in all of art, religion, and even science. It requires imagination and collaboration. Every poet has her muse; every engineer, an architect; every politician, a constituency. The manner of the collaborations varies widely, but successful collaboration is inseparable from imagination, and it brought us everything from knives and hot meals to iPhones and interstellar spacecraft. Weaving fascinating stories of our ancient ancestors' creativity, Fuentes finds the patterns that match modern behavior in humans and animals. This key quality has propelled the evolutionary development of our bodies, minds, and cultures, both for good and for bad. It's not the drive to reproduce; nor competition for mates, or resources, or power; nor our propensity for caring for one another that have separated us out from all other creatures. As Fuentes concludes, to make something lasting and useful today you need to understand the nature of your collaboration with others, what imagination can and can't accomplish, and, finally, just how completely our creativity is responsible for the world we live in. Agustín Fuentes's resounding multimillion-year perspective will inspire readers—and spark all kinds of creativity. |
Contents
Trumpeting Creativity and a New Synthesis | 1 |
Creative Primates | 15 |
The Last Hominin Standing | 25 |
Lets Make a Knife | 51 |
Killing and Eating Etc | 69 |
The Beauty of Standing in Line | 85 |
Food Security Accomplished ΙΟΙ | 101 |
Creating War and Peace | 127 |
Creative Sex | 163 |
Religious Foundations | 193 |
Artistic Flights | 219 |
Scientific Architecture | 245 |
The Beat of Your Creative Life | 271 |
Notes | 293 |
Acknowledgments | 327 |
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The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional Agustín Fuentes No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
accessed July 20 Acheulean aesthetic Africa aggression ancestors animals Anthropology apes archeological record areas Australopithecus Australopithecus afarensis behavior biological bodies bones bonobos brain called capacity cave challenges chimpanzees cognitive collaboration complex cooperation coordinated core create creative develop domestication earliest early Homo eating emergence evidence experience flakes forager fossil Fuentes gender genus Homo Gran Dolina hominin Homo antecessor Homo erectus human communities human evolution human sexuality hunting imagination individuals infants innovation interactions Journal of Human kill landscape lethal lineage lives look macaque males and females mammals mate meat microbiome million years ago modern monkeys Neanderthals niche construction ochre Oldowan Oxford pair-bonds patterns percent plants populations predators prey primates religion religious researchers ritual rocks roles Sahaba sexual activity shape shared social societies spears species sticks stone tools story symbolic teeth teosinte things tion toolmaking University Press violence