The city has killed most of your ancestors, and it's probably killing you, too - this book tells you why.
Imagine you are a hunter-gatherer some 15,000 years ago. You’ve got a choice – carry on foraging, or plant a few seeds and move to one of those new-fangled settlements down the valley. What you won’t know is that urban life is short and riddled with dozens of new diseases; your children will be shorter and sicklier than you are, they’ll be plagued with gum disease, and stand a decent chance of a violent death at the point of a spear.
Why would anyone choose this? This is one of the many intriguing questions tackled by Brenna Hassett in Built on Bones. Using research on skeletal remains from around the world, this book explores the history of humanity’s experiment with the metropolis, and looks at why our ancestors chose city life, and why they have largely stuck to it. It explains the diseases, the deaths and the many other misadventures that we have unwittingly unleashed upon ourselves throughout the metropolitan past, and as the world becomes increasingly urbanised, what we can look forward to in the future.
Telling the tale of shifts in human growth and health that have occurred as we transitioned from a mobile to a largely settled species. Built on Bones offers an accessible insight into a critical but relatively unheralded aspect of the human story: our recent evolution.
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Introduction: Nothing (but Flowers)
Chapter 1: Papa Was a Rolling Stone
Chapter 2: Feed Me (Seymour)
Chapter 3: What ’ s New Pussycat?
Chapter 4: Revolution
Chapter 5: Power of Equality
Chapter 6: Oops Upside Your Head
Chapter 7: Under My Thumb
Chapter 8: War! What Is It Good For?
Chapter 9: Under Pressure
Chapter 10: Bring Out Your Dead
Chapter 11: Tainted Love
Chapter 12: Take This Job and Shove It
Chapter 13: Panic ...
Conclusion: Karma Police
Acknowledgements: Some of My Friends
Index
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Built on Bones is entertaining, colloquial and has a fine line in funny footnotes.
The city has killed most of your ancestors, and it's probably killing you, too - this book tells you why
City life from an evolutionary perspective, with a close look at the archaeological evidence – a compelling multi-disciplinary narrative
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781472922960
Publisert
2018-01-11
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Sigma
Vekt
270 gr
Høyde
198 mm
Bredde
129 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
320
Forfatter