Review: After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination
By Kirkpatrick Sale
Reviewed
by Bram Buscher
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Kirkpatrick Sale. After
Eden. The Evolution of Human Domination. Durham: Duke University Press. 186
pp. ISBN: 0-8223-3938-2. (paperback; acid free paper). US$19.95.
In the last decade, several books have come out trying
to develop an overview of recent, archaeological, paleontological and
historical anthropological evidence on human evolution. One of my favourites so
far is John Reader's magnificent Africa,
A Biography of the Continent. Although less broad in scope, Kirkpatrick
Sale's After Eden now competes for
first place. Like Reader, Sale provides a bird's eye view of recent global
archaeological and paleontological findings and guides the reader in a mere 138
pages through 65.000 years of modern human evolution. Not being a
palaeontologist or archaeologist but rather an interested social scientist, I
am not in place to comment on Sale's use of the evidence, although the breadth
of material he presents seems extensive. However, what sets After Eden apart from other similar
works and what excites me as a social scientist, is Sale's social and critical emancipatory point of departure and the explicit lessons he
tries to draw from the ancient past for the present.
The central argument of the book revolves around its
subtitle: The Evolution of Human
Domination. According to Sale, the "extraordinary dominance by one single
bipedal species [...] has brought us to the present imperilment of the earth,
including the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems, the
alteration of climate, the pollution of waters and soils, the exhaustion of
fisheries, the elimination of forests, the spread of deserts, and the
disruption of the atmosphere" (p.3). The consequence of this dominance of Homo Sapiens and its associated
"reckless policies and practices towards the earth" is unavoidable ecocide (p.3). Our main predicament, so
argues the book, is that human dominance is little recognised as a problem
because the psychological processes leading up to it have been in the making
for many millennia, so becoming "accepted wisdom" and even religion.
In three main chapters, the book outlines how Homo Sapiens started innovating in hunting techniques (chapter one:
70.000 - 50.000 years ago), developed cultural and religious symbols to aid
them in their survival (chapter two: 55.000 - 20.000 years ago) and intensified
their land use through agriculture (chapter three: 20.000 - 5.000 years ago).
Sale carefully charts how each development triggered continuous
"separation of self from nature," thereby increasing humans' impact
on their environment "wherever they have gone" (p.36). In the fourth
and final chapter, then, the less insidious lifestyle of Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens'
predecessor, is taken as an ancient example of how current human populations
might become more modest, decrease their dominance over nature and so avoid
ecocide.
No doubt, After
Eden will create quite some controversy. As stated, this will partly
revolve around the seven-mile steps the book takes in presenting evidence in
archaeology and palaeontology. Most critique, however, will focus on its
central message regarding human dominance and its subsequent conclusions
regarding the evolution and invention of religion and the inevitable fall of
modern capitalism. But this is to be expected of a book that penetrates and
critiques modern status quo so deeply. For this reviewer, the central point of
Sale's book is one that cannot be ignored and for once I completely agree with
the advance praise given by Steven E. Churchill, Department of Biological
Anthropology and Anatomy of Duke University, who is quoted on the back of the book: "seldom would I have the confidence to
reach judgements from the evidence as boldly as does Sale, but I suspect that
he is right in most of his conclusions."
Bram Buscher (be.buscher@fsw.vu.nl). PhD candidate Department of Anthropology and project manager Centre for International
Cooperation, Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. De Boelelaan 1081c - Room Z121, 1081
HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 20 5986701.
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Electronic Green
Journal,
Issue 25, 2007
ISSN: 1076-7975