Context

As I mentioned, I’m really enjoying the Sapiens book. I was shocked to discover that hunter gatherer societies were comprised of extremely intelligent humans!

Reflection

Because of my biases (and probably seeing many depictions of foolish looking cave men), I had assumed that what caused the human to “pull themselves out” of the wild animal stage and into the industrial age was them finally reaching a point of intelligence to do so. When, the reality is actually the opposite! The hunter gatherer people had to be so intimately familiar with their surroundings to survive. Weather patterns, migration patterns of many different animals, which foods were safe to eat, and how to prepare the foods for consumption. The variety of foods they gathered was also greater than the average person today eating cereal grains and one of four different meats. History is so fascinating. I find time and time again, my assumption of how or what something must have been is frequently proven completely wrong.