Our Kind

Before consciousness formed and tools were made, before speech was learned and cultures were established, before religion, society, politics, and war, came a simple evolutionary change: one primate, our common ancestor, took the first upright step. So begins our family history … the story told by Marvin Harris in Our Kind. The tale explores topics as varied as how the different races arose; why marriage and the nuclear family were established; why we overeat; how men came to dominate politics; why women have longer life-spans; why yuppies are such conspicuous consumers; how war has come to overshadow us, and whether it always will … and a great deal more.