A Brief Natural History of Civilization: Why a Balance Between Cooperation & Competition Is Vital to Humanity

A compelling evolutionary narrative that reveals how human civilization follows the same ecological rules that shape all life on Earth Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, noted ecologist Mark Bertness argues that human beings and their civilization are the products of the same self-organization, evolutionary adaptation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. Bertness follows the evolutionary process from the primordial soup of two billion years ago through today, exploring the ways opposing forces of competition and cooperation have led to current assemblages of people, animals, and plants. Bertness’s thoughtful examination of human history from the perspective of natural history provides new insights about why and how civilization developed as it has and explores how humans, as a species, might have to consciously overrule our evolutionary drivers to survive future challenges. Introduction: Why natural history? -- Life: where we came from : Cooperative life ; Life in the food chain ; Taming nature -- Civilization: who we are : The triumph and cure of civilization ; Resource exploitation ; Famine and disease ; Domination versus coopertion -- Fate: where we are going : Our ethnocentric, entheogenic universe ; Preserving food and improving health ; Civilization on fire ; Unnatural nature -- Epilogue: The natural history of civilizations "Mark Bertness argues that human civilization is the product of the same self-organization, evolutionary competition, cooperation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. This perspective reveals how human history is natural history and explores how humans, as a species, might have to consciously overrule our evolutionary drivers in order to survive future challenges"-- Provided by publisher