Coming Home to the Pleistocene Paul Shepard Edited by Florence R. Shepard ISLAND PRESS / Shearwater Books Washington, D.C. • Covelo, California A Shearwater Book published by Island Press Copyright © 1998 Florence Shepard All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009. Shearwater Books is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Shepard, Paul, 1925–1996 Coming home to the Pleistocene / Paul Shepard ; edited by Florence R. Shepard. p. cm. “A Shearwater book”— Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–55963–589–4. — ISBN 1–55963–590–8 1. Hunting and gathering societies. 2. Sociobiology. 3. Nature and nurture. I. Shepard, Florence R. II. Title. GN388.S5 1998 98-8074 306.3’64—dc21 CIP Printed on recycled, acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 I. The Relevance of the Past 7 Our Pleistocene ancestors and contemporary hunter/gatherers cannot be under- stood in a historical context that, as a chronicle of linear events, has distorted the meaning of the “savage” in us. II. Getting a Genome 19 Being human means having evolved—especially with respect to a special past in open country, where the basic features that make us human came into being. Coming down out of the trees, standing on our own two feet, freed our hands and brought a perceptual vision never before seen on the planet. III. How We Once Lived 37 For a hundred thousand years or more our ancestors worked out a way of life at peace with their world. Although their economy was one of hunting and gather- ing, the special meaning of that way must be understood anew if we are to learn by their example. IV. How the Mind Once Lived 51 The great puzzle of our species is how we got so smart. The answer is that we joined the great foraging network—the game of prey and predator—and partic- ipated in the complex, competitive strategies that brought with them the ability to think ahead, consider our actions, and develop the capacity for metaphor. vii viii Contents V. Savages Again 67 Removing the historical lens brings primitive society into clear sight in the pre- sent—not as a past but as the basic human context. Modern studies of hunter/gatherers reveal our cultural distance from them while at the same time defining optimum ways of being human. VI. Romancing the Potato 81 The idealism of domestication is like other ideologies that have arisen in histo- ry—a blanket repudiation of anything prehistoric except as the concrete model of inferiority. Agrarian power and the domestication of plants and animals brought consequences that were not only practical but also profoundly psycho- pathic for all succeeding generations. VII. The Cowboy Alternative 109 The other course that domestication opened to us was the herding of hoofed ani- mals. This route took its toll not only in the ravagement of the earth by over- grazing but also in its otherworldly and patriarchal orientation, which was hos- tile to women, nature, and Planet Earth. VIII. Wildness and Wilderness 131 Wildness is a genetic state of an organism or a natural population, an intrinsic human condition, and the basis for the species and complexity of the biosphere. Wilderness is a place we have dedicated to wildness, both in ourselves and in other species. Seen as landscape, wilderness is intrinsically distancing—a science or art form that reduces nature to representations. IX. The New Mosaic—A Primal Closure 153 How can we make use of an admirable “past” to which access seems blocked by time and progress? The dilemma disappears when we realize that culture, like the genome and the ecosystem, is a mosaic of removable parts that can be reinte- grated into our present. We can go back to the Pleistocene because, as a species, we never left. And by identifying characteristic aspects of the lives of our ances- tors and contemporary hunter/gatherers, our modern culture can absorb these features in its own way. Bibliography 177 Index 187 Preface PAUL SHEPARD PROBABLY BEGAN this book when he was a child, following Ben, an older boy he idolized, as they set and checked traplines and hunt- ed and fished in the Missouri woods near their homes. Paul’s father was a horticulturist and director of the Missouri State Experimental Farm. Ben’s father helped with the care of the experimental orchards and vineyards. The families lived atop a hill that overlooked woods and farms and the town of Mountain Grove. Paul, surrounded by a rich natural environ- ment and the love of multiple caregivers, wandered freely as a child through the countryside. The excitement of his primal experiences of hunting and fishing as well as his near idyllic childhood nestled in his memories until his death and, I believe, formed a fundamental core of experience: the basis for his conceptualization of Coming Home to the Pleistocene. I was committed in the editing of Coming Home to be true to Paul’s ideas and present them as clearly as possible, retaining his distinctive voice throughout. As it turned out, I needed to do very little writing. Paul was a circular thinker, even more so perhaps toward the end of his life. He began with a premise that he worked and reworked from various per- spectives, digging deeper and deeper, uncovering the radical center of things, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter. I had only to search and find, embedded in the matrix of the text, the necessary introductions, explanations, and transitions. Positioned a bit differently, his own thoughts brought the clarity needed. In a couple of instances, I added an ix x Preface Editor’s Note from material that I thought he might have found perti- nent. Otherwise I did not expand or alter his original ideas, though I have provided occasional transitions or clarifications. In these instances, I stud- ied his notes and previous manuscripts as well as original sources to bet- ter understand his position. References have been difficult to track down in some instances. I have tried my best to verify all references and quotes but confess that there may be occasional lapses for which I apologize in advance. Although she had no evidence that I would be up to the task, Barbara Dean, associate editor at Island Press, supported my desire to edit this book. All of the compliments bestowed upon editors, which, alas, sound so trite when written down, are absolutely true with respect to Barbara Dean: I was able to complete the task only because of her careful guid- ance and support. I was impressed throughout with her abilities and insights; her suggestions and hard questions I took seriously. She was understanding of my feelings and patient with me in the face of my own impatience. I shall always value the experience of working with her as one of the best in my lifetime. I am deeply grateful, too, to Professor Emeritus John Cobb Jr. of the Claremont School of Theology, who critiqued the first chapter and pro- vided helpful suggestions. I thank Barbara Youngblood and Christine McGowan, developmental and production editors at Island Press, and Don Yoder, copy editor, who provided the expertise needed to bring the manuscript to publication. My daughters Lisi Krall, Ph.D., and Kathryn Morton, M.D., were helpful throughout. Lisi organized Paul’s references and did research when Paul was unable to get to the library. Kathryn, mon- itoring Paul’s illness from start to finish, seeing that he received the best care and treatment possible, helped to keep him strong and able to com- plete the manuscript. Paul was at the center of a loving group of family and friends throughout the writing of this book. I am deeply grateful for their friendship and love. He was the light at the center of our fire circle. Paul wrote the Introduction and put the finishing touches on Coming Home three weeks before he died. Once that was done and I had sent the manuscript off to Island Press, he succumbed peacefully and with great courage and dignity to the inevitable conclusion of his life. The book pro- Preface xi vided closure for a life lived with great creativity, joy, and love—a life committed to a vision of how we can become more fully human. I began editing this book in early summer when the snow still glistened on the mountains and the Hoback Basin was emerald green and filled with birdsong. I have completed it in the fall as snow builds once more and the basin is tinted a bland beige-brown. Except for occasional calls from ravens flying over or coyotes circling at dusk and dawn, silence reigns. It has been solitary and lonely work, much of it done through the mist of mourning and remembering. But it has been “good work”—work that has brought me closer than ever before to Paul’s poetic vision. Florence R. Shepard The Hoback Basin Bondurant, Wyoming October 1997 Introduction THIS BOOK IS ABOUT our self-consciousness as individuals and our world- view as a species based on the biological legacy and cultural influences we inherited from our ancestors, the Pleistocene hunter/gatherers (also called foragers). We began our path to the present on ancient savannas where we vied for our lives with other predators that shared this earth with us.