Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud

Начало книги

Scavenging – bipedalism and meat-eating – upright posture – the oldest artefacts – changes in brain size and hand-axes – fire – ochre – burial – Neanderthals – the first ‘abstract’ idea – Berekhet Ram – ‘the cultural explosion’ – cave art – Venus figurines – ‘split houses’ – sexual imagery – textiles – beads and ritual

2. The Emergence of Language and the Conquest of Cold

The size of early groups – hunting tools – ‘tailored’ clothing – proto-languages – Siberia to Alaska: Mal’ta, Afontova Gora, Dyukhtai, Berelekh, Denali – sinodonty – the Neanderthals’ hyoid bone – the language gene – Nostratic and other mother tongues – the first sounds – the first words – the first writing?

3. The Birth of the Gods, the Evolution of House and Home

Domestication of plants and animals – ‘hot spots’ – ‘founder crops’ – increasing control of fire – cultivation of cereals – fertile crescent – drawbacks of agriculture – a more arid world – population crises in pre-history – sedentism – health crisis in pre-history – sedentary foraging – the first houses – Natufian/Khiamian cultures – the Woman and the Bull, the origin of religion – ‘fire-pits’ – first use of clay – female figurines – transition from stone to pottery – megaliths – stone temples of Malta – the Great Goddess – ‘Old Europe’ – copper smelting – bronze – iron – daggers, mirrors and coins – the intellectual impact of money

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