Since the focus has moved here from the Langer thread, I just wanted to add a follow-up to the Big History link I posted there. Here is a review of Graeber & Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity:
As I mentioned, I’m reading this in parallel with Harari’s Sapiens, and I must say, Graeber/Wengrow is the much more fun and insightful read. It’s a heavy tome, weighing in at 500+ pages (and therefore probably beyond the scope of a series of CCafés … most certainly, if only one person were to, as John phrases it, sponsor the reading), but the time spent getting a clearer view of what Gebser would have called our Magical and Mythical past would definitely be well spent, at least IMNASHO. Humanity’s past was much more diverse and richer than we thought and getting Gebser (for those of us who have engaged him) aligned to this rebooted view is both challenging and rewarding.
Wishing everyone einen guten Rutsch [“a good slide” (into the New Year)] …