Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Customer Reviews:

A brand new idea about human origins.......2006-06-18

This is a book that will forever change your view of what it means to be a human being. It is a work of enormous scope, from the minutiae of neurophysiology to archaeology and anthropology to the curriculum of mediaeval schools and modern systems theory, and everywhere closely researched with evidence weighed with care and insight.
The argument is broadly this: our evolutionary cousins, the apes, have brains which enable them to represent to themselves and remember "episodes" or events, something which their evolutionary predecessors either do not have or have only in a limited form.
Homo erectus, the evolutionary link between us and the apes, extended this ability to perceive events, into "mimesis", a capacity to reproduce events they have perceived by use of their own body. Donald shows how this ability, which involves no modifications of the body and relatively modest changes in the brain, allows for the voluntary representation and communication of events of the past and emotions not actually felt concerning things not actually present, a foundation for the later development of symbolic action. Homo erectus dominated the hominid world for a million years, adapting themselves to this "mimetic" culture. According to Donald, mimetic representation remains with us as a vestige of our homo erectus ancestry, as a fully functioning, underlying mode of representation and intelligence.
Homo sapiens in turn developed this ability into speech, with a radical adaption which occurred about 500,000 years ago. According to Donald, homo sapiens had a "mythic" culture hinged around the ability to tell stories, and this ability provided a means to make sense of the world and create a shared understanding of the world. This mythic culture survives to this day, constituting a crucial mode of understanding the world.
Modern human beings, homo sapiens sapiens, emerged only about 50,000 years ago with a rapid accumulation of a myriad of forms of cultural artefacts, culminating in the beginning of writing about 8,000 years ago. This led to a "theoretic" culture for which symbols held in material forms outside the body, play an essential role. According to Donald, human beings have evolved by biological adaptation to the culture it created and lived in and was crucial to its survival strategy.
There is a lot of maybe, perhaps, possibly and if in this work, but the best books open research programs rather than completing them, and Donald has certainly done this. The basic framework is very sound and argued convincingly but his suggestion opens up a plethora of questions begging for investigation.
In particular, the idea of several (episodic, mimetic and linguistics) modes of representation coexisting in consciousness has vast ramifications.

this book is out of date.......2005-11-07

The book is 17 years out of date.

Donald writes, ""Broca's region" and "Wernicke's region" are convenient fictions, the truth being that aphasia can be caused by wide variety of legions that spare these areas, while occasionally the complete loss of these areas will spare language function altogether, provided the adjacent white matter and basal ganglia are not damaged. The implication is that higher-level integration appears to be fluid and plastic in its underlying anatomy, and the anatomy looks modular through out."

The current consensus refutes this position.

new horizons for any cognitive science reader.......2003-02-18

I am an oby-gyn specialist and readings of cognitive studies is one of my interests. Of course I prefer superficial writings and any book becomes out of touch and rejected as soon as it involves deeper issues. Paradoxically some rare books are easy to digest, yet exceedingly succesfull at promising new ways for capturing a glimpse. This work is such an attractive one. If consciousness will reveal its secrets someday, I feel that the key is evolutionary approaches and this master-piece of Donald is one of the bests in its era.

A really swell read...........2001-01-24

This is a fun book to read-- which is something for a book that credibly spreads across a number of disciplines and through some pretty dense stuff....

Donald is a credible writer and has a style that is simultaneously engaging without losing academic credibility. After opening up with a couple of chapters dealing with a review of literature stemming from before Darwin, he moves into an examination of archaeology, anthropology, and neurology trying to trace how the human mind came to function as it does (if you see it as special... or not....)

He traces through most of history. It is a broad, well-constucted swoop but one of which I still have not passed my final judgement. Perhaps it will take a couple of reads before I get to that point. What I am certain of is that this book, secondary to Julian Jaynes "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" made me THINK more about how we think than any other book I have come across.

I wholeheartedly recommend for you to buy this book if you have stumbled across this page....

Earnest, Learned and Valiant Effort.......2000-05-18

Although I didn't finish this book altogether convinced (nor altogether unconvinced) of his schema for human cognitive evolution, I was nonetheless very pleased and very grateful for Merlin Donald's clear and thorough review of the facts. Donald carefully sorts through the wealth of anthropological, paleontological, physiological, linguistic, and, most intriguingly, cognitive-psychological data, to separate the real clues from the red herrings. He expertly demonstrates the complexity and nuances of the evidence, while at the same time building his outline of a theory of the emergence of human consciousness. While I found this theory somewhat hazy and incomplete, particularly with respect to the "mimetic" stage he posits for H. erectus, it is quite acceptable in the spirit in which it is given: a tentative suggestion of what a plausible origins scenario must look like. From this perspective, his thoughts are most valuable, and by necessity provoke the reader to ruminate on the bewildering array of issues the author navigates so expertly. Merlin Donald does not adopt the strident, advocative tone that so many big-picture human evolution theorists do--rather, he lets the steady buildup of evidence and counter-evidence show you how he arrived at his ideas. The book is a dated, but still glittering, treasure of references and findings in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, and animal and human cognition--I have used it quite a few times simply to remind myself--and others--of the strange but true, and of how things don't always conform to the wished-for pattern. For instance, Donald's wonderful and almost touching account of "Brother John", a paroxysmal aphasic, is a perfect rejoinder to anyone who equates "language" with "intelligence".

Book Description

Our Ecological Footprint presents an internationally-acclaimed tool for measuring and visualizing the resources required to sustain our households, communities, regions and nations, converting the seemingly complex concepts of carrying capacity, resource-use, waste-disposal and the like into a graphic form that everyone can grasp and use. An excellent handbook for community activists, planners, teachers, students and policy makers.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and important piece of work.......2007-08-12

Our Ecological Footprint cuts through the talk about sustainability and introduces a revolutionary new way to determine humanity's impact on the Earth. It presents an exciting and powerful tool for measuring and visualizing the resources required to sustain our household, communities, regions and nations. Equipped with useful charts and throught-provoking illustrations, our Ecological Footprint converts the seemingly complex concepts of carrying capacity, sustainability, resource use, waste disposal, and more into a graphic form that everyone can grasp and utilize.

The book that started the ball rolling.......2007-04-04

Back when Rees and Wackernagel wrote Our Ecological Footprint, no one was looking at the problem in that way.

Now that everyone has jumped on the "our-planet-is-finite" bandwagon, we need to be reminded that this is where it started.

Much research has been done since it came out, and some of the figures will no doubt be out of date, but it still belongs in every environmentally conscious person's collection. Buy it while you can!

G. Bisaillon

A must reading for anyone worried about the Earth's biosphere........2005-08-13

During the past half a century human beings have been
multiplying at such a rate that the number of humans on Earth has
more than TRIPPLED ! Also, the "well to do" section of humanity has been increasing constantly their desire to have a bigger and bigger share of Erth's "goodies". The unfortunate result of these two factors has DEVESTATED the Earth's environment to the point of collapse. This book, which is written in a language which anyone can understand clearly, gives an excellent account of such important items like "true sustainability", HUMAN footprint on the biosphere, and what will happen if we all do not start realizing that we have already exceeded the Earth's capacity to carry us by 200 to 300 % !! So, please READ IT !

Running Out of Room: Economists' Viewpoint.......2004-10-14

This book is about the environmental costs that humans have on our planet, especially those humans living in developed countries. The authors contend that we are using up the resources of the planet at an astounding rate, such that little will be left for generations of the future. In other words, our present lifestyle is unsustainable. The authors argue that a measure of sustainability can be calculated by adding up the resources used by a group of people, and translating this to area on the earth, which yields roughly the total amount of land needed by the group to live sustainably, or their "ecological footprint". They point out that people in developed countries tend to have much larger ecological footprints than those in developing countries, but even amongst developed countries, there are large differences, and that Americans have huge ecological footprints compared to people from most other countries. In fact, in order for everyone on Earth to live as Americans do, it would require several additional planets to provide the resources and disposal space for waste.

The beginning chapters of the book define sustainability and the concept of ecological footprint. They also argue that our present practices are not sustainable. In the third chapter, we find the general idea of how an ecological footprint can be calculated, and the types of resources that need to be accounted for. The authors also run through a few examples of how footprints can be calculated on a nation by nation basis. They don't claim to have developed a conclusive method for calculating ecological footprints, especially on an individual basis, though they invite interested readers to do so on their own (there are numerous suggestions for how to do so on the Web). The last part of the book suggests some possible strategies for creating a more sustainable world. Endnotes citing sources appear following each chapter. There is a glossary, but no index. The book includes a number of black-and-white illustrations and cartoons.

The authors argue that "The strength of the Ecological Footprint analysis is its ability to communicate simply and graphically the general nature and magnitude of the biophysical `connectedness' between humankind and the ecosphere." They go on to comment "Ecological Footprint analysis can estimate the balance of trade in load-bearing capacity as embodied in the energy and material flows associated with trade goods and biogeochemical cycles." These ideas are interesting and hefty- -the text is somewhat theoretical and aimed towards those who are fascinated with macroeconomics. The style of writing is not for everyone, but there are some very valid points to mull over. For example, in a box discussing efficiency gains and sustainability, the authors point out that in the past, efficiency gains have led to more consumption rather than a decrease in resource usage, so we can't rely on efficiency gains as a solution to over-consumption.

Essential reading for understanding "sustainability".......2004-07-15

I believe this important book is the first to supply a method for individuals and societies to get a quantitative understanding of what "sustainable" really means. Footprinting allows families, cities, and countries to analyze their "ecological budget", and to learn to live within their fair share of available natural resources. The wonderful cartoons convey key concepts brilliantly, and make a potentially heavy text more fun to read.

Footprints in the Jungle: Natural Resource Industries, Infrastructure, and Biodiversity Conservation

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Engaging Private Sector in Environmental Protection
Engaging Private Sector in Environmental Protection

Footprints in the Jungle: Natural Resource Industries, Infrastructure, and Biodiversity Conservation

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Rain Forests | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Forests | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0195125789

Book Description

Tropical forests have seen a tremendous growth in logging, mining, and oil and gas development over the past decades. These industries and their infrastructure, including roads and power lines, have a tremendous impact on the environment and often conflict with the growing concern for conservation, particularly the conservation of tropical biodiversity. However, development in the tropics is extremely important economically, both for developing and industrialized nations, and Footprints in the Jungle is an invaluable reference in this important and highly politicized debate. This volume looks at new approaches that lessen the impact of development. It collects numerous case studies by project managers, advocates, and researchers from major international companies, development agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations. It also examines the environmental and social impact of resource development, proposes a rigorous "best practices" approach, and analyzes a number of challenging technical, environmental, social, and legal issues.

Customer Reviews:

Engaging Private Sector in Environmental Protection.......2001-10-30

Business which is based on profit maximization is usually considered to be in conflict with the goals of environmental protection. This contradiction can be even more severe when the business owned by private sectors in developed countries extend their activities in far-away underdeveloped areas. The book looks at the environmental protection from business perspectives, especially extractive industries' involvement in biodiversity conservation. It explores numerous cases ("best practices") showing how business interests reconcile with environmental protection goals. The dynamics of various stakeholders was investigated to illustrate how the business strategic calculation of benefit and cost has been shaped by other stakeholders. According to the authors, there are two major reasons of why business starts to voluntarily involve in environmental protection: corporate reputation (intangible value) and eco-efficiency (tangible value). The book is a big contribution to the empirical studies of how business operation has been shaped by environmental protection and vice versa. I recommend the book to environmental experts, project managers and corporate environmentalists.

Engaging Private Sector in Environmental Protection.......2001-10-30

Sharing Nature's Interest : Ecological Footprints as an Indicator of Sustainability

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Enhanced with figures, tables, summary "boxes", and more

Sharing Nature's Interest : Ecological Footprints as an Indicator of Sustainability
Nicky Chambers , Craig Simmons , and Mathis Wackernagel
Manufacturer: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Sustainable Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Renewable Energy | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1853837393

Book Description

Ecological Footprinting is rapidly being adopted as the most effective and practical way to measure our impact on the environment - in both large and small scale planning and development. Government agencies, NGOs, local authorities, planners and managers are all turning to it, since without a way of measuring consequences we cannot hope to live within the environmental resources available. We have to live off nature's interest, not its capital.
"Sharing Nature's Interest "provides a simple and straightforward introduction to ecological footprint analysis, showing how it can be done, and how to measure the "footprints" of activities, lifestyles, organizations and regions. Case studies clearly illustrate its effectiveness at national, organizational, individual and product levels. An invaluable resource for anyone attempting to understand or quantify human impacts on the environment.

Customer Reviews:

Enhanced with figures, tables, summary "boxes", and more.......2001-05-23

In Sharing Nature's Interest: Ecological Footprints As An Indicator Of Sustainability, Nicky Chambers, Craig Simmons, and Mathis Wackernagel deftly collaborate to present the reader with a compendium of information on assessing ecology on a regional and a global basis through a process called 'ecological footprinting'. The informative text is enhanced with figures, tables, summary "boxes", a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a primer on thermodynamics, conversion tables, glossary, and an index. Sharing Nature's Interest is an important and highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and professional environmental studies reference collections and reading lists.

The Human Ecological Footprint (Kenneth Hammond Lectures on Environment, Energy, and Resourc)

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The Human Ecological Footprint (Kenneth Hammond Lectures on Environment, Energy, and Resourc)

Manufacturer: Faculty of Environmental Sciences University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Human Geography | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0889555478

Actual land demand of Austria 1926-2000: a variation on Ecological Footprint assessments [An article from: Land Use Policy]

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Actual land demand of Austria 1926-2000: a variation on Ecological Footprint assessments [An article from: Land Use Policy]
K.-H. Erb
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR0DW6

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Land Use Policy, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This paper assesses the area demand of Austria in the 75 years from 1926 to 2000. In order to estimate the area of arable land, pastures and forests needed to sustain Austria's socio-economic metabolism I used country-specific yields, contrary to the conventional Ecological Footprint approach that expresses its results in global average hectares. This study explicitly assesses the countries of origin of all imported biomass products. Forest areas were evaluated using two methods. In the 'production' approach country-specific felling rates were used, in the 'sustainable yield approach' wood increment per country was taken as a proxy for maximum sustainable yield. Austria's overall area demand is considerably larger than the biologically productive area of its own territory during the entire time period, mainly due to fossil fuel consumption. If only biomass use and built-up land are taken into account, both the production and the sustainable yield approach show an almost constant area demand from 1926 to 2000. In the production approach Austria's area demand is slightly larger than Austria's bioproductive area, in the sustainable yield approach it is slightly smaller. The area needed to support Austria's imports is mainly located in neighbouring countries. In earlier years eastern European countries (e.g., Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Serbia) play a major role, whereas in the recent decades the EU-15 countries are the main providers of Austrian area imports. In 2000, the area required to maintain imports is of a similar size as domestically used land, except for grasslands, demonstrating the dependence of Austria's socio-economic metabolism on regional or even global markets. This study shows that area demand depends on two factors: consumption level and yields per hectare. In the case of Austria, considerable increases in consumption were counterbalanced by yield surges. Indicators of area demand should therefore be complemented by indicators that evaluate the environmental effects of land use.

Allocating ecological footprints to final consumption categories with input-output analysis [An article from: Ecological Economics]

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Allocating ecological footprints to final consumption categories with input-output analysis [An article from: Ecological Economics]
T. Wiedmann , J. Minx , J. Barrett , and M. Wackernagel
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR6GY0

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Economics, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
We present and discuss a method that allows the disaggregation of national Ecological Footprints by economic sector, detailed final demand category, sub-national area or socio-economic group. This is done by combining existing National Footprint Accounts with input-output analysis. Calculations in the empirical part are carried out by using supply and use tables for the United Kingdom, covering the reporting period 2000. Ecological Footprints are allocated to detailed household consumption activities following the COICOP classification system and to a detailed breakdown of capital investment. The method presented enables the calculation of comparable Ecological Footprints on all sub-national levels and for different socio-economic groups. The novelty of the approach lies in the use of input-output analysis to re-allocate existing Footprint accounts, in the detail of disaggregation by consumption category and in the expanded use of household expenditure data. This extends the potential for applications of the Ecological Footprint concept and helps to inform scenarios, policies and strategies on sustainable consumption. The method described in this paper can be applied to every country for which a National Footprint Account exists and where appropriate economic and environmental accounts are available. The approach helps to save time in data collection and improves the consistency between Ecological Footprint estimates for a particular human society from different researchers. For these reasons, the suggested methodology includes crucial steps on the way towards a standardisation of Ecological Footprint accounts.

Calculating national and global ecological footprint time series: resolving conceptual challenges [An article from: Land Use Policy]

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Calculating national and global ecological footprint time series: resolving conceptual challenges [An article from: Land Use Policy]
M. Wackernagel , C. Monfreda , N.B. Schulz , and K.H Erb
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR0DWG

Book Description

Contrasting and comparing sustainable development indicator metrics [An article from: Ecological Indicators]

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Contrasting and comparing sustainable development indicator metrics [An article from: Ecological Indicators]
J. Wilson , P. Tyedmers , and R. Pelot
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000PDT1IY

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Indicators, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Despite the fact that it has been well over a decade since Agenda 21 first called for sustainable development indicators, there is no consensus regarding the best approach to the design and use of SDI models. It is important, therefore, to question the effectiveness of SDIs in an effort to continue advancing sustainability. This paper addresses one aspect of this question by exploring whether our global SDI metrics are sending a clear message to guide us towards sustainable development. Six global SDI metrics are compared by relative ranking in colour coded tabular format and spatially in map format. The combined presentation of results clearly illustrates that the different metrics arrive at varying interpretations about the sustainability of nations. The degree of variability between the metrics is analyzed using correlation analysis. The variability in findings draws attention to the lack of a clear direction at the global level in how best to approach sustainable development. Canada is presented as a case study to highlight and explain the discrepancies between SDI measures.

Contrasting water footprints of cities in China and the United States [An article from: Ecological Economics]

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Contrasting water footprints of cities in China and the United States [An article from: Ecological Economics]
G.D. Jenerette , W. Wu , S. Goldsmith , and W. Marussich
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RRA3U8

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Ecological Economics, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
We examined production and consumption patterns of freshwater, a critical ecosystem service, for selected cities in China and the United States. Ecosystem production of freshwater varies with precipitation and evapotranspiration rates, which are affected by climate, topography, vegetation cover, and soil characteristics. Urban demand for freshwater is spatially distributed due to the location of cities, the variation in the per-capita usage, and the variation in urban population size. To link the spatially heterogeneous patterns of cities and ecosystem service production rates we calculated heterogeneous ecological footprints (H-EF) of the land area required to provide urban freshwater needs. We asked, what determines urban freshwater footprint area in cities of the United States and China? Are the same factors operating in the same fashion in both countries? Our results show the strong interaction between population size and local resource production in determining footprint. These results suggest extending the I=PAT identity to include a term describing local ecosystem service productivity in the determination of human impact. By using the ecological footprint methodology in this manner, we can address questions concerning the relationship between social and ecological systems and identify urban-scale constraints to the sustainable withdrawal of a particular ecosystem service.

Ecological footprint accounting for energy and resource in China [An article from: Energy Policy]

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Ecological footprint accounting for energy and resource in China [An article from: Energy Policy]
B. Chen , G.Q. Chen , Z.F. Yang , and M.M. Jiang
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000PC0Q16

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Energy Policy, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Resource consumption of the Chinese society from 1981 to 2001 is represented by ecological footprint (EF) as an aggregate indicator. The debate, advances and implications of EF are investigated in detail. EF intensity is also provided to depict the resource consumption level corresponding to unit economic output. The results show that the EF per capita always exceeded the biocapacity and the EF intensity increased steadily over the study period. In addition, sectoral analysis for each EF component is also conducted. The appropriation in the global ecological sense of Chinese society with the second largest energy consumption in the world is therefore quantified and evaluated.

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