Abstract

The way we live - our manners, morals, habits, experiences, relationships, technology, values - are changing ever faster and faster than ever. The effects can be dislocating, baffling, sometimes terrifying. Why? How can we get off the whirligig? Felipe Fernández-Armesto explores the evidence and offers answers. Combining insights from history, biology, anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, sociology, ethology, zoology, primatology, psychology, linguistics cognitive sciences, and even business studies, he argues that culture is exempt from evolution. No environmental conditions, no genetic legacy, no predictable patterns, no scientific laws determine our behaviour. We can make and remake our world in the freedom of unconstrained imaginations.