Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
Crops and Cavemen
After The Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5,000 BC
By Steven Mithen
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 622pp £25
JOHN LUBBOCK WAS the Richard Dawkins of his day. He was one of Darwin's earliest and closest adherents, and set himself up as an 'expositor of science' and 'mentor to the general public'. Of all the great range of hs polymathic works whch crowded the shelves of booksellers, none was more influential than Prehistoric Times (1865). In it he propounded a cultural counterpart of the theory of evolution: Tasmanians and Fuegians were 'to the antiquary what the opossum and the sloth' were to biologists - throwbacks to an earlier phase, living evidence (albeit doomed to extinction) of the antiquity of humankind and of the savagery of archaic humans. Despite his revulsion fiom 'rude' humanity, Lubbock remained a liberal and a philanthropist: he took the title of Lord Avebury fiom the site of the famous megaliths, which he saved for the nation by purchasing them when they were due for demolition.
Steven Mithen had the brilliant idea of invoking Lubbock's ghost and sending him as an imaginary time-traveller on a tour of the Mesolithc world, to see how far his Victorian view of prehstoric times might change in the light of modern archaeological and palaeoanthropological knowledge. It was an attractive wheeze
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm