Evolution, genetics and history - New Books In History

The podcast New Books In History begins to state that among biologists it is assumed that mankind has not evolved in the last 60,000 years. I have heard this mentioned on other podcasts as well. NBIH then interviews Gregory Cochran who wrote a book together with Henry Harpending that presents reasons why mankind has continued to develop.

The title of their book is The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution and it sort of puts the common evolutionary logic on its head. Whereas the consensus assumes that since man has captured all corners of the world and with the help of agriculture made himself independent of environment, there is no evolutionary strain towards development in any direction. Cochran tries to show that exactly the development of agriculture in the last 10000 years radically changed the environment of man and with its fundamentally different culture, presented man with totally new parameters of survival, hence with new evolutionary constraints.

He continues to apply this logic onto more smaller levels and groups in a much shorter time span, such as Ashkenazi Jews, who were rather isolated in Europe since the Middle Ages and needed a whole different set of qualities for survival than others. He claims this counts for special features of the group. I wonder whether this isn't taking it too far, since this stretches only over 1000 years and that seems awfully short to me, from the standpoint of evolution. In any case, we need to know more of genetics to get better answers and this goes to show, genetics is going to affect our narratives of history, which is only one reason among many why this podcast issue was a thrilling one to listen to.

More NBIH:
Kees Boterbloem about Jan Struys.

The Great Library - In Our Time

Last Thursday's episode of BBC's In Our Time was about the The Library of Alexandria. As far as I knew it was destroyed by a Muslim conquerer who reasoned (I paraphrase): anything that is there this is the Koran, we already have it and anything that is there that is not the Koran, we do not need it.

The surprise by the end was that, likely, the Library was not destroyed, it just faded away, its remains now residing under the sea level before the north coast of Egypt. The beginning was with Ptolemy, who was taking the heritage of Alexander's conquests to a cultural level, to conquer the culture of the world after Alex had conquered the world. In addition, the Greeks with Ptolemy needed to preserve their Greek heritage in their new Egyptian surroundings.

And so, Alexandria became, as designed, the cultural center of the world. Amassing texts in its library and creating the ultimate environment for study. It also rapidly became the largest city. In its heydays it mast have attracted scholars and students from all over the world, but eventually its was overtaken by other centers such as Byzantium and Rome and even though there must have been attacks on the Library, its end as the guests on IOT assume, was simply that it fell apart. Became disorganized, dilapidated and slowly vanished into oblivion.

More In Our Time:
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot,
The destruction of Carthage,
The brothers Grimm,
The modest proposal,
History of history.

Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia - Econtalk review

On EconTalk Russ Robert's latest guest was Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. Wales spoke about the success of Wikipedia, gave some explanation on how it works and spent some thoughts on where his next moves are.

The most interesting part, in my experience, of the interview is where Wales relates how he started out to make an encyclopedia in a more traditional way and couldn't make it work. The eventual bottom-up approach of Wikipedia, was not there from the start and was not self-evident to Wales. It seems that the formula still surprises him today.

Although there is some talk of how Wikipedia does in comparison to other encyclopedia's, I would have wanted Roberts to push Wales more to address the criticism that exist. Hardly any attention is to that or even to possible weaknesses or problems. The lack of cliffs allowed Wales to sail freely and deliver almost a sales presentation about his product. You get to see behind the screens of Wikipedia, as far as Wales allows and feels completely comfortable with.

More EconTalk:
New Deal and War Economy,
The Depression,
Wildlife, Property and Poverty.

Willem van Oranje als bijbelfiguur - Hoor Geschiedenis

Op elke werkdag luister ik naar de podcast Hoor! Geschiedenis, van Feico Houweling. Elke keer is er weer een aflevering van vijf minuten die me weer een stapje verder neemt in de Nederlandse geschiedenis. We zijn inmiddels bij aflevering 117 en in de tijd zijn we aangeland aan het eind van de zestiende eeuw. We zitten dus midden in de Opstand tegen Filips II van Spanje en hebben derhalve eindelijk het begin bereikt van de moderne Nederlandse Staat.

Een van de charmante uitstapjes die Houweling regelmatig maakt, is het voorlezen en bespreken van teksten uit het tijdvak dat op dat moment besproken wordt. Zo hebben we al het een en ander uit de Middeleeuwen gehad, we hebben Erasmus gelezen en recentelijk heeft hij twee aflevering besteed aan het Wilhelmus. Ook daar krijg je dus het gevoel dat we de moderne tijd binnengaan. Opeens gaat het over iets dat we vandaag nog gebruiken.

Houweling analyseert het gehele Wilhelmus en stipt een aantal kenmerken aan die je ook zou kunnen toepassen op de Nederlands cultuur en het Nederlandse staatseigen. Of dat allemaal zo toepasselijk is, kan natuurlijk bestreden worden, maar het is iets dat zeker niet in een cultuurgeschiedenis achterwege kan blijven. En terwijl hij het volkslied besprak en suggereerde dat daarin aan de persoon van Willem van Oranje haast Bijbelse proporties worden gegeven, vermeldt hij enkel dat in het achtste couplet een parallel met Koning David wordt gemaakt. Ik zelf had echter de indruk dat in het derde en negende couplet een parallel met Mozes aan te wijzen zou zijn en een vergleijking tussen de Opstand en de Exodus mogelijk wordt gemaakt. Ik meende mij te herinneren dat de historicus Simon Schama ook al gewag maakte van de neiging in de Nederlandse cultuur om een parallel met de Israelieten te zoeken. Ik heb het zo gauw even niet terug kunnen vinden.

Afbeelding: Wikimedia Commons. Schilderij van Adriaen Thomasz Key uit circa 1575

Meer Hoor! Geschiedenis:
Dagelijks genoegen: hoor! geschiedenis,
Hoor! Geschiedenis - historische podcast recensie.

Against intervention - UChannel Podcast review

Right from the start UChannel's Podcast with Michael Scheuer captures the attention. After his book: Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq, he explains his view on US foreign policy in very clear terms. His criticism profound and he minces no words. Throughout most of the lecture it is very refreshing to hear someone speak so unambiguously.

Scheuer's criticism in general is with America's tendency towards interventionism. Ever since 1973, so is his opinion, the US has taken it upon itself to order the world and consequently to get involved with billions of dollars in regional conflicts that are not really any of her business. Furthermore America, also as of 1973, should have understood it was too dependent on oil and has failed to disentangle itself from the grip of Saudi-Arabia and the like. On top of that, the US thinks it must bring democracy in remote quarters of the world and also take it upon itself to make war with elate 'rules of engagement'.

Scheuer pleads for rapid development of alternatives to oil. Getting disentangled from conflicts where there are no direct US interests, even in Israel and where it does get into an armed conflict, allow the freedom to maximum savagery in order to quickly and effectively win wars. Scheuer clearly steers away from the main stream of ideas on foreign policy and has no good words for others. Holbrook is stupid, Petraeus and idiot and the Europeans are feckless - no people to be allied with. And this is where one gets to feel a bit uneasy and put off by Scheuer.

More UChannel Podcast:
Lakhdar Brahimi on Afghanistan and Iraq,
Europe versus Islam,
Power of Cities,
Gaza (Tony Blair),
Whither the Middle East.

Anne is a Man in the weekend of March 13

Here is a list of reviews I am planning to publish over the weekend (Friday - Sunday).

-On a recent issue of UChannel Podcast I heard a lecture by former CIA head Michael Scheuer who sharply criticizes US foreign policy of interventionism.

-The Dutch history podcast Hoor! Geschiedenis had two issues analyzing the Dutch National Anthem in the context of the Dutch Revolt against Phillips II of Spain. This triggered a couple of thoughts about the meanings attributed to the leader of the revolt William of Orange. (review will be in Dutch)

-On EconTalk, Russ Roberts spoke with Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia about the history of Wikipedia.

-BBC's In Our Time, today, had an episode about the Library at Alexandria.

-On the newly discovered history podcast New Books in History, Marshall Poe interview Gregory Cochran and spoke about human evolution also in the last 60,000 years.

If I am not going to manage to write about In Our Time, I will probably write about other UChannel Podcasts in stead, for example one about the Sudan. Otherwise the Sudan review will be after the weekend.

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