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"A terrific book, witty and lucid, and brimming with provocative conjectures." (Wall Street Journal) from the author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Genome
Brilliantly written, The Red Queen compels us to rethink everything from the persistence of sexism to the endurance of romantic love.
Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running
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In his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining the direction of evolution and human history–and discerning where history will lead us next.
In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human...
In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human...
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In 1921, Mr. Barnstaple was just hoping to take a drive in the country and get a break from the busy nature of his life. Instead, he finds himself part of group of motorists who have been transported 3,000 years into the future. And while the future seems to be a utopia free of crime, poverty, and disease, the others who have traveled with Mr. Barnstaple's are determined to make their new surroundings like that which they traveled from.
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For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions -- our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations -- we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society. In Blueprint, Nicholas...
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Nganampa Anwernekenhe is a cultural series made by Aboriginal people for both Aboriginal and mainstream television audiences. It tells three stories from the Central Australian region: "Bushtucker" shows the traditional way of cooking the Perentie, the giant monitor lizard; "Uluru Story" (Ayers Rock) illustrates the cooperation between Park and Wildlife Rangers and the traditional owners of the Rock in caring for the environment; and "Traditional...
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An elderly traditional Aboriginal and his kinfolk recall the impact of their tribe's first contact with white people in the 1930s. Using extensive archival footage, this program traces the reactions of a people whose culture had survived for 40,000 years to the dramatic and irreversible changes brought by the early white settlers.
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Savor a taste of wild Australia! This program will extend students' knowledge, cultural awareness, and understanding as it explores the relatively recent culinary move toward Australian bush food. It looks at the different fruits, herbs, and spices that have been part of the Australian Aboriginal diet for thousands of years, explains traditional uses of some indigenous foods, and shows how some cooks are combining them into modern meals. A native...
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The people of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea have a rich history of rituals and war that has inspired study and intrigue for over 70 years. Western explorers discovered the islands in 1793, and the British came to the area in the early 20th century, seizing the southern portion of New Guinea. When their new settlement was established, many traders, anthropologists, and missionaries followed. As seen in this documentary, the missionaries...
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Award-winning filmmaker Phil Agland returns to the African rainforest to find the pygmy family who captivated viewers around the world as the stars of his acclaimed documentary Baka: People of the Rainforest. Twenty-five years on, Agland is back in Cameroon to chart the experiences of the Baka family's next generation. Discovering that pressures beyond their forest world are irrevocably changing their centuries-old way of life, Agland witnesses the...
13) A Dead Song
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The word Celt first appeared in 1707, the year that Scotland and England formed a union, leaving this Celtic band of rovers once again fighting to survive both physically and spiritually. This film examines the two conflicting sources drove the Celts wherever they settled - to be absorbed or to retain their own identity. The future of the Celts is seen best through their remaining images and the influence the have on modern society?
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Beginning in the 8th century, the Celts faced repeated invasions: first by the Vikings and then by the Normans. Weakened by these conflicts, and the ever-changing geopolitical landscape of the continent, they found their culture being absorbed by their powerful neighbors France and England. This film explores the state of Celtic culture from the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century to the last traces of their culture in 19th-century...
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There is still a king or Oba of Benin today, and he still dispenses justice to his people. He lives in a very traditional world but has received a British university education. Contrasts like these are commonplace in modern Nigeria: the children shop in the tumult of a traditional market and go to a supermarket to buy plastic toys made in China. Overseas trade is not new to Benin; it was taking place long before the white man arrived. By dramatizing...
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Cannibalism has long been considered a dark, if isolated occurrence in human history. Now science uncovers an ancient Germanic culture known for systematically consuming its fellow man. Witness the first of the Earth's Neolithic farmers and the burial pit they left behind, found filled with expertly butchered human remains. Archaeologists have never seen anything like it. Is it possible that cannibals are hidden in Europe's ancestral closet? An ongoing...
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This program provides an introduction to the Afar by recording two major life events: the arranged marriage of a most reluctant bride and the initiation of a nervous would-be warrior. Can Fatuma, daughter of the clan chief, steel herself to marry her first cousin Ali, or will she seek escape - perhaps through suicide? And will Mohammed be able to retain his stoic poise during his ritual circumcision? The Afar belief system, a blend of Islam and ancient...
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Embark on an expedition to Papua New Guinea to understand human mummification. Our goal is to find a well-preserved mummy to gain clues into this incredible form of mummification in the tropics. Preserving bodies so their spirits can act as protection for the living, the practice all but died out as missionaries spread Christianity to remote communities in the 1950s. Now, we'll travel to Koke, a native village with an ancient mummy tradition, to learn...
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During the 1920s it became fashionable for European artists and intellectuals to profess an interest in Africa. But a young French anthropologist named Marcel Griaule wanted to do more than follow fashion. Between 1928 and 1933, he mounted two major expeditions-one to Ethiopia and another which crossed the continent from Dakar to Djibouti. The latter adventure lasted two years and offered new ways for Westerners to learn and think about Africa. As...
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"This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain -- the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the 'rational' side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues that while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master. As he shows, it is the right...