Download or read book On the Origin of Stories written by Brian Boyd and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-30 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love. Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd’s study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism.
Download or read book Origin Story written by David Christian and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times bestseller "elegantly weaves evidence and insights . . . into a single, accessible historical narrative" (Bill Gates) and presents a captivating history of the universe -- from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to mass globalization and beyond. Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day -- and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History," the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. In Origin Story, Christian takes readers on a wild ride through the entire 13.8 billion years we've come to know as "history." By focusing on defining events (thresholds), major trends, and profound questions about our origins, Christian exposes the hidden threads that tie everything together -- from the creation of the planet to the advent of agriculture, nuclear war, and beyond. With stunning insights into the origin of the universe, the beginning of life, the emergence of humans, and what the future might bring, Origin Story boldly reframes our place in the cosmos.
Download or read book Origin Stories written by Chris Lee and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2021-04-19 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Origin Stories: The Pioneers Who Took Football to the World charts the growth of the game in each major footballing country, from the very first kick to the first World Cup in 1930. Football's global spread from muddy playing fields to colossal, purpose-built stadiums is a story of class, race, gender and politics. Along the way, you'll meet the people who established football around the world and discover the challenges they faced. Featuring interviews with leading historians, journalists, club chairmen and descendants of club founders and players, Origin Stories tells the fascinating country-by-country tale of how football put down its roots around the world. The sport's early growth includes a cast of English aristocrats and 'Scotch professors', French tournament pioneers, international merchants, keen students, raucous rebels and more. Origin Stories shows that football's early development was a truly global team effort.
Download or read book On the Origin of Species and Other Stories written by Bo-Young Kim and published by Kaya Press. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debut English-language collection of one of South Korea's most distinctive and accomplished sci-fi authors Straddling science fiction, fantasy and myth, the writings of award-winning author Bo-Young Kim have garnered a cult following in South Korea, where she is widely acknowledged as a pioneer and inspiration. On the Origin of Species makes available for the first time in English some of Kim's most acclaimed stories, as well as an essay on science fiction. Her strikingly original, thought-provoking work teems with human and non-human beings, all of whom are striving to survive through evolution, whether biologically, technologically or socially. Kim's literature of ideas offers some of the most rigorous and surprisingly poignant reflections on posthuman existence being written today. Bo-Young Kim (born 1975) won the inaugural Korean Science & Technology Creative Writing Award with her first published novella in 2004 and has gone on to win the annual South Korean SF Novel Award three times. In addition to writing, she regularly serves as a lecturer, juror and editor of sci-fi anthologies, and served as a consultant to Parasite director Bong Joon Ho's earlier sci-fi film Snowpiercer. She has novellas forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2021. She lives in Gangwon Province, South Korea, with her family.
Download or read book The Origin of the Milky Way Other Living Stories of the Cherokee written by Barbara R. Duncan and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects folklore of the Cherokee people on various topics including animals, the origin of the Earth, and spirits.
Download or read book Seneca Indian Myths written by Jeremiah Curtin and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1883 a Smithsonian Institution ethnologist traveled to western New York State to record the traditional tales of the Iroquois tribe known as the Seneca. These myths -- picturesque, archaic, even grotesque -- appear here in their original form, exactly as spoken. Many focus on seasons or weather; others creation myths and animals.
Download or read book Creation Stories written by Anthony Aveni and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible exploration of how diverse cultures have explained humanity's origins through narratives about the natural environment Drawing from a vast array of creation myths--Babylonian, Greek, Aztec, Maya, Inca, Chinese, Hindu, Navajo, Polynesian, African, Norse, Inuit, and more--this short, illustrated book uncovers both the similarities and differences in our attempts to explain the universe. Anthony Aveni, an award-winning author and professor of astronomy and anthropology, examines the ways various cultures around the world have attempted to explain our origins, and what roles the natural environment plays in shaping these narratives. The book also celebrates the audacity of the human imagination. Whether the first humans emerged from a cave, as in the Inca myths, or from bamboo stems, as the Bantu people of Africa believed, or whether the universe is simply the result of Vishnu's cyclical inhales and exhales, each of these fascinating stories reflects a deeper understanding of the culture it arose from as well as its place in the larger human narrative.
Download or read book A Brief History of Creation Science and the Search for the Origin of Life written by Bill Mesler and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epic story of the scientists through the ages who have sought answers to life’s biggest mystery: How did it begin? In this essential and illuminating history of Western science, Bill Mesler and H. James Cleaves II seek to answer the most crucial question in science: How did life begin? They trace the trials and triumphs of the iconoclastic scientists who have sought to solve the mystery, from Darwin’s theory of evolution to Crick and Watson’s unveiling of DNA. This fascinating exploration not only examines the origin-of-life question, but also interrogates the very nature of scientific discovery and objectivity.
Download or read book The Origin of Stars and Other Stories written by Katharine Haake and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiction. These stories, powerful eco-fables of down-home Americana, take place during the relentless rollover from one millennium to the next in a world remarkably like our own--and not. In one, for example, a girl exquisitely tuned to the sorrows of history ends up in a city blasted by light where she gets the chance to try dreaming things over. In another, a boy born lacking the ability to distinguish phonetic difference grows up to be a famed musician. There's a dapper, square-headed astronomer who discovers the origin of stars, and a tiny-footed climber who scales the tallest mountains in the world at the end of time. As mothers and children, husbands and wives struggle to make sense of whatever still remains, the one thing they share in common is their determination not to miss a single beat. Or, as one narrator remarks, "The next time we imagine the world, let's try to imagine it whole."
Download or read book Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk tales written by George Bird Grinnell and published by . This book was released on 1890 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book On the Origin of Stories written by Brian Boyd and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love. Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd’s study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism.
Download or read book Origin written by Jessica Khoury and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pia has always known her destiny. She is meant to start a new race, a line of descendants who will bring an end to death. She has been bred for no other purpose, genetically engineered to be immortal and raised by a team of scientists in a secret compound hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest. Now those scientists have begun to challenge her, with the goal of training her to carry on their dangerous work. For as long as she can remember, Pia’s greatest desire has been to fulfill their expectations. But then one night she finds a hole in the impenetrable fence that surrounds her sterile home. Free in the jungle for the first time in her life, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Unable to resist, she continues sneaking out to see him. As they fall in love, they begin to piece together the truth about Pia’s origin—a truth with nothing less than deadly consequences that will change their lives forever. Origin is a beautifully told, electric new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever. But is eternal life worth living if you can’t spend it with the one you love?
Download or read book Doctor Who Origin Stories written by Doctor Who and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2022-09-29 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes a brand-new story feauturing the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)!* We all change, when you think about it. We're all different people all through our lives . . . Amy Pond looks for her Raggedy Man, Jo Grant remembers her childhood, the Master hunts the past . . . a young girl discovers a love for explosives. Eleven incredible stories from the world of Doctor Who - the early lives of friends and foes that have never been told before. The characters and their writers include: Ace by Sophie Aldred Sarah-Jane Smith by Mark Griffiths The Master, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Madame Vastra by Dave Rudden Ryan Sinclair and Yaz Khan by Emma Norry Clara Oswald by Jasbinder Bilan Amy Pond by Nikita Gill Davros by Temi Oh Martha Jones by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Jo Grant by Katy Manning © 2022 Doctor Who (P)2022 Penguin Audio
Download or read book The Origin of Empire written by David Potter and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the Roman army’s first foray beyond its borders and concluding with the death of Hadrian in 138 CE, this panoramic history of the early Roman Empire recounts the wars, leaders, and social transformations that lay the foundations of imperial success. Between 264 BCE, when the Roman army crossed into Sicily, and the death of Hadrian nearly three hundred years later, Rome became one of the most successful multicultural empires in history. In this vivid guide to a fascinating period, David Potter explores the transformations that occurred along the way, as Rome went from republic to mercenary state to bureaucratic empire, from that initial step across the Straits of Messina to the peak of territorial expansion. Rome was shaped by endless political and diplomatic jockeying. As other Italian city-states relinquished sovereignty in exchange for an ironclad guarantee of protection, Rome did not simply dominate its potential rivals—it absorbed them by selectively offering citizenship and constructing a tiered membership scheme that allowed Roman citizens to maintain political control without excluding noncitizens from the state’s success. Potter attributes the empire’s ethnic harmony to its relative openness. This imperial policy adapted and persisted over centuries of internal discord. The fall of the republican aristocracy led to the growth of mercenary armies and to the creation of a privatized and militarized state that reached full expression under Julius Caesar. Subsequently, Augustus built a mighty bureaucracy, which went on to manage an empire ruled by a series of inattentive, intemperate, and bullying chief executives. As contemporary parallels become hard to ignore, The Origin of Empire makes clear that the Romans still have much to teach us about power, governance, and leadership.
Download or read book The Truth about Stories written by Thomas King and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2003 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.
Download or read book Who We Are and How We Got Here written by David Reich and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past few years have witnessed a revolution in our ability to obtain DNA from ancient humans. This important new data has added to our knowledge from archaeology and anthropology, helped resolve long-existing controversies, challenged long-held views, and thrown up remarkable surprises. The emerging picture is one of many waves of ancient human migrations, so that all populations living today are mixes of ancient ones, and often carry a genetic component from archaic humans. David Reich, whose team has been at the forefront of these discoveries, explains what genetics is telling us about ourselves and our complex and often surprising ancestry. Gone are old ideas of any kind of racial âpurity.' Instead, we are finding a rich variety of mixtures. Reich describes the cutting-edge findings from the past few years, and also considers the sensitivities involved in tracing ancestry, with science sometimes jostling with politics and tradition. He brings an important wider message: that we should recognize that every one of us is the result of a long history of migration and intermixing of ancient peoples, which we carry as ghosts in our DNA. What will we discover next?
Download or read book Super Hero Origin Stories written by Michael Robin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their super hero friends come from? How did they get their powers? Who were they before they were super heroes? Each origin story is a thrilling, self-contained bedtime story. Baby Kal-El makes a dramatic escape from the planet Krypton, arriving on Earth in a rocket ship. Wonder Woman and Nubia are shaped out of clay by their mother Hippolyta, and given their powers by the gods. Each Green Lantern—Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Jessica Cruz—came by their power rings in interesting ways. Young super heroes will love learning about how their favorite characters came to be.
