Pandora's seed : the unforseen cost of civilization /
Spencer Wells.
- 1st ed.
- New York : Random House, c2010.
- xvii, 230 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-220) and index.
Mystery in the map -- Growing a new culture -- Diseased -- Demented -- Fast-forward -- Heated argument -- Toward a new mythos.
The author of The Journey of Man examines our cultural inheritance in order to find the turning point that led us to the path we are on today, one he believes we must veer from in order to survive. Although this decision to control our own food supply is what propelled us into the modern world, Wells demonstrates that growing grain crops ultimately made humans more sedentary and unhealthy and made the planet more crowded. The expanding population and the need to apportion limited resources such as water created hierarchies and inequalities. Freedom of movement and choice were replaced by a pressure to work that is the forebear of the anxiety and depression millions feel today. Wells offers a hopeful prescription for altering a life to which we were always ill suited, recommending that we change our priorities and self-destructive appetites before it's too late.