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From the Editor

elcome to our fourth years since the birth of Robert thropocene” in the novel Oryx and year. It may well Grossteste, who many consider the fa- Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood. We prove to be a mo- ther of the scientific method. It is also, I are happy to be able to publish as well a mentous one, as it will have you know, the 400th anniver- Portuguese translation of this article hasW been in the past. 2020 will mark the sary of the end of the Wanli period (1573 that Dr. Massuno has prepared for us. 75th anniversary of the end of WWII, the -1620) of the Ming dynasty, the 1000th Marilyn Ahearn, Sustainability, Environ- 100th anniversary of the ratification of anniversary of the death of the Persian ment and the Arts in Education (SEAE) the Treaty of Versailles, the 100th anni- poet Abū al-Qāsim Firdawsī, 1250 years Research Cluster, Southern Cross Uni- versary of the Nineteenth Amendment, since the death of Tang dynasty poet Du versity, Australia, offers this edition’s the 250th anniversary of the Boston Mas- Fu, and 2750 years since Piye succeeded research on the pedagogy of big history. sacre, 400 years since the Mayflower his father, Kashta, as ruler of the Nubian Her article is based upon a workshop sailed, 500 years since Magellan and his kingdom of Napata. that Dr. Hearn presented at the 2018 crew crossed from the Atlantic into the This edition of the Journal of Big History International Big History Association Pacific, and the 2500th anniversary of the cuts across time, distance, size and dis- (IBHA) conference at Villanova. Her Battle of Thermopylae. This reminds us cipline in a manner befitting our mis- focus is the impact of a 17-week big his- that it is important to think about the sion. Daniel Barreiros, Bioethics and tory program on 8-9 year old students past at various temporal scales—but it Applied Ethics Center, Universidade and their teacher. From the Environ- holds other lessons as well. Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and mental Science Division of the Argonne It reminds us, for one, that we are una- Daniel Vainfas, PhD Student at the In- National Laboratory (University of Chi- ble to mark anniversaries of events that stitute of Economics (UFRJ), examine cago, Lemont, Illinois), David J. LePoire, occurred prior to the invention of writ- temporal scales as they apply to the his- in work supported by the U.S. Depart- ing. So what’s missing from this list is as tory and theory of warfare. Specifically, ment of Energy, shows us how size significant as what’s included. It re- they use the science of ethology to scales ranging from the atomic nucleus minds us, too, that lists are culturally- reevaluate the idea that war is a contin- to the universe can be estimated with constructed, and that from a big history uation of politics by other means and only a few fundamental physics con- perspective, much has been left out, the belief in a universal “warrior cul- stants. It is stunning to learn that nine both on a geographic scale, and also ture.” It is an excellent example of how of the fundamental distances that we concerning subject-matter, which research can be undertaken in big histo- discuss in big history relate to one an- henceforth shall be known as the “scale ry, in this case, to completely overturn other by the same factor of 150,000. Our of interdisciplinarity.” Thus it behooves models of warfare that have been all but final essay has been written by IBHA us to recall that 2020 also marks the canonized. Another Brazilian scholar, Board Member Barry Wood, University 100th anniversary of the publication of Tatiana de Freitas Massuno, Postdoctor- of Houston, who brings geology, biolo- The Outline of History by H. G. Wells al Fellow, Philosophy Department, Pon- gy, and paleontology to bear on the four and The Age of Innocence by Edith tifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de -billion-year story of the making of India. Wharton, 200 years since Hans Chris- Janeiro (PUC- Rio), deploys literature to tian Ørsted discovered electromag- have at questions of genetic engineer- netism, 400 years since Francis Bacon ing, transhumanism, ecological aware- published Novum Organum, and 800 ness, and what she calls the “good An- David R. Blanks

Journal of Big History Editorial Review Board PUBLISHED BY David Christian Barry Rodrigue International Big History Association Lowell Gustafson Javier Collado Ruano

Editor: David R. Blanks Seohyung Kim Sun Yue Associate Editor: V. E. Pritchett Andrey Korotayev Nobuo Palette Tsujimura Associate Editor: Lowell Gustafson Lucy Laffitte Constance van Hall Designer: Lucy B. Laffitte J. Daniel May Barry Wood

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IV:1 Journal of Big History

A r t i c l e s

Daniel Barreiros & Daniel Vainfas 4 Clausewitz, Keegan, and the Big History of Warfare

Tatiana de Freitas Massuno 13 The Wish To Stop Time: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

Tatiana de Freitas Massuno 21 O Desejo de Parar o Tempo: Oryx e Crake de Margaret Atwood

Marilyn Ahearn 29 Little Learners, Big History, Bigger Future: How Big History Widened the Worldviews of 8-9-year-olds

David J. LePoire 44 Size Relationships of Big History Objects: From the Universe to the Atomic Nucleus

Barry Wood 49 A Four-Billion-Year Story: The Making of India

Book Reviews

Andrés Arias Rodríguez 67 A New Era for Our Fellow Creatures featuring Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals

M. O. Lozano-Justice 69 The Past, Present, and Future of Progress Featuring 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

William Katerberg 73 Big History and the New Story featuring Thomas Berry: A Biography

J. Daniel May 76 In the Midst of the California Wildfires featuring The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)

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Clausewitz, Keegan, and the Big History of Warfare

Daniel Barreiros Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Daniel Ribera Vainfas Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Correspondence | [email protected]; [email protected]

Citation | Barreiros, Daniel, and Daniel Ribera Vainfas. 2019. “Clausewitz, Keegan, and the Big History of Warfare.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 4-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4130. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4130

Abstract As a social phenomenon, is war subordinate to politics, as Carl von Clausewitz argued in the early nineteenth century, or, instead, is it the product of an instinctive ‘warrior culture’, common to all peoples and times and beyond politics, as John Keegan suggested in the late twentieth? Should we emphasize ‘essential historical elements in the search for a tem- poral continuum in warfare? In this article, we stress the relevance of the ‘perennity of war’ thesis, and the impropriety of a dichotomy between political rationality vs. instinct. The results of the clash between these two strands of thought about the origins of warfare face limitations due to the absence of a temporal ‘play of scales’, so that short-term approaches emerge as incompatible with macro-historical views. We suggest that a deep understanding of the phenomenon of warfare must consider the interaction and the feedback between processes at different time scales.

Introduction and Mao Zedong among others. On fails, Clausewitz says, a state is able to War became the cornerstone of mili- employ organized violence as a tech- If war (in general) is the “father tary strategic thinking in the twenti- nique, as social engineering, a means of all things” as said by Heraclitus, the eth century and is still praised as one to obtain desired ends. From the view- Wars of the French Revolution were of the most important works on the point of the strategist, war is just like the parents of the modern theory of subject. Of all topics addressed by chess, and that is the way it should be coalitional violence. Carl von Clause- Clausewitz, the idea that warfare is a if it is to be conducted in a “civilized” witz, the man behind the most notori- rational endeavor caught the atten- and “rational” manner (different from ous incursion of the Enlightenment in tion of many critics, especially after the “savages” overwhelmed by the lack the rational explanation of war, served the carnage of two world wars. Natu- of organization and primitive motives in the Prussian army during the Rhine rally, Clausewitz was not trying to and methods). In the Clausewitzian Campaigns of 1793-1794, went through sugarcoat the nature of his métier, tradition, war is a continuation of pol- defeat and humiliation at the hands of and in spite of the fact that he spent itics, and that is the point where a the French army in Jena (1806), fought most of his military career away from long debate begins. alongside the Russians in Borodino the frontline, he was very aware of the (1812) after Prussia's surrender, and John Keegan, a British military fact that real combat is engulfed in a paved the way for the Sixth Coalition historian who never faced live storm of emotions, instincts, and so- that would bring down the Grande rounds—actually, he was considered matization. So, what On War teaches Armée and its allies in 1814. His war- unfit for duty in the armed forces due is that coalitional violence is chaotic time reflections and experiences gave to a medical condition in 1952—was and dreadful but is nevertheless a ra- birth to a treatise on modern warfare brave enough to dig deeper into the tional instrument in the hands of hu- published posthumously in 1832, nature of warfare. He dismisses all man collectives (modern states, in this named Vom Kriege (On War), that “well-behaved” and historically shal- case) in their dispute over scarce re- influenced world leaders like Bis- low concepts of organized violence in sources. When conflict resolution marck, Moltke, Lenin, Eisenhower, favor of a framework that shows the

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lines of continuation between warfare among societies (Keegan 1994); in oth- fined second element in the dyad defi- among non-state and state actors. er words, there seems to be more than nitely paves the way for theoretical Evoking the idea of a “warrior culture” enough space for us to identify a pos- exploration. ubiquitous to all mankind, Keegan sible overlap between that object Warfare, therefore, is not a mon- emphasizes the social function of war- (culture) and an innate behavioral olithic phenomenon since it carries a fare in terms of group cohesion, coor- framework in Homo sapiens. fundamental opposition in its core; if, dination, and identity and stratifica- in broad terms, this opposition is tion, rather than the instrumental as- Warfare is almost as old as man formed by a well-defined element pects so dear to the Clausewitzians. A himself, and reaches into the (politics) and a somewhat amorphous conceptual debate was formed around most secret places of the human element (the “other means”), it hap- these positions, but the aim of this heart, places where self dissolves pens to transcend its very object article is not to take sides. Instead, our rational purpose, where pride (warfare), enabling us to bring into purpose is to suggest that this debate reigns, where emotion is para- the debate the general ontological is tainted by its inability to grasp with mount, where instinct is king. structure of the human psyche. This the “play of scales” as conceived by (Keegan 1994, 3) structure also consists in an opposi- David Christian (2005, 2018); if we tion between elements with different “scale up” our look into human experi- Keegan's assertion is quite inter- levels of definability (conscious vs. ence employing critical insights ob- esting as it situates warfare as a phe- unconscious mind), and we are con- tained from primatological, ethologi- nomenon present in the very begin- vinced that it is not a mere product of cal, and archaeological studies, we can ning of human natural history and, analogy. In short, warfare appears as a find enough common ground between therefore, as a structural component holistic phenomenon, integrating not Keeganian and Clausewitizian tradi- of the social history of all human only the dimensions of conscious de- tions. groups since Paleolithic times. In do- cision and rational action as a means In A History of Warfare (1994), ing so, Keegan must determine a main to an end but also of the complex in- Keegan argues that warfare should not cause for warfare that must also be teraction between culture, society, be understood as a continuation of transcendent in time; this procedure and deep psychology. politics, as stated in the Clausewitzian puts his ideas on a collision course That Keegan tries to break the tradition, but rather as a cultural phe- with the Clausewitzian tradition, duality that lies in his theoretical and nomenon, a product of the collective which places politics (and warfare, by interpretative framework by replacing practices adopted by a particular definition) in the list of phenomena the causes of warfare with a general group or society. Thinking of warfare determined by human “rationality.” By notion of culture is true. The ‘military as a cultural product would open the stating that “instinct is king” and in- culture’, in particular, would be that possibility, according to Keegan, of voking its biological dimension, Kee- privileged environment in which the escaping the artificial restrictions im- gan conceives culture as something “tribal spell” would happen and where posed by Clausewitz that bound war- beyond or even opposed to politics (in the contingencies of civilization would fare to human rational mind and par- its state and formal dimensions). Nev- be dissolved in a so-called ‘ancestral ticularly to state rationality. In this ertheless, Keegan does not insist upon urgency’ (Herberg-Rothe 2001, 183- way, to formulate a theory of warfare bringing up the concept of instinct in 184). The most interesting aspect in that would explain its existence its plain colors, opting for a more ge- this formulation is in the fact that it throughout the history of humankind neric element, easier accepted by his comes to us as essentially misleading would be possible. Although the con- interlocutors: something like a in its definitional roots. cept of culture is broader than the “human warrior culture” with local Keegan defends the primacy of concept of politics and although Kee- tones but a universal hue (Keegan “culture” from an analytical and theo- gan’s assertion gives us a wider under- 1994, xvi), in opposition to a supposed retical standpoint where the very no- standing of warfare, it is still necessary misuse of the Clausewitzian “war as tion of culture should be dissolved. to consider the ideas of Clausewitz politics” assertion. Keegan suggests Instinctive urgency (“where instinct is about what constitutes the political that Clausewitz's original statement king”) and the “tribal spell” are not phenomenon and contrast them with tends to be inaccurately translated. specific cultural elements; actually, the definition given by Keegan since Better than affirming that warfare is they refer to a set of ancient psychic the controversy between these two the continuation of politics by other mobilizations present in all human authors is substantial enough to de- means would be saying that warfare is groups. The “culture of the warriors,” mand caution in the use of their con- the continuation of political interac- which is the key element of Keegan's cepts. tions with the participation of other argument, is not properly cultural; on Keegan's concept of culture is means (Keegan 1994, 3). Consequen- the contrary, it is clearly a pre-cultural interchangeable with a loose concept tially, a duality emerges in a Kee- element, which must precede the of human nature. He claims that the ganian reading of Clausewitz: on the symbolic, representational, idiosyn- major cause of warfare is “warrior cul- one hand, politics, and on the other, cratic and historical dimensions. In ture” and recognizes its universality the so called ‘other means’; the unde- his eagerness to overcome the notion

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of warfare as policy, Keegan not only tural changes, then we could be able havior sheds light on the very nature ends up entering the minefield of the to formulate questions beyond short- of the mind of H. sapiens. “natural” explanation of the collective term transformations. The fundamen- Keegan's belief that warfare be- and organized intersocietal violence tal problem would be to recognize longs to a set of social phenomena but also offers an understanding of what nature is in order to formulate endowed with a certain universality “politics” in Clausewitz that flirts in- the theory with the best possible re- finds macro-historical support, albeit tensely with contradictions. sult. Clausewitz's hypothesis of not without controversy. If some con- Keegan’s understanding of “structuring rationality”, i.e., the no- temporary hunter-gatherer societies “politics” in Clausewitz’s work is quite tion that every war has or must have a that do not undertake intersocietal controversial because it tends to political purpose (Gray 1999, 169), is coalitional violence exist, it is not un- equate “politics” with “policy,” the not enough though it seems to be true common to identify in their past latter referring to a rational construc- in its own way. The strength of the (when this is ethnologically possible) tion, an adequacy of means to ends, structuring rationality hypothesis lies evidence of engagement in conflicts particularly the improvement of hu- in the notion that politics (in all its with neighboring groups or with regu- man wellbeing. On the other hand, dimensions) is steady enough to func- lar military forces, which ultimately Clausewitz used the German term tion as a catalyst to the congregation resulted in demographic, political, Politik with a two-fold meaning, in- of individuals with different and and economic fragility (so that much voking simultaneously the notion of (most of the time) colliding agendas, of the hunter-gatherer pacifism can be policy and of politics. “Politics” in this leading to the cooperation necessary associated with “defeated societies”) sense involves a degree of conflict and to make warfare possible. In essence, (Keeley 1996, 31-32). All other societies non-rationality that is absent from politics, as behavior, is related to ma- display some sort of military cultural Keegan's construction. Warfare, then, jor structuring myths in the core of practices that interact dialectically can be violent, barbaric, and cruel and our social and cultural life as H. sapi- with religious, ideological, mythologi- still be “political” to the extent that it ens: cal, and political representations. deals with divergences between dis- Thus, the existence of something like tinct political groups (Bassford 1994, Any large-scale human coopera- “warrior tendencies” in a transciviliza- 326-327). Certainly the conversation tion—whether a modern state, a tional level seems plausible. Neverthe- between Clausewitz and Keegan is medieval church, an ancient city less, as we shall see, the notion that disturbed by the simple reason that or an archaic tribe—is rooted in intersocietal violence is the result of they both name distinct processes (in common myths that exist only in some innate psychological impulse whole or in part) the same. In spite of people’s collective imagination (. dedicated exclusively to this purpose that, two important notions seem to . .). States are rooted in common (i.e., lethal action against other social survive this struggle: (1) that the uni- national myths (. . .). Yet none of groups) is based on very fragile evolu- versal character of the warrior culture these things exists outside the tionary foundations, often associated feedbacks with (Keegan would say, stories that people invent and with discussions about human nature “determines”) politics as a social or- tell one another (Harari 2015, 36). that are tributary to the western polit- ganizational phenomenon, as Bass- ical philosophy of the 17th and 18th ford (1994, 333) suggests; and (2) that, The existence of different myths centuries (Hobbes vs. Rousseau, espe- in Keegan's work, the warrior culture is such a problem that a complete the- cially). In the same tune, Keegan’s as a concept refers to a phenomenon ory must investigate the birth of proposition that the “warrior culture” that does not behave as a manifesta- myths and macro-narratives rather is the ultimate reason why warfare tion of the social and intellectual his- than the social consequences of a par- exists does not lead us farther from tory, but rather as an aspect of human ticular narrative. To accomplish this, the clash between doves and hawks cognitive dynamics that informs every we have to venture into the Big Histo- since Keegan suggests that intersocie- kind of culture. ry of human evolution to de-authorize tal coalitional violence is the product C. S. Gray takes the theme of unilateral readings of Clausewitz and of some “active principle” of human human nature to criticize Keegan and of Keegan. A Big History of warfare cognition, whose nature and function defend Clausewitz, bringing up the that seeks to recognize the dialectical are to promote conflict. idea of the “common thread of the interaction between phenomena oc- human factor” (Gray 1999, 164). That curring at different timescales, from Prosocial cognition: construction common thread would represent a the événementielle to the evolution- of the ingroup problematic and controversial ary, would consider pointless the op- The cognitive foundations of in- “proclivity to combat” and a “will to position between the instinctive tersocietal coalition violence belong fight” (Gray 1999, 176, 181). If it is true “warrior culture” and the “rational not to any active ethological complex that something like a “human nature” enterprise.” Rather, the conceptual in favor of warfare but to the failure of exists, sustained across the evolution- dyad formed by the “instinctual” and the dedicated and highly specialized ary time in spite of technical and cul- the “rational” aspects of warfare be- modular social intelligence, built by

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natural selection in a very long evolu- ganization on a macro-historical scale a slow adaptation to the new context. tionary history that traces back to the and beyond modern human societies The gradual savannization of East last common ancestor between requires taking into account the chal- Africa and part of Central Africa ad- chimpanzees and modern humans six lenges represented by the energetic vanced along the Cenozoic and met a million years in the past. Intersocietal needs of females in eutherian and critical point in the Late Miocene for coalitional violence, i.e., the result of mammal species. Females suffer a most of the great apes around eight to processes and phenomena related to great amount of ethological pressure six million years in the past. For the the organization of social sub-units for accessing food resources with the species that resisted in these sa- dedicated to the exercise of power highest possible nutritional value, vannized habitats, heterogeneity in over other groups, based on the impo- since the costs of lactation and of a the distribution of natural resources sition (or threat) of lethal action, is relatively long intrauterine pregnancy and the decrease in its average nutri- quite rare in primatological terms. are far from negligible. From this evo- tional value began to take its toll, re- Among extant great apes, only mod- lutionary standpoint, we understand quiring adaptive responses. The rare- ern humans and common chimpan- the formation (behaviorally innate) of faction of resources in the territory zees have a behavioral portfolio con- permanent kin-related female matri- would have jeopardized the strategy sistent with the practice of warfare. lineal collectives, based on coopera- of kin-related female cooperation; the We have no reason to reject the hy- tive relations aimed at guaranteeing dispersion of resources and the lower pothesis that all the species that de- mutual energy needs in the genetic energy value stored in each patch of scended from the last common ances- community (Foley 2003, 220; bushland or woods would have led tor of Homo and Pan also engaged in Nordhausen and Oliveira Filho 2015, these kin-related groups to be threat- intersocietal coalitional violence, even 36). ened by internal competition, render- though our ability to trace evidence of Territoriality is shaped by the ing most of the win-win strategies this type of practice in the fossil rec- foraging strategies of female collec- replicated ethologically up to that ord is restricted by taphonomic rea- tives, so males follow female groups point ineffective. Avoiding internal sons and by the dubiousness in the and compete for reproductive oppor- competition would mean, to these identification of osteological markers tunities among themselves, with in- female apes, spreading through the of lethal violence tense interpersonal agonistic behav- landscape, driving cooperative behav- We have no evidence of war- ior. In species that ethologically form ior to sub-optimal levels of efficiency. fare—in a broad sense—in any other one-male groups, an alpha-male will In this evolutionary context, kin- primate lineages, extant or extinct, strive to deny copulatory opportuni- related matrilineal sociability is disfa- and in this respect, we should not be ties to his rivals through violence and vored, and female migration to other surprised. Organized lethal aggres- intimidation; these primate societies groups as they reach sexual maturity sion toward other social groups are more prone to agonism and show becomes a pattern of behavior gradu- emerged as a functional byproduct of higher levels of sexual dimorphism ally fixed by natural selection in these the specific form assumed by socio- (morphological and behavioral differ- species. This means, for females, that ethological structures emerged six ences between males and females, disputing resources that are more million years in the past among spe- including body mass, temperament distant as possible from one’s mater- cies split from the LCA social struc- and behavior, canine morphology, nal genetic community renders more ture that, in its more specific aspects, and muscle mass) and fewer opportu- reproductive gains (in the evolution- was another very rare condition in the nities for male cooperation. In cogni- ary long run) than staying in natal primatological universe. tive terms, intricate forms of social groups. For males, this ethological Two were the most likely condi- intelligence, with innate modules change in female behavior could have tions of sociability among the many dedicated to conflict management, led to the emergence of patrilineal kin species of great apes by the time of manifest among many of these spe- -related cooperation, an exotic type of the LCA speciation. The first, older cies in both of the situations. Never- sociability (Aureli et al. 2008, 629- and more common, consisted of per- theless, given that social relations in 630; Foley 2008, 230). manent kin-related female matrilineal male groups are mostly transient, Male patrilineal collectives, in collectives, accompanied by unstable fight-or-flight behavior is highly func- association with non-kin female and uncooperative non-kin groups of tional and relevant so that retreat and groups, would potentially create a males (migrant individuals in volatile migration to other groups can be a problem: how the access to reproduc- groups). The second one also relied sufficient strategy for a male eventu- tive opportunities could be regulated on kin-related female cooperation, ally confronted by an overwhelming and how a win-win strategy could be but associated with the exercise of force (Foley 2003, 223-224; Wrangham sustained in order to keep permanent strict dominance in male-male rela- and Peterson 1996, 131). cooperation behavior among males in tions, with the formation of harems An ecological change in habitats the genetic community. As we have (with vast inequality in the distribu- occupied by certain species of great seen, the most common ethological tion of copulatory opportunities apes may have led some populations strategies in other contexts were ei- among males). To think of social or- to large scale migrations and others to ther the intensification of interper-

7 sonal male conflict with high lethality istics: (1) an increased dedication and longer social time spent by a con- risks or the migration to other groups. speed of processing information that testant with his supporters Patrilineal male cooperation denies allow for the prediction of the status (involving grooming and other these two strategies since the former rank actually possessed by others forms of recreation and/or jeopardizes a more balanced distribu- through the analysis of sensorial cues strengthening of social bonds). In tion of gains in terms of evolutionary and through the recall of past interac- this case, the ascension of a com- fitness, and the latter dissolves male tions; (2) the formulation of hypothe- petitor brings non-linear status stable sociability itself. Of course, ses about the behavior of conspecifics gains to all members of his coali- there is no reason to disregard the fact in a given social interaction, involving tion; that climatic aggravation and its im- or not the observer; and (3) the de- The “ritualistic” dimension (lato sensu, pacts on African ecosystems could signing of strategies for climbing sta- devoid of the symbolic nature pre- have made, hypothetically (other fac- tus ranks or preserving a current rank, sent in the culture of modern hu- tors excluded), permanent societies of employing alliances and coalitions mans) is a crucial aspect of disputes great apes in the arid zones unlikely. with conspecifics dedicated to the of status because it provides rapid However, gregariousness and coopera- same objective. Social cognition forms, sensorial information to the social tion are evolutionary assets that, once thus, an innate political ethology, pre- cognitive mechanisms. The cycles conquered, have the tendency to sur- sent in common chimpanzees and also of dispute involve precisely the vio- vive even major evolutionary bottle- in the evolutionary lineage of H. sapi- lation of expected social behaviors necks (Shultz, Opie and Atkinson 2011, ens (Aureli et al. 2008, 632; Mithen that, when in practice, indicate the 222; Wrangham and Peterson 1996, 2002, 129-131; Wrangham and Peterson recognition of the status of a third 128; 186). 1996, 128, 186). party. A common chimpanzee Speaking of environmental pres- The ethological rite in the strug- bends down before a higher rank sure, for the great apes, savannization gle for status among common chim- conspecific, permits being touched resulted in the fragmentation of re- panzees in a social group follows some on the shoulder, etc., as forms of sources (and females) across the terri- elementary principles, identified and status signaling. Denying these tory, making one-male social groups thus interpreted from the observation ‘courtesies’ on a regular basis quite difficult to maintain, if not im- of these primates in their natural envi- means conflict. possible to exist. Broadly speaking, ronment (Mithen 2002; Wrangham Status disputes indirectly involve most surveillance by an alpha male in order and Peterson 1996): of the group, and their cycles are to hinder the incursion of rival males concluded through the establish- had become unlikely, and the evolu- The prospect of a stable dominance ment of a “consensus”, insofar as tionary opportunity was open for the maintained basically through force, the majority of the members of the cooperation between kin-related as occurs with gorillas, is discarded social group converge in support of males in the control of the territory so that status relations are orga- a certain competitor and his allies. and its resources. These coalitions act nized into fluid networks of power From this point, gains and losses to prevent access to the group females with unstable alliances between are recognized, submission/ by any outsider male. For cooperation males and between females (more dominance signaling in form of to work, so that the dispute between intense among the first); the rise gesticulations and vocalizations are individual reproductive agendas does and fall in hierarchy indicate that performed, and life goes on until a not produce fractures in the kin col- social mobility is a very important new contest begins. lective, a specialized and ethological ethological aspect in the species social intelligence emerges, exclusively split from the LCA, six million years Outgroups and coalitional violence devoted to process social information, in the past. The prosocial ethology in chim- in order to operate a dynamic hierar- The rise and fall in the status pyramid, panzees (and presumably in the LCA) chy of status. This socio-cognitive do- although part of a win-win strategy is not fail-safe. Fluid but effective lim- main should operate the norms and in the long run (as a prosocial its persist in the average volume of forms of dispute for higher ranks and mechanism that helps to prevent social information that can be pro- produce prosocial limits that buffer the dissolution of the society), in cessed cumulatively. Thus, although against lethal outcomes in internal the short run results in a zero-sum composed of dedicated and special- conflict. game in which the gain of one is ized mental modules, social cognitive Social intelligence, differently the loss of another. activity has a significant correlation from general intelligence, is not based Males will confront other males in an with the neocortical volume, and both on the application of simple and intricate dynamic of coalition for- have as proxy the time spent in standardized learning rules, generat- mation, involving the intimidation grooming and other forms of recrea- ing cumulative and modified content of adversaries and their allies, and tion necessary for the renewal of social based on interaction with the environ- the conquest of crescent support bonds and for the reaffirmation of hi- ment, but on trial and error. Social from the group members. This erarchies. This means that when the cognition has the following character- growing support is expressed by the number of relationships to be pro-

8 cessed exceeds a certain limit are relevant: asymmetry are still favorable, the (variable according to encephaliza- aggressors will seek to isolate tion, in each species), the volume of their opponents to prevent them sensory information to be detect- Mobilization is triggered by a high- from cooperating in their de- ed and analyzed, as well as the num- ranking male through vocaliza- fense. ber of possible combinations of rela- tions and bodily displays with There are no observed acts of non- tionships involving two or more indi- strong somatic and sensorial lethal violence and intimidation viduals, surpasses the power of men- content. Once successful, mobili- performed by an aggressive coali- tal processing, making cooperation zation results in the formation of tion against male members of an and coordination less viable. In this temporary parties organized with outgroup. Lethality seems to be context, the identification of the sta- the sole purpose of inflicting le- always sought, and there are rec- tus rank of a growing number of con- thal violence to the “enemy.” It is ords of ethological demonstra- specifics becomes increasingly vague, not a defensive action, or the tions of intriguing content, such which makes the operation of proso- result of any need of patrolling as the emasculation of dying op- cial mechanisms less effective. Thus, the territory boundaries. ponents and the sharing of body by virtue of demography or environ- During the advance toward the parts and the blood of dead mental factors, the operation of the neighboring territory, the senso- “enemies.” The association be- prosocial ethology may be impaired, rial attention for the presence of tween intersocietal violence and leading to the intensification of inter- “enemy” chimpanzees is intense. cannibalism is of particular inter- nal conflict between individual agen- The perception of features on the est, since common chimpanzees das; in these situations, permanent landscape that suggest the prox- exhibit different somatic displays group fission tends to be the answer, imity with the border between and vocalizations when dealing leading the operation of social cogni- the two territories reduces the with ingroup and outgroup indi- tion back to manageable levels number of vocalizations emitted viduals: in the first case, all ritu- (Aiello and Dunbar 1993, 184-185; and widens the attention even alistic and lethality prevention Aureli et al. 2008, 637; Ferguson and more. If a vocalization is re- mechanisms are in place, while Beaver 2009, 291). sponded by an enemy chimpan- in the second case, raiders show What about intersocietal rela- zee, signs of anxiety in the raid- body language and make vocali- tions? No prosocial ethological re- ing party become visible, and zations normally related to hunt- straints present as capable of pre- prosocial ethology enters the ing activities (chimpanzees often venting lethal violence from being scene: the group members most feed on small vertebrates and imposed on individuals about whom often perform gestures and spe- even on smaller monkeys like the little or no social information is avail- cific actions, which are employed red colobus, Piliocolobus badius). able. The unloading of excessive so- to calm and renew mutual trust Therefore, “foreigner” chimpan- cial information, enabled by group under normal conditions zees are behaviorally treated as fission, results in framing the (touches and hugs as examples). prey. The re-signification of the “foreign” as an entity external to the The strategy of violence between enemy's nature is called hierarchy pyramid and, therefore, as groups of common chimpanzees “dechimpizing”, clearly analo- someone not eligible to be included seeks to exploit asymmetry of gous to “dehumanization” pro- in prosocial mechanisms; intersocie- power to the maximum. An at- cesses (Roscoe 2007; Mithen tal relations are thus restricted to tack on an isolated opponent is 2002). violent contacts. The logic under- the main objective; in the ecolog- Raids may also be associated with neath the “wars” among common ical niches explored by these pri- attempts to coerce females from chimpanzees lies in the physical mates, and probably also by our neighboring groups through in- elimination of “opposing” males, in common ancestor (savannah, timidation and non-lethal vio- the disarticulation of neighboring open woodland, or bushland), lence so that they desert and join communities, and in the abduction the rarefaction of resources in the aggressor’s side. In case of of their females. This is attempted the territory leads to frequent success, the first offspring born during many raids into the foraging dispersion in their already de- of newly incorporated females territory belonging to neighboring concentrated social macro- are almost always victims of in- groups, promoted by male raiding groups, creating opportunity for fanticide by adult males. This parties, eventually accompanied by a the engagement of a lone oppo- type of behavior is not uncom- few nulliparous females (Roscoe nent. During a raid, if a decisive mon among social mammals and 2007, 485-486; Wrangham and Peter- numerical advantage is not iden- has the effect of minimizing the son 1996, 6-7, 162-165). tified, the attacking group re- impact of paternity uncertainty From the process of mobiliza- treats. In case of contact with on a polygynandric mating system: tion of a raiding party to the return more than one “enemy” and if since there is no sexual exclusivity to their home territory, some themes the conditions of numerical among common chimpanzees,

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infanticide in these cases operates societies should illustrate a phenome- economy car drivers; although this as a guarantee that the offspring non of another kind, incurring another message is also “useful” in its own way. does not belong to males unrelat- dynamic and logic. In fact, human evo- The articulation between cogni- ed to the ingroup. This is an im- lution lead us through other paths; in tive domains with strong presence of portant factor (the absence of spite of this, the evolutionary dynam- innate algorithms is made by a master marked inequality in reproductive ics should never be confused with the domain, the metarepresentation mod- opportunities) that makes engag- drawing board of the Creator, in which ule, which gains this name by produc- ing in intersocietal violence a po- drawings are erased to give space to ing simultaneous images of the same tentially rewarding strategy for all others, traced from scratch; the evolu- object in different specialized intelli- males involved. tionary process is a collage that takes gences. Moreover, it is in the module The balance of power is an ethological- place over millennia, with overlapping of metarepresentation that holistic ly relevant strategy for the preven- images, some visible, others almost representations about knowledge are tion of intersocietal violence imperceptible, but still present. The expressed—in the form of something among common chimpanzees. human mind, though distinct as a re- like a “consciousness of the conscious- This is because lethal aggression, sult of its metarepresentational and ness.” Evidence suggests that chim- although not a rare ethological transdominial format, carries in its panzees are aware of themselves and phenomenon among mammals, ontology and phylogeny all the evolu- aware of others only in the realm of occurs more frequently at inter- tionary content of the deep past, sub- social relations but nowhere else. personal levels, in asymmetric stantially situated in the opacity of the Chimpanzees do not use tools (which conditions, and between adults collective unconscious (Stevens 2002). they produce) to convey social messag- and infants (Roscoe 2007, 485-486; In modern humans, specialized es and help in their status disputes, Wrangham and Peterson 1996, 6- intelligences of high performance and nor do they seem to be able to use 7, 162-165). Lethal aggression energetic cost operate together, with their social algorithms in their rela- among adults is a high-risk behav- their algorithms, innate and learned tionship with the natural world ior, with the potential for killing contents circulating freely, generating (Mithen 2002, 139). Human capacity to aggressors and/or victims. What knowledge of a creative and transver- employ consciously or unconsciously makes intersocietal violence possi- sal nature. As a result of this transdo- deep-rooted ethological algorithms in ble in the way it occurs among miniality, for modern humans a forest tasks for which they were not chimpanzees is precisely the pres- can contain a universe of naturalistic evolved—a capacity for a “creative ence of an advanced social cogni- information regarding foraging (for confusion”—can make the aftermath tion, acting to produce intense the resources it contains), but, at the of the clash between Keegan’s “warrior male cooperation and coordina- same time, a forest represents a social- culture” and Clausewitz’s “rationality tion. The coalitional strategy has ly constructed space (the “dwelling of of war” less trivial than it may seem. the potential for breaking the bal- the ancestors,” for example); for mod- We will insist here on the inexist- ance of power, for delivering lethal ern humans, a forest can be imbued ence of a real opposition between violence against the enemy with with sentience, can talk and listen, so these two propositions and on the fact minimal risks to the aggressors, it must be respected as a social being. that they emerge at different instances and for maximizing individual re- By this transversality between natural- of the complex phenomenology of so- turns resulting from the expansion istic and social intelligences, it is high- cial cognition. In the first place, the of foraging territory (as a conse- ly likely that the food resources pro- question does not seem to involve a quence of the demographic de- vided by a forest can also be a “gift” of problem of rationality vs. irrationality. cline of neighboring groups), and the ancestors, satisfying not only ener- If the war for Clausewitz is fundamen- from the abduction of females in a getic needs but also renewing social tally rational because it is a means to polygynandrous mating system. bonds through symbolical and mythi- an end, the results of the intersocietal cal representations. Automobile en- coalitional violence in Pan troglodytes Warfare and the modern human thusiasts in modern industrial socie- also have a solid rational dimension; as mind: between Clausewitz and Kee- ties know that their cars are much a means to an end, warfare contributes gan more than a tool, a product of technol- to the expansion of the foraging terri- Of course, all this relates to our ogy and capitalism; a vehicle can be tory of a social group and to increase closest evolutionary relatives, with treated as a social entity, an object of the number of sexual opportunities for whom we share almost 99% of the trust and affection, and can send pow- all males (albeit unevenly) as a result genes. In this context, anyone could erful social messages about its owner. I of the polygynandric mating system. It quite rightly claim that human socie- believe that only a few SUV owners in is evident that wars between modern ties function in another framework, the capitalist world consider of more human societies, and especially inter- that modern humans are rational and importance the technical aspect that state conflicts, often involve different conscious, and that they are cultural gives the thing a name – ‘utility’ – than purposes. We do not need, for any reason, animals; thus, wars between human the strident social message it sends to to postulate that modern wars, being

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impacted by the constant presence of involves also the use of cultural con- between categories, it happens not in “ancestral impulses,” have to result in tents capable of triggering dehuman- the circumstances of an “unconscious- the expansion of male reproductive izing behavior through the use of con- rational” dyad but in an “unconscious- fitness and in the expansion of a soci- cepts that outlines the enemy out- conscious” one although the notion of ety’s “vital space.” This is not the way group (‘barbarian’, ‘immoral’, conflict does not fit the complex dia- these “ancestral impulses” comes to ‘impure’, ‘pagan’, ‘imperialist’, lectical game between these two in- us. The ethological algorithms that ‘communist’, among others ). stances of the metarepresentational echo in the metarepresentational War among modern humans, if mind. “Irrational” belongs to behavior mind and the symbols produced by it reduced to its innate behavioral com- and courses of action seeking or re- are not the cause of war, either among ponents, would result in an irrational sulting in sub-optimal consequences. humans or among chimpanzees. phenomenon: the potential gains in Those that result in optimal outcomes These algorithms are ultimately one reproductive fitness brought by inter- are rational by definition, regardless of the means to make warfare happen, societal violence, fixed by natural se- of their conscious or unconscious ori- even though they arise as an indispen- lection since the LCA, do not appear gins. In this way, the “warrior culture” sable condition. as the result of engagement in mod- can be a mechanism for the discharge What modern humans do, in the ern warfare. In this way, if the expan- of primal impulses without ceasing to mobilization and in the strategy of sion of the male evolutionary fitness is be a means to an end. war, is to resort consciously or uncon- supposedly the purpose for which sciously to the ethology contained in men (and women!) march toward the Final considerations deep layers of specialized intelligenc- battlefield and something that makes Keegan is captured by the con- es, to combine them with hundreds of strategists a living, modern warfare tradiction between his intuitions other pieces of knowledge, and to would be an irrational phenomenon about a “human condition” directed change the values of the variables in since, in theory, it fails to contribute toward warfare and his theoretical the algorithms so that they serve the to this goal either in victory or in de- need to define it as “culture”. Consid- expected ‘rational means’ that some feat. The rationality of interstate war- ering the mechanisms of intersocietal cultural, institutional, or political con- fare is a product of transdominiality violence we have described, a “warrior text demands. In other words, we and metarepresentation; it is a means instinct” seems devoid of evidence; in must consider that, in the minds of for purposes that are transversal to spite of this, Keegan contributes deci- women and men in modern war offic- the economic, political, and cultural sively in bringing the longue durée to es, the prospecting of geopolitical sce- realms, using strategic or incidental the debate, something that paves the narios and the setting up of strate- activation of ethological complexes on way to the interaction between the gies—rational actions, by definition— the collective unconscious. These collective unconscious with evolu- become credible and trustworthy only complexes, selected over millions of tionary origins (Jung 2015) and partic- by resorting to deep ethological com- years of the natural history of the Pri- ular cultural systems. We can over- plexes that make some courses of ac- mates order, are employed by modern come this conceptual confusion by tion familiar and self-explanatory to humans as instruments for under- unfolding the “warrior culture” in two the detriment of others. So, in every standing, significance, mobilization, separate and interlocked aspects: (a) pursuit of a rational goal involving and acceptance of lethal intersocietal one that requires a deep comprehen- strategy, evolutionary algorithms are violence, devoted to objectives most sion of warfare, requiring our atten- frankly present; their echoes in the distinct from ancestral ones. tion to “ancestral psychic mobiliza- metarepresentational mind reduce, at Pride, emotion, and instinct, the tions” based on ethological projec- the cognitive level, the degree of es- affective triumvirate of warfare in tions (the observance and the viola- trangement and uncertainty about Keeganian terms, produces a false tion of prosocial complexes) over the decisions that, at the limit, can in- contradiction with rational purpose. metarepresentational mind; or (b) volve the lives of hundreds of thou- This provocation against Clausewitzi- another one that evaluates genuine sands of people. In preparation for an principles seems to slip between “warrior cultures” in their condition modern warfare, indoctrination and two distinct dyads: rationality x irra- of conscious and unconscious practic- training of the combatants (as well as tionality, by one side, consciousness x es specific to particular societies. The the mobilization of public opinion) unconsciousness, by the other. The so “warrior culture” in Keegan is defi- involve a large dose of massive and -called “irrational dimensions” in Kee- nitely not what it seems, and we be- programmed activation of uncon- gan should be so because of the even- lieve that Clausewitzian rationality is scious ethological complexes through tual inadequacy of warfare in achiev- not what it seems either if it is consid- the use of cultural and symbolic cate- ing certain goals, and it does not ap- ered as synonym of “consciousness.” gories that reinforce the construction pear that intersocietal coalitional vio- Keegan resorts to a universal dimension, of imagined ingroups (‘homeland’, lence has been constituted as a mere and thus ends up postulating his object ‘nation’, ‘class’ , ‘brothers in arms’, set of frivolities, distempers, or peri- of analysis as something pre-cultural and the like). The Hobbesian warre odic tragedies. If there is a conflict and innate, ubiquitous to all societies.

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Such universality places the “warrior Christian, D. 2005. “Macrohistory: The Keegan, J. 1994. A History of Warfare. culture” in the ethological realm, but, Play of Scales.” Social Evolution New York: Vintage Books. as we have seen, the existence of a and History 4 (1): 22-59. Keeley, L. 1996. War before Civiliza- warfare ethology is very unlikely; no Christian, D. 2018. Origin Story: A Big tion: The Myth of the Peaceful unconscious complexes dedicated to History of Everything. London: Savage. Oxford: Oxford bringing lethal violence to outsiders Allen Lane. University Press. are identified. Ethologically speaking, Clausewitz, C. 2007. On War. Oxford: Mithen, S. 2002. A Pré-história da intersocietal violence seems to be the Oxford University Press. Mente: uma Busca das Origens da result of the exhaustion of social cog- Ferguson, C., and K. Beaver. 2009. Arte, da Religião e da Ciência. São nition with the eventual inability to “Natural Born Killers: The Genetic Paulo: Universidade Estadual recognize the rank and status of an Origins of Extreme Violence.” Paulista. increasing number of individuals. For Aggression and Violent Behavior Nordhausen, M., and P. Oliveira Filho. these “unidentified” conspecifics, pro- 14 (5): 286-294. doi: 10.1016/ 2015. “Nós, Primatas.” Assim social mechanisms are off limits, which j.avb.2009.03.005. Caminhou a Humanidade.Ed. by means that further contacts may be Foley, R. 2003. Os Humanos antes da W. Neves et al., pp. 14-47. São mediated by hunting ethological com- Humanidade: Uma Perspectiva Paulo: Palas Athena. plexes—the behavioral basis for inter- Evolucionista. São Paulo: Roscoe, P. 2007. “Intelligence, Coali- societal violence. Universidade Estadual Paulista tional Killing, and the Anteced- Gray, C. 1999. “Clausewitz rules, OK? ents of War.” American Anthro- Bibliography The Future Is the Past—with pologist 109 (3): 485-495. doi: GPS.” Review of International 10.1525/aa.2007.109.3.485. Aiello, L., and R. Dunbar. 1993. Studies 25 (5):161-182. doi: 10.1017/ Shultz, S., C. Opie, and Q. Atkinson. “Neocortex Size, Group Size, and S0260210599001618. 2011. Stepwise Evolution of Stable the Evolution of Language.” Cur- Harari, Y. 2015. Sapiens: Uma Breve Sociality in Primates. Nature 479 rent Anthropology 34 (2): 184-193. História da Humanidade. Porto (7372): 219-222. doi: 10.1038/ doi: 10.1086/204160. Alegre: L&PM Editores. nature10601. Aureli, F., et al. 2008. “Fission-fusion Herberg-Rothe, A. 2001. “Primacy of Stevens, A. 2002. Archetype Revisited: Dynamics: New Research Frame- ‘Politics’ or ‘Culture’ over War in An Updated Natural History of the works.” Current Anthropology. 49 a Modern World: Clausewitz Self. London: Routledge. (4): 627-654. doi: 10.1086/586708. Needs a Sophisticated Interpreta- Wrangham, R., and D. Peterson. 1996. Bassford, C. 1994. “John Keegan and tion.” Defense Analysis 17 (2): 175- Demonic Males: Apes and the Ori- the Grand Tradition of Trashing 186. doi: gins of Human Violence. Boston: Clausewitz: a Polemic.” War in 10.1080/07430170120064249. Mariner. History 1 (3): 319–336. doi: Jung, C. G. 2015. O Eu e o Inconsciente. 10.1177/096834459400100305. Petrópolis: Vozes.

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The Wish to Stop Time: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

Tatiana de Freitas Massuno Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Massuno, Tatiana de Freitas. 2019. “The Wish to Stop Time: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 13-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4170. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4170

Abstract: What if humans continue to pursue “more and better”? What if we continue living within our safe anthropocen- tric boundaries? What if we ignore the question of when too much is too much? Margaret Atwood’s “speculative fiction” presents no new worlds, as Atwood’s world resembles our own; her novels present, on the other hand, what-if realities. By extrapolating trends, Oryx and Crake poses the afore-mentioned questions within Modernity’s framework. Atwood’s novel revisits key concepts such as time and subjectivity and brings progression to a halt. What may the wish to stop time, our human condition, result in, after all? Modernity and its concepts are under scrutiny in a novel in which climate change and nature seem to have been surpassed. The present paper aims, therefore, at investigating what this “us without a world” story, which becomes a “world without us” one, can tell us about the pursuits of Modernity and their repercussions: that is, ecological awareness and the good Anthropocene. Global warming might just as all. The split between nature and cul- human race, its decimation by a lethal well continue what Freud called the ture, subject and object, human and virus. Even though climate change as a great humiliation of the human. Being planetary history was just a fallacy. reality exists since the beginning of added to a list of humiliators, which Human and nonhuman temporalities the novel, all the scientific discoveries includes, according to Timothy Mor- are more enmeshed than previously in the walled communities, the so- ton, Copernicus, Darwin, Derrida, thought: “Now we must concede what called compounds, seem to address Marx, and Heidegger, just to name a seemed impossible to contemplate — this new reality: the Earth is getting few, global warming brings human humans as agents changing the course warmer, nothing is changed in human displacement to a new level since it of the deep history of the Earth, or behavior. Climate change does not forces us to acknowledge that “we are rather of the Earth’s deep future, an play a role in Jimmy’s life. If on the always inside an object” (Morton 2013, event giving rise to what might be one hand, animals are becoming ex- 17). Global warming, as a hyperobject, called “post-history.” (Hamilton 2017, tinct; on the other hand, more animals as something that is massively 13) Accepting human’s geological are being bioengineered. If plants out- “distributed in time and space relative agency, Timothy Clark would go on, side the compounds cannot survive to humans” (Morton 2013, 1), makes “is to revise strongly notions of what is the harsh reality of a warmer planet, humans grapple with the painful reali- or is not historically significant” (Clark inside, new plants, bioengineered zation that there is no away. Global 2015, 52). Not only human history is ones, thrive and keep the temperature warming is nonlocal; it is everywhere: historically significant, after all. under control. Climate is under con- in the bodies, oceans, forests, and Margaret Atwood’s world in Oryx trol within the walls of the compounds buildings, yet nowhere to be found. It and Crake is a human-altered environ- and life goes on as though nothing is viscous, as it clings itself to every- ment in which a newly created race, had happened. The compounds, thing. In the time of hyperobjects we the Crakers, and the narrator, Jimmy, therefore, as an attempt to go away, to discover “ourselves on the inside of a remnant of human race, survive the escape the viscosity and nonlocality of some big objects (bigger than us, that harsh conditions of an altered planet. global warming, may help shed some is): Earth, global warming, evolu- Through Jimmy’s faltering memory light on our modern constitution. This tion” (Morton, 2013, 118). Our human the story of the creation of this new novel, obsessed with binaries as it is, scale is proven insufficient to rule it race is told, along with the collapse of the split between humanities and

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sciences, is a speculative exercise on Snowman’s present is constant- where? The lack of closure it pre- how modernity conceives knowledge ly interrupted by his past’s replays, sents seems to add just another layer and its consequences. But mostly on by flashbacks he cannot turn off, by to the ambiguities present in the how the split—nature and culture, voices that come out of nowhere, by novel as a whole. “End or begin- humanities and sciences, object and sentences on fridge magnets, by ning?” I ask. subject—may prevent us from ad- words out of context, and even Atwood’s recovery of the zero- dressing the reality of climate though the reader is presented with hour expression at the end, her in- change. Accepting its reality means at least two different storylines, sistence on the stillness of the chron- going beyond the split, beyond the Snowman’s present and past; all ological time, in spite of the different sovereignty of the subject; it means, sense of progression is denied. The stories presented in the novel, points in a nutshell, rethinking our cher- novel comes full circle when it ends to a puzzle to be solved: What is the ished modern concepts, such as time, with the same idea with which it had relevance of time, or the framing of progress, and subjectivity. begun: “Zero hour, Snowman thinks. time, for the different levels of expe- Snowman/Jimmy lets us know Time to go” (Atwood 2003, 372). Zero rience in Oryx and Crake? Since time right from the beginning of Margaret hour, once again. Is it the beginning is one of the guiding principles of our Atwood’s Oryx and Crake that it is or the end? A beginning and an end? modern experience, our new experi- zero hour. As he looks at his watch, One and the same? ence as moderns, the novel as a out of habit, he is overtaken by a whole, as “speculative fiction,” keeps feeling of desperation: “A blank face Snowman’s broken watch iden- Modernity under scrutiny. is what it shows him: zero hour. It tifies the negation of time as a Hegel was, according to Haber- causes a jolt of terror to run through consequence of catastrophe in mas, the philosopher who inaugurat- him, this absence of official time. two different senses: first, the ed the discourse of Modernity. Hegel Nobody nowhere knows what time it ending of the mechanical and perceives Modernity’s need for self- is” (Atwood 2003, 3). Zero hour, as social commodification of expe- certification since the models of the though time had been suspended, as rience through the imposition past would not be enough to grasp though all progression had come to a of clock time and, second, an what modernity entails. Modernity’s halt and Snowman, formerly Jimmy, ending to history through the criteria should, therefore, be extract- was stuck in this limbo, stuck be- violent disruption of human ed from itself. It should be certified tween a past he cannot regain, a past memory and civilization. by its own norms, owing nothing to that keeps slipping through his fin- (Dodds 2015, 121) the pre-modern view of the world. gers, and a present with no future: Modernity’s self-certification would “He doesn’t know which is worse, a There is no arguing against the be taken by Hegel as the guidepost of past he can’t regain or a present that sense of ending throughout the nov- his philosophical concerns. Its guid- will destroy him if he looks at it too el, against a post-apocalyptic last ing principle, subjectivity, guarantees clearly. Then there’s the future. man experience that Snowman per- Modernity’s superiority (when com- Sheer vertigo” (Atwood 2003, 147). sonifies. Until the very last minute, pared to the pre-modern world) and When did it happen, anyway? Snow- Snowman believes himself to be the is illuminated by the ideas of man keeps asking himself. “He must only one alive: “Everything is so emp- “freedom” and “reflection” (Habermas have been five, maybe six” (Atwood ty. Water, sand, sky, trees, fragments 2002, 25). The subjective freedom of 2003, 15). Remember the bonfire, of past time. Nobody to hear the individual permeates modern Snowman? Remember that once up- him” (Atwood 2003, 11). Until the culture and gains full expression, on a time you were called Jimmy? very last minute the narrative un- according to Hegel, in romantic art That once you had a mother and a folds as a “world without us” experi- due to its absolute interiority. Sub- father and then a stepmother and a ence, as Snowman, the last man alive jectivity, however, is not restricted to friend and lovers, so many lovers? after a virus destroys mankind, tries the arts and, as a principle, organizes Remember when it was? “Several to survive by becoming a scavenger religious life, the State, and society as years passed. They must have passed, as he looks for and holds on to the a whole. thinks Snowman” (Atwood 2003, 59). last remnants of human experience. Certain historical events were, At this zero hour, this empty space At the last minute, however, Snow- nonetheless, crucial to the establish- Snowman seems to inhabit, his expe- man learns he is not alone; there are ment of subjectivity, namely: the rience of time is reduced to “must others, human beings, just like him, Reformation, the Enlightenment and haves.” He must have been six, sever- human beings still driven by the im- the French Revolution. The Refor- al years must have passed, but who agination Crake tried to destroy. The mation led to the reflectiveness of can be sure of when it all happened? “world without us” narrative is about the faith, inasmuch as tradition lost “There are a lot of blank spaces in his to become “us without a world” when its authority to the sovereignty of the stub of a brain, where memory used it comes to an end: Time to go, individual. The Declaration of the to be” (Atwood 2003, 4). Snowman announces. Time to go Rights of Man and Citizen and the

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Napoleonic Code, by focusing on the Throughout the seventeenth a better future. Its benefits, protec- freedom of the will as the substantial century persists the return of an tion against sexually transmitted dis- foundation of the State, similarly, apocalyptic thought that limits the eases, unlimited supply of libido, and made the historical right lose its im- interest in the present. The present a prolonged youth, would be its sell- portance—as rights and ethics were becomes a moment of preparation ing points; what would not be adver- no longer imposed from the outside, and waiting for a future that will be tised, however, were its birth control as God’s commandments, but found- the result of a divine intervention. effects. Crake’s interest does not re- ed on man’s will. Human action plays no role in it. On- side in its benefits, though. The bene- The expression “subjectivity” ly in the second half of the eight- fits would only attract the buyers, could have four different connota- eenth century would this perception guarantee that it would reach a larger tions, Habermas goes on: individual- of time and history gradually give number of the population by appeal- ism—infinitely particular singularity; way to a new concept of Modernity ing to the so-called human nature: the right to criticism—that which is (Kumar 1997, 91). In order for the “The tide of human desire, the desire acknowledged by everyone should idea of Modernity to be fully devel- for more and for better, would over- prove itself legitimate; autonomy of oped, there was the need to exorcize whelm them. It would take control action —the possibility of answering the apocalyptic view of the world, a and drive events, as it had in every for what we do; idealist philosophy— condition that was fulfilled through large change throughout histo- philosophy should ascertain that it only the secularization of Christian ry” (Atwood 2003, 292). “More and knows what it is (Habermas 2002, time in the eighteenth century. Mo- better,” Crake says, is the guiding 121). Modernity, therefore, by break- dernity was no longer a degenerate force behind the impulse for new- ing away from the pre-modern copy of the ancient times; quite the ness, for an improved experience of world’s parameters, by being estab- contrary, it begins to mean an open- sex. The pill would, this way, revolu- lished by means of “freedom” and ing of pathways, a rupture with the tionize human interaction by appeal- “reflection,” entailed a rupture in past, an opening up to a time of un- ing to their need for newness, for time. The term Modernity is not free precedented progress (Kumar 1997, what seems to drive human beings. from controversy, however. 91). The moderns are, thus, those The search for “more and better,” the For Marshall Berman, the histo- who live in a whole new world and same one that had led to the scarcity ry of Modernity has three different should rely on themselves to discover of space-time, would, this time, buy stages. The first one, when people new ways of acting and thinking. The mankind more time, reverse time’s start to experience modern life with- “new” is a value, or “time’s irreversi- irreversible arrow, provide a better out being aware of what has hit ble arrow,” in Latour’s terms (1993, chance for human beings. In the face them, begins in the sixteenth century 10). of the impending death, mankind’s and continues to the end of the The human condition, Crake extinction, Crake attempts to stop eighteenth century. The second stage would counter argue, is the “wish to time. began in 1790, when a sense of living stop time” (Atwood 2003, 292). In the Lara Dodds, in Death and the in a revolutionary time provoked pro- face of death, human beings, as op- ‘Paradice within’ in Paradise Lost and found changes. In its third stage, the posed to other species, will procreate Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, twentieth century, Modernity loses as a last attempt to cheat death, to places Oryx and Crake within a sci- its capacity to make sense of things, live on, to reach for immortality—to ence fiction tradition that responds an era that has lost touch with its stop time as though reversing the to Milton’s Paradise Lost. In At- roots. (Berman 2007, 25-26). arrow that points to the grand finale wood’s novel, Crake’s plan aims at Kumar, however, does not un- of us all: death. Crake’s sentence reversing the myth of the Fall, ac- derstand the seventeenth century as seems at first a simple response to cording to Dodds. The new race of the beginning of Modernity. Except Jimmy’s question: “What pays for all men would inhabit a new Eden, for Descartes, who, in Discourse on this?” (Atwood 2003, 292), but what where the consciousness of death the Method, rejects older modes of follows this ironic, detached, cynical would be inexistent. After eating the thinking in order to establish a new response, is Crake’s disclosure of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of way of thinking based on human rea- BlyssPluss pill, whose justification is good and evil, Adam and Eve become son, developing, this way, a new “we’re running out of space- aware of their mortality. All of a sud- method to search for truth; as a time” (Atwood 2003, 295). There is den, they realize they are ashamed of whole, the accomplishments of the little time, not enough time, before their nude bodies. They are made moderns were related to the idea of the whole species is doomed, hence aware of the corporeal components decadence (Kumar 1997, 89). For pro- “grief in the face of inevitable that make them who they are: bodies gress and growth, mankind had to death” (Atwood 2003, 292). The Blys- that rot, bodies that die. Conversely, pay a price, that is, moral and spiritu- sPluss pill would provide mankind, at the bioengineered race that Crake al decadence. least the remnants, with a chance for envisions has no consciousness of

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death. The physical aspect of death features such as racism, hierarchy, there is no disjunction between sig- still exists, though, since their bod- territoriality, and torments due to nified and signifier, as both point to ies are programmed to die. “The sexuality would be eliminated, and the idea of reflection. Reflection, children of Crake,” however, do not these perfected beings would repop- mirror, speculation—what does the know they will eventually die and ulate the world in their eco-friendly mind do? The mind speculates and, are kept in this state of innocence, way. There is a catch, though, as by doing so, changes the reality of in a bioengineered Eden in a post- Crake warns Jimmy: all the things around. Heaven can be apocalyptic world. Crake wishes to hell and hell can be heaven, as long stop time, then, by reversing man- Watch out for art, Crake used as the mind wishes it to be so. The kind’s state to that before the con- to say. As soon as they start possibilities are endless, warns sciousness of death, before mankind doing art, we’re in trouble. Sym- Raphael. Without limits, bounda- was determined by the flux of time: bolic thinking of any kind ries, limitations, the roaving has no “To be subject to death, as Adam would signal downfall, in end. Men can imagine, Crake would and Eve are following the Fall, is to Crake’s view. Next they’d be go on, that there is a life after death, be subject to the gap between the inventing idols, and funerals, that there is a soul, that the soul duration of one’s life and the shape and grave goods, and the after- leaves the body when we die, that of time. It is in this sense that hu- life, and sin, and Linear B, and our soul lives on in another dimen- man history can be said to begin kings, and then slavery and sion, that poetry could reach im- with the Fall [. . .]” (Dodds 2015, war. (Atwood 2003, 361) mortality, that there is a God and 128). Stopping time, in Crake’s there is a Nature: “I don’t believe in terms, could have at least two mean- Crake’s concerns seem to reso- Nature either,” said Crake. “Or not ings. Firstly, it could mean the illu- nate with that of Raphael’s in Mil- with a capital N” (Atwood 2003, sion of immortality. Not knowing ton’s Paradise Lost. “But apte the 260). What does it mean to believe about the existence of death means Mind or Fancie is to roave / Un- in nature with n as opposed to na- not suffering in anticipation, which checkt, and of her roaving is no ture with N? What changes when would result in not acknowledging end” (Milton 1952, 236), Raphael you think of Nature as a subject or the passing of time. Secondly, it warns Adam. Beware of the imagina- as an object? could prolong the existence of this tion; soon enough you will be think- It means that for Crake the newly created race. Fewer individu- ing of worlds invisible; you will be concept of Nature had been sur- als who were more adaptable to the imagining things remote from your passed, that we would be living in a climate change and the hazards daily life; soon enough you will be post-nature world. Christophe posed by an altered environment transgressing, I ask, is that so? Curi- Bonneuil, in The Geological Turn: would probably pose fewer threats ously, Lucifer, right after being ex- Narratives of the Anthropocene, un- to the environment, guaranteeing pelled from Heaven for not abiding derstands that the term post-nature both the permanence of the species by a decree that, logically, offended may have different meanings. Mo- and the world. Stopping the time, the principles by which all the an- dernity’s discourse has always been however, would be possible only by gels had lived until then—equality that of human race freeing itself modifying the “human nature” and freedom—, realizes that no from natural determinism. Reflec- through the stages of his plan. First matter where he is, Heaven or Hell, tion (consciousness) enabled man- the pills, as Crake points out, “The one thing remains inalterable: “A kind to gain more and more free- BlyssPluss Pill was designed to take mind not to be chang'd by Place or dom with the passing of time. Pro- a set of givens, namely the nature of Time” (Milton 1952, 99). His re- gress was hence the combination of human nature, and steer these giv- sistance, therefore, against a tyran- reflection and freedom. More con- ens in a more beneficial direction nical decree is his own mind. Much sciousness meant more freedom and than the ones hitherto tak- better to be free in Hell than to subjective freedom; according to en” (Atwood 2003, 293). The pill that serve in Heaven since: “[t]he mind is Hegel, it permeated the modern would end up killing basically all its own place, and in itself / Can times. The separation between cul- human race, except for a couple of make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of ture and nature is, nonetheless, individuals, would do so by Heaven" (Milton 1952, 99). “A Heav- questioned whenever the concept of “manipulating” the so-called nature, en of Hell, a Hell of Heaven,” says the Anthropocene is brought into by making nature work in favor of a Lucifer, highlighting, this way, the discussion. Conceiving the entire previously designed plan. After mas- mind’s reflective power. The reflec- species as a geological force that sive extinction, a newly improved tion is made visible by means of an altered the Earth means that both race would take over. The Paradice inversion of the word order. The realms—human and planetary—are Project is its name. By altering the physical (visible) presentation of the more enmeshed that previously ancient primate brain, destructive verse matches its content meaning; thought. What is more, the different

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temporalities—planetary and hu- good Anthropocene. Jimmy’s life, in tered environment. Climate change is, man—are not separated, after all. Cli- the compounds, in Martha Graham, is then, a concern in the novel. How mate change, the acidification of the surrounded by technology, bioengi- does one live in an altered world, the oceans, earthquakes and tsunamis, neered foods and even pets; a life be- novel asks itself. For which humans the scarcity of “space-time,” as Crake hind the walls of the compounds do climate change and environmental mentions, play a role in human histo- where everything is orderly and con- disasters beg? How can anyone guar- ry. There is no human history without trolled, where surveillance is the antee the permanence of the human its natural counterpart. Nature is not norm and people cannot come and go in this post-nature epoch? The novel a backdrop to human history, then, as they wish. Living in the compounds is, therefore, about human agency in since nature and culture were never is similar to living in a bubble, artifi- the face of environmental collapse: really separated. The so-called Great cially protected from the harsh envi- human stewardship, living in the Divide was nothing but a fallacy, in ronmental change all around. No good Anthropocene. When the first Latour’s terms, as we have never been wonder do climate change and catas- attempt seems to fail, when there is modern. Nature with a capital N is trophes take the form of as a matter of still scarcity of “space-time” in spite of just a romantic construct, Crake fact comments, almost as footnotes, it all, Crake puts his plan into action: would say. The acceptance of this post rushed descriptions that seem dislo- a new race, a perfected race, a bioen- -nature idea would, on the one hand, cated from the main action: gineered race. Crake wishes to stop instill humility in our dealings with time, to restart the world, to go back the planet, since the human excep- Still, as time went on and the to the basics. tionalism paradigm would be discred- coastal aquifers turned salty and Climate change is beyond the ited; on the other hand, it would lead the northern permafrost melted gates of the compounds. In these to what is called “the good Anthropo- and the vast tundra bubbled with walled spaces, where science and cene”: methane, and the drought in the money are combined, any sea level midcontinental plains regions alteration, scarcity of meat, animal [T]here will no longer be an en- went on and on, and the Asian extinction and increase in the global vironment that is external (read: steppes turned to sand dunes, temperature are being mitigated by hostile) to humankind. Not so and meat became harder to new biotechnologies and technologies much because man will be trans- come by, some people had their that allow for comfortable living spac- figured by technology, as Singu- doubts. (Atwood 2003, 24) es. Climate change is, as a reality, al- laritarians dream, but because most surpassed, a thing in the past, the old Nature will be recodified According to Adam Trexler, climate being brought up when the past is (or rather re-axiomatized) by the change evoked: “[. . .] like the beach house capitalist machine as merely a her family had owned when she was matter of managing resources, of is little more than a footnote to little, the one that got washed away environmental governance— the novel’s concerns. Atwood de- with the rest of the beaches and quite everything according to so-called scribes a world where hierar- a few of the eastern coastal cities "best practice." The anthropic chical, corporate capitalism and when the sea-level rose so quickly, dream of the Moderns would biotechnologies allow the unprec- and then there was that huge tidal thus be finally materialized: a edented exploitation of human wave, from the Canary Islands volca- post-environmentalism in which bodies. The world population is no” (Atwood 2003, 63). The com- man will find himself contextual- decimated by a virus engineered pounds are, thus, a post-nature, post- ized and sustained only by him- in the center of the corporate ma- climate change world. The com- self, surrounded by the immense chine, and a new race of posthu- pounds are as well, not only a reality, accumulation of commodities, mans is positioned to live more spaces of status and power, but also energized by his shiny new and sustainably. (Trexler 2015, 196) the great metaphor for a novel ob- super-safe nuclear centrals (with sessed with boundaries, walls, limits, cold-fusion reactors, if possible), Climate change is not a concern and binaries. and relaxed by large and pleasant in the novel. It is, though, the context ecological leisure areas, populat- in which new technologies emerge. It The Compounds encapsulate corpo- ed of course by a carefully curat- is the context that propels more and rate “yes” culture in a spatial meta- ed, genetically enhanced flora. more scientific advances. The search phor of bringing together into one (Danowski and Viveiros de Cas- for “more and better” that endowed place all those who have “opted in,” tro 2017, 49) mankind with geological agency con- who have internalized the goals, tinues to be the impulse behind the truth, and ethics of the company as Oryx and Crake’s two main story- walls of the compounds. Science re- their own, and excluding or expel- lines, Snowman’s present and past, sponds to environmental change and ling everything that is threatening to take place in different moments of the the new demands imposed by an al- this homeostasis. (Crooke 2006,

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69) of knowledge: “His clothes were dark words may only exist in his mind. They Since the beginning of the novel in tone, devoid of logos and visuals are the remnants of a past type of liv- we are told that there are two categories and written commentary—a no-name ing, of a past type of human—rare of people: numbers or word people. look.” (Atwood 2003, 72) Even words, old words, like himself, a rare Crake fits the numbers person profile, through his choice of clothes, Crake human being so different from the whereas Jimmy falls under the word displays his lack of affinity with words. perfected beauty of “the children of person category. The duality perme- Crake’s “laconic” look may be read as a Crake.” When he is gone, human life ates the novel, being recurrently metaphor for his behavior toward the as it is, as well as human language, brought up, and helps understand world. Clothes are supposed to be may disappear forever. Crake’s perfect- both characters’ successes and failures. clothes and nothing more and should ed human beings still use language to Their scientific or rhetoric-linguistic serve the purpose of covering his body. communicate but do not know malice, abilities are key factors determining Everything exist for a reason, accord- “but these people didn’t go in for fancy not only the colleges they attend and ing to Crake: “Crake is a biological de- language: they hadn’t been taught eva- the job offers they receive but also terminist, believing also in a logical sion, euphemism, lily-gilding. In where they live. In a techno-scientific biology, a biologic of sense. Art, for speech they were plain and society, where nature has been sur- instance, exists for a purely biological blunt” (Atwood 2003, 348). Their use passed and climate change is in a once function” (Crooke 2006, 77). Art, as of language was much more practical, -upon-a-time framework, being sci- well as words, serves a purpose and daily, and literal. Why would they ence-oriented, or a numbers person, in that is all. need to resort to a concept such as Atwood’s words, is really profitable. Even though Jimmy is the classic serendipity, so far removed from their Since the compounds are science- example of a word person, both friends daily concerns, so distant from their driven spaces, the best scientists have are much more alike than expected. new reality? Snowman’s language re- the best paying jobs and live in the Being a word person or a numbers per- fers to a long gone type of experience: best compounds. The search for son does not mean being complete “I used to be erudite,” he says out loud. “more and better” leads to different opposites, it means, nonetheless, occu- Erudite. A hopeless word. What are all house moves and determines how con- pying different walled spaces: “There those things he once thought he knew, tingent relationships are: “Kids came had been something willed about it and where have they gone? (Atwood and went, desks filled and emptied, though, his ignorance. Or not willed, 2003, 148). Outside the compounds, friendship was always contin- exactly: structured. He’d grown up in however, beyond the walled world, the gent” (Atwood 2003, 71). Underlying all walled spaces, and then he had be- walled experiences, the closed-in this scientific talk, however, is the true come one. He had shut things world of well-established knowledge, catalyst of societal changes: money. out.” (Atwood 2003, 184) Jimmy shuts beyond the sovereignty of the subject, Scientific and research interests things out, as well as Crake does, as what was previously known does not do not exist in themselves, though. well as the compounds do. There are suffice to account for this new world. The novel does not present a science different levels, therefore, of shutting Words fade, lose their solidity, and for science’s sake tale; quite the con- things out, in the novel. As mentioned become, all of a sudden, insufficient; trary, scientific interests are circum- before, through the characters, the all of a sudden, wisdom is turned to stantial, more based on demands than spaces, lines, stories, the novel unfolds folly, as Raphael imagined it would. investigative nature. Science is just a its obsession with boundaries, limits, Once the boundary is transgressed, commodity, a pretty lucrative one, I limitations. “Watch out for art,” Crake knowledge, words, concepts become must add. says, establishing another boundary slippery, contingent, empty. The split between numbers peo- for his post-humans, “the children of Another dimension to Snowman’s ple and word people, or in broad Crake”. But why art, Crake, I ask? concerns exists, however. After the terms, between science and the hu- Throughout the novel, Snowman world surrounding him changes, he manities, can be understood as Ste- struggles with language. There is a tries to hold on to what is still familiar, phen Dunning does, as a means to ex- sense that language is slipping away as though trying to compensate for the trapolate the fields division and warn from him, that little by little, he is for- loss of control. He had always been a against its consequences. Oryx and getting words, meanings. “Hang on to word person, someone who found his Crake would, thus, be a cautionary tale the words,” he tells himself. “The odd way around the science-driven world about the dangers of conceiving scien- words, the old words, the rare ones. by using his linguistic skill. Publicity tific knowledge without taking human Valence. Norn. Serendipity. Pibroch. was his way around. Publicity, none- concerns into consideration. The hu- Lubricious. When they’re gone out of theless, entails a specific relationship man concerns should mediate scien- his head, these words, they’ll be gone, to the words: “Reading a poem intro- tific knowledge, should put the brakes everywhere, forever. As though they duces some wiggle room between ide- on the ambition for “more and better” had never been” (Atwood 2003, 68). as and ways of having them. Propagan- as the ambition for more money. Why the old words, Snowman? da closes this space down” (Morton Crake’s character embodies the Since Snowman believes he is to 2018, 30). The words would hence be at clear split between the different fields be the last of his kind alive, some Jimmy’s disposal. Jimmy’s attitude,

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reaching out and grabbing the words, all—the human one” (Morton 2018, making them mean what he wanted 22). The human scale continues to He is a “subject” in our contem- them to, mastering the words, resem- rule it all until the scarcity of “space- porary theoretical sense (the bles Crake’s attitude toward the time” is such that denial is not a pos- “humanist subject”), and certain- world. Numbers people or word peo- sibility anymore. Space and time, two ly his troubled “I” is prominent ple seem much more alike than ex- a priori conditions of human sensibil- in the poem. But he is a “subject” pected. As Timothy Morton warns us, ity prove themselves to be condi- also in the more literal, root “It’s not what you think but how you tioned after all. “This is one of the sense of the term (sub iectus, think that starts World War ways, and not the least important, in thrown under): he discovers at III” (Morton 2018, 33). It’s not what which it can be said that our world the moment of his rebellion just you think—scientific or human con- has ceased to be Kantian” (Danowski what it means to be subject to cerns—but how you think. In Oryx and Viveiros De Castro 2017, 9). Men God. Subjection is the origin of and Crake, science serves a purpose as were proven unable to rise above the his subjectivity. (Forsyth 2003, well as the words do. It is thus the phenomenal order or causality. They 150) apotheosis of the subject-object dual- were not the lawgivers of nature, after ism, the demise of a world where any- all, but phenomenologically bound to His search for freedom, for the thing that could was objectified— and conditioned by the human and unconditioned, is the origin of his commodification, plain and simple. non-human world: “You aren’t outside subjectivity. So, the new race, “the When the walls between the perfect, the biosphere looking in. You are children of Crake,” could stand a engineered human world and the glued to the biosphere phenomeno- chance only if subjectivity would not world around cracks, when humans logically” (Morton 2018, 41). The emerge—if the principle behind the lose control over a world that can no boundaries were, this way, not idea of Modernity, as Hegel states, did longer be programmed, predicted, enough. They are more porous than not guide the progress of mankind? words falter. Is the experience unim- anticipated. Crake, nevertheless, in- The problem is not what you think, aginable? Does it surpass our too hu- stead of accepting the porosity of the Timothy Morton would argue, but man abilities to conceive the world? boundaries, instead of acknowledging how you think. Was wisdom turned to folly? the non-human world, decides to put Snowman learns that the Crak- Just the human wish to stop an end to human life as it was, to go ers, in spite of Crake’s efforts to elimi- time, as Crake warns us, but whose back to the beginning, but with a nate any symbolic thinking, the G- time, I ask? Crake’s Paradice Project twist. This clean slate is, however, still spot in the brain as he calls, are curi- and his attempt to deny the post- conditioned: “Watch out for art,” ous about their origins, are eager to humans, the newly created race, the Crake used to say. “As soon as they create narratives: “They’re up to consciousness of death is an almost start doing art, we’re in trouble. Sym- something though, something Crake too literal way to reverse the fall of bolic thinking of any kind would signal didn’t anticipate: they’re conversing men. The newly created race would be downfall, in Crake’s view” (Atwood 2003, with the invisible, they’re developing kept in this eternal innocence, leading 361). reverence” (Atwood 2003, 157); sing- a more eco-friendly mode of living. It Art determined whether the pro- ing and dreaming were not the only is also an attempt to start again with a ject was successful or a failure. Imagi- things humans were hard-wired for. clean slate. nation’s rove has no end, Raphael Symbolic thinking seems to be part of “Everything emits time, not just warned Adam it knows no bounda- human nature. Human’s demise humans” (Morton 2018, 77). So whose ries, we can infer. Imagination brings again? Zero-hour, Snowman lets us time should be stopped, I ask? All visibility to the invisible realm; it es- know. experience of time, Crake would say. tablishes connections that are not What if subjectivity allowed for a In no circumstances do non-humans apparent. Raphael equates fancy with new experience, one in which walled enter into Crake’s equation. Their the mind, as though both were one spaces were not a reality and shutting temporalities are never acknowl- and the same, as though they shared things out were not the norm? What edged. Even when environmental dis- similar characteristics. Fancy’s rove if we did not let anything go, anything asters hit the globe, modifying life as had no end, as well as the mind’s. pass, as Isabelle Stengers suggests we it was, the non-human world contin- Lucifer would agree: the mind is its do (Stengers 2015, 143)? What if we ues to be shut out. Mankind finds a own place; it had the power to alter took full responsibility for the reality way to banish the non-humans, to space and time; it had the power to be of our abstractions? What if we loved deny their temporalities, to stop the a place of resistance. For Lucifer, the our monsters? time. The compounds, therefore, are a mind became a symbol of freedom. “Watch out for art,” Crake says. means to avoid any ecological aware- How does he free himself from the There is no denying that symbolic, ness: “Ecological awareness is shaking divine decree and all its constraints? abstract thinking allows for appropri- our faith in the anthropocentric idea Through his mind. Lucifer became a ation, for eliminating any other scale that there is one scale to rule them subject then: rather than the human one; yet isn’t

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there another side to it? The aesthetic ———. 2009. “The Climate of History: Latour, Bruno. 1993. We Have Never experience entails solidarity to what is Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry, 35 Been Modern. Cambridge: Har- non-human, Timothy Morton would (2): 197-222. doi: 10.1086/596640. vard University Press. reply, caring for something that is not Clark. Timothy. 2015. Ecocriticism on Milton, John. 1952. Paradise Lost. another human being. What is more, Edge: The Anthropocene as a Chicago: Encyclopaedia beauty is indifferent to the subject. Threshold Concept. New York: Britannica. The aesthetic experience might just as Bloomsbury Academic. well, due to its weirdness (Morton Morton, Timothy. 2018. Being Ecologi- 2018, 65), provide us with the hint of Crooke, Grayson. 2006. “Technics and cal. Cambridge: The MIT Press. the uncanny necessary to overthrow the Human at Zero-hour: ———. 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy the sovereignty of the subject: “this Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and and Ecology after the End of the feeling of openness, this uncanny sen- Crake.” Studies in Canadian World. Minneapolis: University sation of finding ourselves somewhere Literature, 31 (2): 63-83. of Minnesota Press. and not recognizing it, is exactly a Danowski, Déborah, and Viveiros de glimpse of living less definitively, in a Scranton, Roy. 2015. Learning to Die in Castro, Eduardo. 2017. Há world comprised almost entirely not the Anthropocene. San Francisco: mundos por vir? Ensaio sobre os of ourselves” (Morton 2018, 26). Living City Lights Books. medos e os fins. 2nd ed. less definitively might be the key, Florianópolis: Instituto Stengers, Isabelle. 2015. “Accepting then? Socioambiental. the Reality of Gaia: A Fundamen- “It’s Zero-hour,” Snowman says. tal Shift?” In: The Anthropocene It’s time to go. ———. 2017. The Ends of the World. and the Environmental Global Cambridge: Polity Press. Crisis: Rethinking Modernity in a References Dodds, Lara. 2015. “Death and the New Epoch. London: Routledge,: ‘Paradice within’ in Paradise Lost 134-144. Atwood, Margaret. 2003. Oryx and and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books. Trexler, Adam. 2015. Anthropocene Crake.” Milton Studies 56: 115-150. Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Berman, Marshall. 2007. Tudo que é Forsyth, Neil. 2003. The Satanic Epic. Climate Change. Charlottesville: sólido desmancha no ar. São Princeton: Princeton University University of Virginia Press. Paulo: Companhia das letras. Press. Habermas, Jürgen. 2002. O Discurso Bonneuil, Christophe. 2015. “The Geo- Filosófico da Modernidade. São logical Turn: Narratives of the Paulo: Martins Fontes. Anthropocene.” In The Anthropo- cene and the Environmental Glob- Hamilton, Clive. 2017. Defiant Earth: al Crisis: Rethinking Modernity in the Fate of Humans in the An- a New Epoch. London: thropocene. Sydney: Allen and Routledge: 15-31. Unwin. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2012. Kumar, Krishan. 1997. Da Sociedade “Postcolonial Studies and the Pós-industrial à Pós-moderna: Challenge of Climate Change.” Novas Teorias Sobre o Mundo New Literary History, 41 (1): 1-18. Contemporâneo. Rio de Janeiro: doi: 10.1353/nlh.2012.0007. Jorge Zahar (ed.).

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O desejo de parar o tempo: Oryx e Crake de Margaret Atwood

Tatiana Massuno Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Massuno, Tatiana de Freitas. 2019. “O desejo de parar o tempo: Oryx e Crake de Margaret Atwood.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 21-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4171. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4171

Resumo: E se os humanos continuarem em sua busca por “mais e melhor”? E se continuarmos vivendo dentro de nossos limites antropocêntricos? E se ignorarmos a pergunta de em que ponto muito é muito? A “ficção especulativa” de Margaret Atwood não apresenta novos mundos, já que o mundo de Atwood se assemelha ao nosso; seus romances apresentam, no entanto, “e se” realidades. Ao extrapolar tendências, Oryx e Crake retira as questões acima mencionadas do contexto da Modernidade. O romance de Atwood revisita conceitos-chave tais como tempo e subjetividade e faz a progressão parar. No que nosso desejo de parar o tempo, nossa condição humana, pode resultar, no fim das contas? A Modernidade e seus conceitos estão sob escrutínio em um romance no qual a mudança climática e a natureza parecem ter sido superadas. O presente artigo busca, assim, investigar o que essa estória de um “nós sem um mundo” que se torna numa estória de um “mundo sem nós” pode nos dizer sobre as buscas da Modernidade e suas repercussões: ou seja, a consciência ecológica e o bom Antropoceno.

Hora zero, Snowman/Jimmy nos da fogueira, Snowman? Lembra que duas narrativas, o presente e passado alerta logo no início de Oryx e Crake você já se chamou Jimmy? Que você de Snowman, qualquer senso de de Margaret Atwood. Ao olhar seu já teve uma mãe e um pai e depois progressão é negado. O romance faz relógio, por hábito, nos diz, ele é uma madrasta e um amigo e uma viagem redonda quando termina tomado por um sentimento de amantes, tantas amantes? Lembra com a mesma ideia que lhe deu desespero: “A blank face is what it quando foi? “Several years passed. início: “Zero hour, Snowman thinks. shows him: zero hour. It causes him a They must have passed, thinks Time to go” (Atwood 2003, 372). Hora jolt of terror to run through him, this Snowman” (Atwood 2003, 59). Nessa zero, mais uma vez. Mas é um início absence of official time. Nobody hora, nesse espaço vazio que ou um final? Início e final? Um e o nowhere knows what time it Snowman parece habitar, sua mesmo? is” (Atwood 2003, 3). Hora zero, como experiência do tempo é reduzida ao Snowman’s broken watch iden- se o tempo estivesse suspenso, como se “deve ter sido.” Ele deve ter tido seis tifies the negation of time as a toda a progressão houvesse parado e anos, muitos anos devem ter passado, consequence of catastrophe in Snowman, antigo Jimmy, estivesse mas quem pode ter certeza de two different senses: first, the preso nesse limbo, preso entre um quando tudo aconteceu? “There are a ending of the mechanical and passado que não pode retomar, um lot of blank spaces in his stub of a social commodification of expe- passado que continuasse a escorregar brain, where memory used to rience through the imposition of por entre os dedos e um presente sem be” (Atwood 2003, 4). clock time and, second, an end- futuro: “He doesn’t know which is O presente de Snowman é ing to history through the vio- worse, a past he can’t regain or a constantemente interrompido pela lent disruption of human present that will destroy him if he looks repetição do seu passado, flashbacks memory and civilization. at it too clearly. Then there’s the future. que ele não consegue desligar, por (Dodds 2015, 121) Sheer vertigo” (Atwood 2003, 147). vozes que aparecem do nada, por Quando aconteceu mesmo, Snowman frases de imãs de geladeira, por Não há como negar o sentimento se pergunta. “He must have been five, palavras fora de contexto, e apesar de de fim ao longo do romance, a maybe six” (Atwood 2003, 15). Lembra o leitor ser apresentado a pelo menos experiência pós-apocalíptica do último

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homem que Snowman personifica. deveriam, assim, ser extraídos de si. “reflexão,” implicaria uma ruptura no Até o último momento, Snowman Seria, dessa forma, certificada por tempo. O termo Modernidade não é acredita ser o único homem vivo: suas próprias normas, não mais aceito sem controvérsias, entretanto. “Everything is so empty. Water, devendo, assim, à visão de mundo Para Marshall Berman a sand, sky, trees, fragments of past pré-moderna. A autocertificação da história da Modernidade possuiria time. Nobody to hear him” (Atwood Modernidade seria tomada por três estágios distintos. O primeiro, 2003, 11). Até o último momento a Hegel enquanto norteadora de todas quando as pessoas começam a narrativa se desenvolve enquanto as suas preocupações filosóficas. Seu experimentar a vida moderna sem uma experiência de um “mundo sem princípio central, a subjetividade, ter ainda consciência do que as nós,” quando Snowman, o último garantiria a superioridade moderna atingiu, iria do século dezesseis ao homem vivo após um vírus destruir (quando comparada ao mundo pré- dezessete. O segundo estágio a humanidade, tenta sobreviver ao moderno) e seria iluminada pelas começariam em 1790, quando há a se tornar um catador de restos, ideias de “liberdade” e sensação de se viver em uma época procurando e se atendo aos últimos “reflexão” (Habermas 2002, 25). A revolucionária que provoca resquícios da experiência humana. liberdade subjetiva do sujeito mudanças profundas. No seu No último momento, entretanto, permeia a cultura moderna e ganha terceiro estágio, o século vinte, a Snowman descobre que não está total expressão, de acordo com Modernidade perde a capacidade de sozinho, que há outros, seres Hegel, na arte romântica devido a dar sentido às coisas, uma época humanos, tais como ele, humanos sua absoluta interioridade. A moderna que perdeu o contato com ainda movidos pela imaginação que subjetividade, no entanto, não estaria suas raízes (Berman 2007, 25-26). Crake tentou destruir. A narrativa de restrita às artes e, enquanto princípio, Kumar, por outro lado, não entende um “mundo sem nós” está prestes a organizaria a vida religiosa, o estado e ser o século dezessete o início da se transformar em “nós sem um a sociedade como um todo. Modernidade. Exceto por Descartes mundo” quando termina: Hora de ir, Certos eventos históricos que, no Discurso sobre o Método, Snowman anuncia. Hora de ir para foram, entretanto, cruciais para o rejeita os modos antigos de onde? A falta de fechamento, estabelecimento da subjetividade, a pensamento para estabelecer um finalização, apenas adiciona outra saber: a Reforma, o Iluminismo e a novo modo baseada na razão camada às ambiguidades do Revolução Francesa. A Reforma humana, desenvolvendo, assim, um romance como todo. Fim ou início, levou à refletividade da fé, já que a novo método para buscar a verdade; pergunto? tradição perdera sua autoridade para de um modo geral, as conquistas A recuperação da expressão a soberania do individual. A modernas eram relacionadas à ideia hora zero no final, a insistência de Declaração dos direitos do Homem e de decadência (Kumar 1997, 89). Atwood na imobilidade do tempo do Cidadão e o Código Napoleônico, Pelo progresso e crescimento, a cronológico, apesar das diferentes ao focarem na liberdade da vontade humanidade tinha que pagar um estórias do romance, aponta a uma como o fundamento substancial do preço: a decadência moral e problemática a ser perseguida: a Estado, similarmente, fizeram o espiritual. relevância do tempo ou do direito histórico perder seu valor— Ao longo do século dezessete enquadramento do tempo para os uma vez que direitos e ética não há o retorno de um pensamento diferentes níveis de experiência em seriam mais impostos de fora, apocalíptico que limitava o interesse Oryx e Crake. Ademais, como o enquanto mandamentos de Deus, no presente. O presente se torna um tempo é um dos princípios mas fundamentados na vontade momento de preparação e espera norteadores de nossa experiência humana. por um futuro que era resultado da moderna, nossa nova experiência A expressão subjetividade intervenção divina. A ação humana moderna, o romance como um todo, poderia ter quatro conotações, tinha pouca relevância. Somente na enquanto “ficção especulativa”, Habermas continua: individualismo segunda metade do século dezoito a coloca a Modernidade sob —singularidade infinitamente par- percepção do tempo e da história escrutínio. ticular; o direito à crítica—aquilo que é gradualmente cederia a um novo Hegel foi, de acordo com reconhecido por todos deve se mostrar conceito de Modernidade (Kumar Habermas, o filósofo que inaugurou legítimo; autonomia da ação—a 1997, 91). Para que a ideia de o discurso da Modernidade. Hegel possibilidade de responder pelo que Modernidade pudesse se apontou para a necessidade de fazemos; filosofia idealista—a filosofia desenvolver completamente havia a autocertificação da Modernidade, deveria assegurar de que sabe o que é necessidade de exorcizar a visão uma vez que os modelos antigos não (Habermas 2002, 121). A Modernidade, apocalíptica do mundo, condição seriam mais capazes de entender o dessa maneira, ao quebrar com os preenchida somente através da que a Modernidade representaria. parâmetros pré-modernos, ao ser secularização do tempo cristão no Os seus critérios (da Modernidade) estabelecida a partir da “liberdade” e da século dezoito. A Modernidade não

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era mais cópia degenerada dos the desire for more and for better, anterior à consciência da morte, tempos antigos, muito pelo would overwhelm them. It would antes de a humanidade ser contrário, começa a significar uma take control and drive events, as it determinada pelo fluxo do tempo: abertura de caminhos, ruptura com had in every large change “To be subject to death, as Adam o passado, uma abertura a um tempo throughout history” (Atwood 2003, and Eve are following the Fall, is to de progresso sem precedentes 292). “Mais e melhor,” diz Crake, a be subject to the gap between the (Kumar 1997, 91). Os modernos são, força por trás do impulso por duration of one’s life and the shape dessa forma, aqueles que vivem em novidade, por uma experiência of time. It is in this sense that um novo mundo e deveriam confiar sexual aprimorada. A pílula iria, human history can be said to begin em si próprios para descobrir novos dessa maneira, revolucionar as with the Fall (. . .)” (Dodds 2015, 128). modos de agir e pensar. O novo interações humanas ao apelar à Parar o tempo, nos termos de Crake, enquanto valor, ou “time’s necessidade por novidade, àquilo poderia ter dois sentidos. irreversible arrow” (Latour 1993, 10), que parece impulsionar os seres Primeiramente, poderia significar a nos termos de Latour. humanos. A busca por “mais e ilusão da imortalidade. Não ter Mas a condição humana, Crake melhor,” a mesma que havia levado à consciência da morte implicaria não contra-argumentaria é o “wish to escassez de espaço-tempo, faria, sofrer em antecipação, o que poderia stop time” (Atwood 2003, 292). agora, a humanidade ganhar tempo, resultar na não percepção da Frente à morte, os seres humanos, ao reverter a seta irreversível do passagem do tempo. Em segundo ao contrário de outras espécies, irão tempo, garantindo uma melhor lugar, poderia prolongar a existência procriar, como última tentativa de chance aos humanos. Face à dessa nova raça recém-criada. driblar a morte, de continuar a viver, iminente morte, a extinção humana, Menos indivíduos mais adaptáveis à de buscar a imortalidade. Parar o Crake tenta parar o tempo. mudança climática e aos perigos de tempo, como se pudesse reverter a Lara Dodds, em “Death and the um meio-ambiente alterado seta que aponta para o grande final ‘Paradice within’ in Paradise Lost provavelmente causariam menos de todos nós: a morte. A frase de and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and danos ao meio-ambiente, garantindo Crake parece a princípio uma Crake,” posiciona Oryx e Crake tanto a permanência da espécie e a resposta à pergunta de Jimmy: “what dentro de uma tradição da ficção do mundo. Parar o tempo, contudo, pays for all this?” (Atwood 2003, científica que responde ao Paraíso somente seria possível ao modificar 292) mas o que segue à resposta Perdido de Milton. No romance de a “natureza humana” através dos cínica, irônica, desapegada é a Atwood, o plano de Crake busca estágios do seu plano. Primeiro as apresentação da pílula BlyssPluss, reverter o mito da queda, conforme pílulas como Crake explica, “The cuja justificação residiria no fato de Dodds. A nova raça de homens BlyssPluss Pill was designed to take a “we’re running out of space- habitaria um novo éden, onde a set of givens, namely the nature of time” (Atwood 2003, 295). Há pouco consciência da morte seria human nature, and steer these tempo, não há tempo suficiente, inexistente. Após comer o fruto da givens in a more beneficial direction antes que toda a espécie esteja árvore do conhecimento do bem e than the ones hitherto condenada, “Grief in the face of do mal, Adão e Eva ganham taken” (Atwood 2003, 293). A pílula inevitable death” (Atwood 2003, consciência de sua mortalidade. que mataria basicamente toda a raça 292). A pílula BlyssPluss daria à Repentinamente, percebem que humana, exceto por alguns humanidade, aos remanescentes sentem vergonha de seus corpos indivíduos, assim o faria ao pelo menos, a chance de um futuro nus. Tornam-se conscientes dos “manipular” a assim chamada melhor. Seus benefícios, proteção componentes corpóreos que fazem o natureza, ao fazer a natureza contra doenças sexualmente que são – corpos que apodrecem, trabalhar a favor de um plano transmissíveis, fornecimento corpos que morrem. Conversamente, previamente concebido. E após a ilimitado de libido e juventude a raça bioconstruída que Crake extinção massiva, uma nova raça prolongada, seriam seus atrativos vislumbra não possui consciência da aprimorada dominaria. Paradice comerciais; seus efeitos morte. O aspecto físico da morte Project era seu nome. Ao alterar o contraceptivos, entretanto, não ainda existe, já que seus corpos são antigo cérebro primata, seriam divulgados. O interesse de programados a morrer. “As crianças características destrutivas tais como Crake não residiria em seus de Crake”, todavia, não sabem que racismo, hierarquia, territorialidade benefícios. Os benefícios apenas vão eventualmente morrer e são e tormentos derivados da atrairiam os compradores, mantidas nesse estado de inocência, sexualidade seriam eliminados e garantiriam que a pílula atingiria em um éden bioconstruído, em um esses seres aperfeiçoados uma parcela maior da população ao mundo pós-apocalíptico. Crake repovoariam o mundo no seu modo apelar à assim chamada natureza deseja parar o tempo, então, ao ecologicamente amigável. Havia um humana: “The tide of human desire, retornar a humanidade ao estado porém, no entanto, Crake alerta

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Jimmy: pode ser Inferno e Inferno, Paraíso natural. A natureza não é mero basta a mente querer. E as cenário para a história humana, uma Watch out for art, Crake used to possibilidades são inúmeras, adverte vez que cultura e natureza nunca say. As soon as they start doing Raphael. Sem limites, fronteiras, estiveram separadas. A assim art, we’re in trouble. Symbolic limitações, o voo não tem fim. Os chamada Grande Divisão não fora thinking of any kind would sig- homens imaginam, Crake nada além de uma falácia, nos termos nal downfall, in Crake’s view. continuaria, que existe uma vida de Latour, uma vez que nunca fomos Next they’d be inventing idols, após a morte, que há uma alma, que modernos. Natureza com N and funerals, and grave goods, a alma deixa o corpo quando maiúsculo fora apenas uma and the afterlife, and sin, and morremos, que nossas almas vivem construção romântica, Crake diria. A Linear B, and kings, and then em outra dimensão, que a poesia aceitação da ideia de pós-natureza se, slavery and war. (Atwood 2003, poderia alcançar a imortalidade, que de um lado, incutiria humildade em 361) há um Deus e uma Natureza: “‘I don’t nosso trato com o planeta, já que o believe in Nature either’, said Crake. paradigma de excepcionalismo As preocupações de Crake estão ‘Or not with a capital N’” (Atwood humano seria desacreditado; por em sintonia com as preocupações de 2003, 260). E o que significaria outro lado, poderia levar ao chamado Raphael em Paraíso Perdido de acreditar em uma natureza com n ao “bom Antropoceno:” Milton. “But apte the Mind or Fancie invés de uma natureza com N? O que is to roave / Uncheckt, and of her muda ao pensar na Natureza [T]here will no longer be an roaving is no end” (Milton 1952, 236), enquanto sujeito ou enquanto environment that is external Raphael alerta Adão. Cuidado com a objeto? (read: hostile) to humankind. imaginação, em breve estará pesando Significa que para Crake o Not so much because man will em mundos invisíveis, imaginando conceito de Natureza havia sido be transfigured by technology, coisas remotas, distantes da vida superado, que estaríamos vivendo em as Singularitarians dream, but diária, em breve estará um mundo pós-natureza. Christophe because the old Nature will be transgredindo, pergunto? É isso? Bonneuil, em The Geological Turn: recodified (or rather re- Curiosamente, Lúcifer, logo após ser Narratives of the Anthropocene, axiomatized) by the capitalist expulso do Paraíso por não entende que o termo pós-natureza machine as merely a matter of concordar com um decreto que pode adquirir diferentes sentidos. O managing resources, of environ- logicamente ofenderia os princípios discurso da Modernidade sempre mental governance—everything pelos quais os anjos haviam vivido atrelou sentido à libertação humana according to so-called "best até então – igualdade e liberdade— do determinismo natural. A reflexão practice." The anthropic dream percebe que não importa onde (consciência) permitiu à humanidade of the Moderns would thus be estivesse, Paraíso ou Inferno, algo se ganhar mais e mais liberdade com o finally materialized: a post- mantém inalterado: “A mind not to passar do tempo. Mais consciência environmentalism in which man be chang'd by Place or Time” (Milton significava mais liberdade e a will find himself contextualized 1952, 99). Sua resistência ao decreto liberdade subjetiva, conforme Hegel, and sustained only by himself, tirânico seria sua própria mente. permearia os tempos modernos. A surrounded by the immense Muito melhor ser livre no Inferno separação entre cultura e natureza é, accumulation of commodities, que servir no Paraíso, já que, “The todavia, questionada quando o energized by his shiny new and mind is its own place, and in itself / conceito de Antropoceno é trazido à super-safe nuclear centrals Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of discussão. Conceber a espécie (with cold-fusion reactors, if Heaven" (Milton 1952, 99) “a Heaven humana enquanto uma força possible), and relaxed by large of Hell, a Hell of Heaven”, diz geológica que altera a Terra significa and pleasant ecological leisure Lúcifer, enfatizando, dessa forma, o que ambos domínios—humano e areas, populated of course by a poder reflexivo da mente. A reflexão planetário—estão mais enredados carefully curated, genetically se torna visível pela inversão das que previamente pensado. Ademais, enhanced flora. (Danowski and palavras. A apresentação física as diferentes temporalidades— Viveiros de Castro 2017, 49) (visível) do verso se alinha ao seu planetária e humana—não estão conteúdo, não havendo disjunção separadas, no fim das contas. A As duas principais estórias de entre significante e significado, uma mudança climática, a acidificação dos Oryx e Crake, o passado e o presente vez que ambos apontam para a ideia oceanos, os terremotos e tsunamis, a de Snowman, acontecem em de reflexão. Reflexão, espelho, escassez de “tempo-espaço” como diferentes momentos do bom especulação. O que a mente faz? A Crake menciona, têm um papel na Antropoceno. A vida de Jimmy, nos mente especula, e ao fazê-lo altera a história humana. Não há história complexos, em Martha Graham, era realidade do seu entorno. Paraíso humana sem o seu contraponto cercada por tecnologia, por comidas

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e até animais de estimação bio- mudança ambiental e às novas who have “opted in,” who have construídos; uma vida atrás dos demandas impostas por um meio internalized the goals, truth, muros dos complexos onde tudo era ambiente alterado. A mudança and ethics of the company as controlado e ordenado, onde a climática é, então, uma questão do their own, and excluding or ex- vigilância era a norma e as pessoas romance. Como viver em mundo pelling everything that is threat- não podiam ir e vir como queriam. alterado, o romance se pergunta? Por ening to this homeostasis. Viver nos complexos era viver em que tipo de humanos a mudança (Crooke 2006, 69) uma bolha, artificialmente protegido climática e os desastres ambientais da dura mudança ambiental em pedem? Como garantir a Desde o início sabemos que há volta. Não é de se admirar que a permanência humana em uma época duas categorias de pessoas: a dos mudança climática e as catástrofes pós-humana? O romance é, então, números e a das palavras. Crake se tomem a forma de comentários um sobre a agência humana face ao enquadra no perfil das pessoas “dos tanto a propósito, quase como notas colapse ambiental: sobre o números”, enquanto Jimmy cai na de rodapé, descrições apressadas que gerenciamento humano, sobre viver categoria “das palavras.” A dualidade parecem deslocadas da ação no bom Antropoceno. E quando a permeia o romance, sendo principal: primeira tentativa parece falhar, recorrentemente mencionada e ajuda quando há ainda escassez de “espaço- a entender os sucessos e fracassos de Still, as time went on and the tempo” apesar de tudo, Crake coloca ambos. Suas habilidades científicas coastal aquifers turned salty and o seu plano em ação: uma nova raça, ou retórico-linguísticas eram fatores the northern permafrost melted uma raça aperfeiçoada, uma raça determinantes não apenas nas and the vast tundra bubbled bioconstruída. Crake quer parar o universidades em que eram aceitos e with methane, and the drought tempo, reiniciá-lo, voltar ao início. nas ofertas de emprego que in the midcontinental plains A mudança climática está para recebiam, como também onde regions went on and on, and the além dos portões dos complexos. viviam. Numa sociedade técnico- Asian steppes turned to sand Nesses espaços murados, onde científica, onde a natureza havia sido dunes, and meat became harder ciência e dinheiro se combinavam, superada e a mudança climática era to come by, some people had qualquer mudança no nível do mar, coisa do passado, ter orientação their doubts. (Atwood 2003, 24) escassez de carne, extinção animal e científica, ou ser uma pessoa “dos aumento na temperatura global eram números”, nas palavras de Atwood, De acordo com Adam Trexler, a mitigados por novas tecnologias e era realmente rentável. Como os mudança climática biotecnologias que forneceriam complexos era espaços movidos pela espaços confortáveis para se viver. A ciência, os melhores cientistas is little more than a footnote to mudança climática estava, enquanto tinham os melhores empregos e the novel’s concerns. Atwood realidade, basicamente superada, viviam nos melhores complexos. A describes a world where hierar- algo do passado, trazida quando o busca por “mais e melhor” levava a chical, corporate capitalism and passado era evocado: “[. . .] like the diferentes mudanças de casa e biotechnologies allow the un- beach house her family had owned determinava quão contingente as precedented exploitation of hu- when she was little, the one that got relações eram: “Kids came and went, man bodies. The world popula- washed away with the rest of the desks filled and emptied, friendship tion is decimated by a virus en- beaches and quite a few of the was always contingent” (Atwood, gineered in the center of the eastern coastal cities when the sea- 2003, 71). Por trás de toda corporate machine, and a new level rose so quickly, and then there cientificidade, no entanto, estava o race of posthumans is posi- was that huge tidal wave, from the grande catalista da mudança social: tioned to live more sustainably. Canary Islands volcano” (Atwood dinheiro. (Trexler 2015, 196) 2003, 63). Os complexos eram, assim, Interesses científicos e de pesquisa o mundo pós-natureza e pós- não existiam em si próprios, entretanto. A mudança climática não é uma mudança climática. Os complexos O romance não apresenta um conto da questão no romance. É, entretanto, o eram também, não somente uma ciência enquanto um fim em si próprio; contexto a partir do qual novas realidade, espaços de status e poder, muito pelo contrário, interesses tecnologias emergem. É o contexto mas também a grande metáfora para científicos eram circunstanciais, mais que impulsiona mais e mais avanços um romance obcecado com baseados na demanda que na natureza científicos. A busca por “mais e fronteiras, muros, limites, binarismos: investigativa. A ciência era apenas melhor” que dotou a humanidade de The Compounds encapsulate uma commodity, e uma bem agência geológica continua a ser o corporate “yes” culture in a spa- lucrativa, é necessário acrescentar. impulso atrás dos muros dos tial metaphor of bringing to- A divisão entre pessoas “dos complexos. A ciência responde à gether into one place all those números” e “das palavras,” ou em

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termos gerais, entre ciência e com a arte, diz Crake, estabelecendo insuficientes; de repente, a sabedoria humanidades, pode ser entendida outro limite para os pós-humanos, “As se transforma em tolice, tal como como Stephen Dunning compreendeu crianças de Crake.” Mas por que a arte, Raphael imaginara. Assim que a enquanto uma forma de extrapolar a Crake, pergunto? fronteira é ultrapassada, o divisão dos campos de estudos e Ao longo do romance, Snowman conhecimento, as palavras, os alertar contra as suas consequências. luta com a linguagem. Há o conceitos, tornam-se escorregadios, Oryx e Crake seria, assim, um conto sentimento de que a linguagem está contingentes, vazios. preventivo sobre os perigos de se escapando de si, de pouco em pouco. Há outra dimensão para as conceber o conhecimento cientifico Ele esquece as palavras, seus sentidos: questões de Snowman. Após o mundo sem levar em consideração as “Hang on to the words,” he tells ao seu redor se alterar, ele tenta ainda preocupações humanas. As questões himself. The odd words, the old words, se ater ao familiar, como se tentasse humanas deveriam mediar o the rare ones. Valence. Norn. compensar a perda de controle. Ele conhecimento científico, deveriam Serendipity. Pibroch. Lubricious. sempre fora uma pessoa “das palavras,” frear a ambição por “mais e melhor.” A When they’re gone out of his head, alguém que achou seu espaço no ambição por mais dinheiro? these words, they’ll be gone, mundo científico através de sua Crake representa a divisão clara everywhere, forever. As if they had habilidade linguística. A publicidade entre os diferentes campos de saber: never been” (Atwood 2003, 68). Mas fora a sua saída. A publicidade, “His clothes were dark in tone, devoid por que as palavras antigas, Snowman? entretanto, implicava uma relação of logos and visuals and written com- Como Snowman acredita ser o específica com as palavras: “Reading a mentary—a no-name look” (Atwood ultimo homem vivo, algumas palavras poem introduces some wiggle room 2003, 72). Até em sua escolha de existem apenas em sua mente. São os between ideas and ways of having roupas Crake revela sua falta de resquícios de um modo de vida them. Propaganda closes this space afinidade com as palavras. O visual passado, de um tipo de humano down” (Morton 2018, 30). As palavras, lacônico de Crake pode ser lido como antigo. Palavras raras, antigas, assim assim, estariam à disposição de Jimmy. uma metáfora para o seu como ele, um raro ser humano, tão A atitude de Jimmy, segurando as comportamento com o mundo. As diferente da beleza aperfeiçoada das palavras, fazendo-as significar o que roupas deveriam ser roupas e nada “crianças de Crake.” Assim que morrer, queria, mandando nelas (nas palavras), mais, deveriam apenas servir para a vida humana como tal desaparecerá assemelha-se à atitude de Crake com cobrir seu corpo. Tudo existia por uma para sempre, e o mesmo se diz da relação ao mundo. Pessoas de números razão, conforme Crake: “Crake is a linguagem. Os humanos aperfeiçoados ou de palavras são mais parecidas que biological determinist, believing also de Crake ainda usam a linguagem para esperado. E conforme Timothy Morton in a logical biology, a biologic of sense. se comunicar mas não conheciam a nos alerta, “It’s not what you think but Art, for instance, exists for a purely malícia: “but these people didn’t go in how you think that starts World War biological function” (Crooke 2006, 77). for fancy language: they hadn’t been III” (Morton 2018, 33). Não o que se A arte servia um propósito, assim taught evasion, euphemism, lily- pensa—questões científicas ou como as palavras, apenas isso. gilding. In speech they were plain and humanas—mas como se pensa. Em Apesar de Jimmy ser o exemplo blunt” (Atwood 2003, 348). Seu uso da Oryx e Crake, a ciência cumpria um clássico de uma pessoa “das palavras,” língua era mais prático, diário, literal. propósito, assim como as palavras. É, ambos amigos era mais parecidos do Por que teriam que recorrer a um então, a apoteose do dualismo sujeito- que era de se esperar. Ser uma pessoa conceito tal como acaso, tão distante objeto, o desaparecimento de um “dos números” ou “das palavras” não de suas preocupações diárias, tão mundo onde tudo que podia era implicava serem opostos, significava, distante de sua nova realidade? A objetivado. Comodificação pura e contudo, ocupar diferentes espaços linguagem de Snowman referia a um simples. E quando os muros entre o murados: “There had been something tipo de experiência passada: “I used to mundo humano perfeitamente willed about it though, his ignorance. be erudite,” he says out loud. Erudite. construído e o mundo em volta racha, Or not willed, exactly: structured. He’d A hopeless word. What are all those quando os humanos perdem o grown up in walled spaces, and then things he once thought he knew, and controle de um mundo que não pode he had become one. He had shut where have they gone? (Atwood 2003, mais ser programado, previsto, as things out” (Atwood 2003, 184). Jimmy 148). Fora dos complexos, entretanto, palavras falham. È a experiência expulsava, calava as coisas, assim além do mundo murado, das inimaginável? Supera as nossas como Crake, ou até mesmo os experiências muradas, do mundo habilidades humanas de compreensão? complexos. Há diferentes níveis, assim, fechado do conhecimento Virou a sabedoria tolice? de expulsão de coisas no romance. estabelecido, além da soberania do Somente o desejo humano de Conforme mencionado, através dos sujeito, o saber sabido não dava conta parar o tempo, Crake nos alerta, mas personagens, espaços, linhas, estórias, desse novo mundo. As palavras que tempo, pergunto, de quem? o romance mostra a sua obsessão com esvanecem, perdem sua solidez, Paradice Project de Crake e sua fronteiras, limites, limitações. Cuidado tornam-se, de uma hora para outra, tentativa de negar aos pós-humanos, à

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nova raça recém-criada, a consciência humana tal como conhecida, voltar ao de eliminar qualquer pensamento da morte é uma forma quase muito início, porém, com uma mudança. O simbólico, o ponto G do cérebro como literal de reverter a queda do homem. começar do zero era ainda chamava, têm curiosidade de saber A nova raça seria mantida nessa condicionado: “Watch out for art, sobre suas origens, são ansiosos por inocência eterna, vivendo uma vida Crake used to say. As soon as they criar narrativas: “They’re up to mais ecológica. É também a tentativa start doing art, we’re in trouble. Sym- something though, something Crake de começar tudo novamente do zero. bolic thinking of any kind would sig- didn’t anticipate: they’re conversing Mas “Everything emits time, not nal downfall, in Crake’s view” (Atwood with the invisible, they’re developing just humans” (Morton 2018, 77). Então 2003, 361). reverence” (Atwood 2003, 157); cantar de que tempo se fala, pergunto? Toda A arte determinava o sucesso ou e sonhar não eram as únicas a experiência do tempo, Crake diria. o fracasso do projeto. O voo da programações humanas. O Em nenhum momento os não imaginação não tem limites, Raphael pensamento simbólico parece ser humanos entram na conta de Crake. alertou a Adão, não conhece parte da natureza humana. A queda Suas temporalidades nunca foram fronteiras, podemos inferir. A humana novamente? Hora zero, reconhecidas. E quando os desastres imaginação traz visibilidade à Snowman nos avisa. ambientais atingiram o globo, dimensão invisível, estabelece Mas, e se a subjetividade modificando a vida tal como era conexões não aparentes. Raphael permitisse uma nova experiência? conhecida, o mundo não humano iguala a mente à imaginação, como se Uma na qual espaços murados não continuou a ser excluído. A fossem as duas uma só, como se fossem a realidade e a exclusão não humanidade achou um jeito de banir compartilhassem de características fosse a norma? E se não deixarmos os não humanos, negar-lhes similares. O voo da imaginação não nada passar, como Isabelle Stengers temporalidade, de parar o tempo. Os tinha limites, assim como não tinha o sugere que façamos (Stengers 2015, complexos, assim, funcionavam como da mente. Lúcifer concordaria: a 143)? E se aceitássemos total uma forma de evitar a consciência mente era seu próprio lugar, tinha o responsabilidade pela realidade de ecológica: “Ecological awareness is poder de alterar o espaço e o tempo, o nossas abstrações? E se amássemos shaking our faith in the anthropocen- poder de ser um espaço de resistência. nossos monstros? tric idea that there is one scale to rule Para Lúcifer, a mente se tornara Cuidado com a arte, Crake diz. them all—the human one” (Morton símbolo de liberdade. Como se libertar Não há como negar que o pensamento 2018, 22). A medida humana do decreto divino? Através da mente. abstrato, simbólico permite continuou a ser a regra até que a Lúcifer se tornara, assim, sujeito: apropriação, ao eliminar qualquer escassez de espaço-tempo fora tanta escala que não seja a humana. Mas não que a negação não era mais possível. He is a “subject” in our contempo- haveria outro lado? A experiência Espaço e tempo, as duas condições a rary theoretical sense (the estética implica solidariedade com o priori da sensibilidade humana se “humanist subject”), and certainly que não é humano, Timothy Morton mostraram condicionadas no fim das his troubled “I” is prominent in responderia, cuidado por algo que não contas. “This is one of the ways, and the poem. But he is a “subject” é um ser humano. Ademais, a beleza é not the least important, in which it also in the more literal, root sense indiferente ao sujeito. A experiência can be said that our world has ceased of the term (sub iectus, thrown estética poderia, devido a sua to be Kantian” (Danowski and Viveiros under): he discovers at the mo- estranheza (Morton 2018, 65), nos de Castro 2017, 9). Os homens se ment of his rebellion just what it prover com um pouco de estranheza revelaram incapazes de serem means to be subject to God. Sub- (familiaridade não-familiar) necessária elevados para além da ordem jection is the origin of his subjec- para destronar a soberania do sujeito: fenomenológica e da causalidade. Eles tivity. (Forsyth 2003, 150) “this feeling of openness, this uncanny não eram os legisladores da natureza, sensation of finding ourselves some- no fim das contas, mas estavam sim Sua busca pela liberdade, pelo where and not recognizing it, is exact- presos fenomenologicamente e incondicionado, é a origem de sua ly a glimpse of living less definitively, condicionados tanto pelos mundos subjetividade. Então, a nova raça, “as in a world comprised almost entirely humano quanto não humano: “You crianças de Crake” poderia ter chance not of ourselves” (Morton 2018, 26). aren’t outside the biosphere looking apenas se a subjetividade não Viver menos definitivamente seria a in. You are glued to the biosphere phe- emergisse? Se o princípio por trás da chave, então? nomenologically” (Morton 2018, 41). ideia da Modernidade, como Hegel “É hora zero,” diz Snowman. É As fronteiras não foram suficientes, afirma, não norteasse o progresso da hora de ir. pois. Eram mais porosas que o humanidade? O problema não é o que esperado. Crake, entretanto, ao invés se pensa, diria Timothy Morton, mas de aceitar a porosidade das fronteiras, como se pensa. ao invés de reconhecer o mundo não Snowman descobre que os humano, decidiu dar fim à vida Crakers, apesar da tentativa de Crake

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Referências Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Jorge Zahar (ed.). Crake.” Studies in Canadian Latour, Bruno. 1993. We Have Never Atwood, Margaret. 2003. Oryx and Literature, 31 (2): 63-83. Been Modern. Cambridge: Har- Crake. New York: Anchor Books. Danowski, Déborah, and Viveiros de vard University Press. Berman, Marshall. 2007. Tudo que é Castro, Eduardo. 2017. Há Milton, John. 1952. Paradise Lost. sólido desmancha no ar. São mundos por vir? Ensaio sobre os Chicago: Encyclopaedia Paulo: Companhia das letras. medos e os fins. 2nd ed. Britannica. Bonneuil, Christophe. 2015. “The Geo- Florianópolis: Instituto Morton, Timothy. 2018. Being Ecologi- logical Turn: Narratives of the Socioambiental. cal. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Anthropocene.” In The Anthropo- ———. 2017. The Ends of the World. ———. 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy cene and the Environmental Glob- Cambridge: Polity Press. and Ecology after the End of the al Crisis: Rethinking Modernity in Dodds, Lara. 2015. “Death and the World. Minneapolis: University of a New Epoch. London: Routledge: ‘Paradice within’ in Paradise Lost Minnesota Press. 15-31. and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Scranton, Roy. 2015. Learning to Die in Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2012. Crake.” Milton Studies 56: 115-150. the Anthropocene. San Francisco: “Postcolonial Studies and the Forsyth, Neil. 2003. The Satanic Epic. City Lights Books. Challenge of Climate Change.” Princeton: Princeton University Stengers, Isabelle. 2015. “Accepting the New Literary History, 41 (1): 1-18. Press. Reality of Gaia: A Fundamental doi: 10.1353/nlh.2012.0007. Habermas, Jürgen. 2002. O Discurso Shift?” In: The Anthropocene and ———. 2009. “The Climate of History: Filosófico da Modernidade. São the Environmental Global Crisis: Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry, 35 Paulo: Martins Fontes. Rethinking Modernity in a New (2): 197-222. doi: 10.1086/596640. Hamilton, Clive. 2017. Defiant Earth: Epoch. London: Routledge,: 134- Clark. Timothy. 2015. Ecocriticism on the Fate of Humans in the Anthro- 144. Edge: The Anthropocene as a pocene. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Trexler, Adam. 2015. Anthropocene Threshold Concept. New York: Kumar, Krishan. 1997. Da Sociedade Fictions: The Novel in a Time of Bloomsbury Academic. Pós-industrial à Pós-moderna: Climate Change. Charlottesville: Crooke, Grayson. 2006. “Technics and Novas Teorias Sobre o Mundo University of Virginia Press. the Human at Zero-hour: Contemporâneo. Rio de Janeiro:

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Little Learners, Big History, Bigger Future: How Big History Widened the Worldviews of 8-9 Year Olds

Marilyn Ahearn Southern Cross University

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Ahearn, Marilyn. “Little Learners, Big History, Bigger Future: How Big History Widened the Worldviews of 8-9 Year Olds.” Journal of Big History IV, no. 1: 29-43. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4110. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4110 Abstract

Introduction This article is based on a workshop I presented at the 2018 Big History International Conference Literature Review in Philadelphia, where I addressed findings from my recently completed PhD thesis: An Tair- Methodology seach (threshold): An exploration of connecting the emerging scientific story of the universe to Data Analysis authentic Catholic primary school environmental education. My research investigated the extent • Theme 1 to which students’ environmental values could be informed through integrating story, values, • Theme 2 environmental education, personal cultural origins, and Big History into the primary school • Theme 3 curriculum. The methodology focused on employing Big History as a vehicle to achieve a cohe- • Theme 4 sive, wider worldview for young learners, empowering them to engage in transformative think- • Theme 5 ing for the future. Semi-structured interviews were conducted along with a 17-week Big History Conclusion pedagogical program with 8-9 year old students and their teacher. Qualitative analysis of these interviews indicated that primary students1 could successfully access a shared, evidence-based and flexible narrative. Five interdependent themes emerged: ‘shared vocabulary and knowledge of Big History’ were foundational in allowing students to engage in meaningful discussions, alongside their knowledge of their ‘local cultural origin stories,’ ‘local school values,’ ‘transdisciplinary learning’ and ‘environmental values within socioecological learning.’ The find- ings have wider implications for the Big History collective, providing evidence that Big History is accessible and relevant to primary students within a transdisciplinary based and critical in- quiry-learning structure.

1Primary education is the term used in Australian schools to describe schooling for 5-11-year-old students. In this particular article the term more particularly pertains to middle primary years (8-10-year-old stu- dents).

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Orientation search involved how the cohesive sector 2012; UNESCO-UNEP 2008, In keeping with the essence of universe story, as told in Big Histo- 2012). United Nations (1987) advo- the chronological ‘story’ of Big His- ry, could inform values in environ- cated a transdisciplinary approach tory, particular scenes from Alice’s mental education from the perspec- where “environ-mental education Adventures in Wonderland have res- tives of international and Australian should be included in and should onated with me throughout my PhD environmental education docu- run throughout the other disciplines journey. ments, the positioning of the Catho- of the formal education curriculum lic Church, and the mandatory Aus- at all levels” (1987, 96). This appro- In another moment down went tralian curriculum in Catholic pri- priates to recent calls from the In- Alice after [the rabbit], never mary environmental education. ternational Catholic sector in Pope once considering how in the Francis’ statement: world she was to get out again. . . Weaving aspects of the story: Inter- . The rabbit-hole went straight national, Australian, and Catholic The fragmentation of knowledge on like a tunnel for some way, environmental education values and the isolation of bits of and then dipped suddenly down, information can actually become When considering values as in- so suddenly that Alice had not a a form of ignorance, unless they tegral to my research, I referred to moment to think about stopping are integrated into a broader international documents that stress herself . . . . (Carroll 1886, Pro- vision of reality. . . . We are part their significance. These include The logue) of nature, included in it and thus Belgrade Charter (UNESCO-UNEP in constant interaction with it. I invite you to share in my journey 1976), also sanctioned in the Decla- (Francis I 2015) down the PhD rabbit hole. ration of Thessaloniki (UNESCO 1997), where it set ground-breaking Australian education research Reviewing the storyline— future directions for the considera- likewise has addressed the im- Literature review tion of values in environmental edu- portance of values in developing The literature reviewed needed cation with the objective that indi- curriculum (Board of Studies 2010; to inform my query: if I adapted the viduals and groups be helped to ac- Lovat, Dally, Clement, & Toomey Big History online project (2019) for quire “social values and strong feel- 2011; Mitchell 2012). In promoting 8-9 year old students in a Catholic ings for the environment” (2), as transdisciplinary learning, the cur- school, would it inform them with well as the Tbilisi Declaration rent Australian Curriculum (ACARA an additional perspective to explore (UNESCO-UNEP 1978, 1.3), and 2019) embeds a sustainability cross- environmental education through Agenda 21 (United Nations 1992, curriculum priority aimed at effect- the lens of our precious universe? 36.33), both of which echoed The ing a change in centring environ- There were doors all round the Belgrade Charter as being indispen- mental education across the main- hall, but they were all locked; . . . sable to addressing environmental stream core subjects. That is highly trying every door, she walked awareness in education. The com- significant for the study as one sadly down the middle, wonder- monality of terms in such docu- quarter of students attend Catholic ing how she was ever to get out . . ments informed my research for- schools in Australia, where the Aus- . . ward. tralian Curriculum is mandatory. Not only does this place importance Suddenly she came upon . . . a Other key international environ- on transdisciplinary learning but tiny golden key. . . . [S]he tried mental educational literature ad- also highlights that The Melbourne the little golden key in the lock, dresses the importance of framing Declaration on Educational Goals for and to her great delight it fitted! knowledge, values and transdiscipli- Young Australians (2008) is publicly (Carroll 1886, Chapter 1) nary approaches in policies (see acknowledged as the foundation of UNESCO 2012; UNESCO Education My contemplation for my re- the Australian curriculum (see

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ACARA, 2013; Board of Studies 2010; cut across the divisions (disciplines) “all the condition of our humani- Hamston et al. 2010; Lovat et al. 2011; constructed around the human” (5). The ty” (Rodriguez 2002, 6). The review of MCEETYA 2008; Mitchell 2012). impressions of Suzuki, Sterling, and Sna- relevant literature changed the frame of za, and Weaver add weight to the find- my thesis story to both socioecological The emphasis on transdisciplinary ings of this research, that anthropocen- education, linking environmental values learning is also in keeping with Big His- tric thinking could be transcended by Big to Sterling’s understanding of whole- tory’s storyline that transverses multiple History to broader, transdisciplinary so- systems thinking (2003, 2011, 2016), and disciplines. In the words of Christian cioecological thinking, thus empowering curriculum theory (see Pinar 2012; Wraga (2011), students with a whole- systems & Hlebowitsh 2003). In underpinning It is one of the many odd features of worldview. Further, such thinking trans- transdisciplinary learning in socioecolog- modern society that despite having cends and is inclusive of local cultural ical education, students in this study access to more hard information than norms, which, in the setting of my re- were empowered to incorporate an un- any earlier society, those in modern search, involves Catholic education val- derstanding of the changing deep-time educational systems…teach about ues. universe metanarrative, with the inter- (our) origins in disconnected frag- connected interrelationships of ecologi- Theoretical framing ments. We seem incapable of offering cal, social, economic, and holistic per- Alice replied, rather shyly, "… I knew a unified account of how things came spectives of socioecological education who I was when I got up this morn- to be in the way they are. (2) (Berry & Swimme 1992; Bowers 1994; ing, but I think I must have been Catholic Earthcare Australia 2013, 2017; The story thread weaves through my changed several times since Johnson & Duberley 2000; Wallette & research to converge logic, faith, and then.” (Carroll 1886, Chapter 5) values in both secular and Catholic Edgren 2013). Narrative, when viewed from an en- writing (Benjamin 2009, 5). In a radio Figure 1 below illustrates my vironmental education perspective, interview, David Suzuki (ABC Radio framing, centered on values where “fundamentally alters our relation to the National 2016 at 39.00 mins.) articulated Environmental and Religious Educa- world, our relation to others, and our a similar inclusive view: tion informed and were informed by relation to our humanity. . . . It inter- a broader transdisciplinary educa- I've been an atheist all my life. . . twines the condition of the world with tional model of curriculum theory Laudato Si (Francis I 2015) is a mag- nificent document and I regret that'we' (environmentalists) didn't write it first, but what he (Pope Fran- cis 1) has done is take issues of social justice, hunger and poverty and the environment and he's never split them into silos—they're all together.

The above document correlated with Suzuki’s own vision for the future of the environment where a whole-systems approach embraces social justice, hun- ger, poverty, and the environment, rather than being viewed in the silos of our own limited cultural worldviews (Sterling, 2011). Snaza and Weaver (2015) request that education “call into question the entirety of the discipline structure” and Figure 1. An Tairseach: A framework for transforming our story

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and systems theory. In this frame- (‘seeing things differently’). clical framework. Figure 2 repre- work the Big History unified ac- sents the nesting of my research count of the emerging story of the Designing the story: Methodology methodology and methods, summa- universe was adapted to incorporate and Method rising my directions for the align- whole-systems thinking (see Bur- Humpty Dumpty advises Alice: ment of the chosen overarching the- ford et al. 2013; Dahl 2012; Podger et It would be just as well if you’d oretical model of values viewed al. 2010, 2013). Figure 1 incorporates mention what you mean to do from the perspectives of transdisci- my framing of opportunities for next, as I suppose you don’t plinary and whole-systems thinking growth in learning. It merges both mean to stop here all the rest of (see Lewis & Baudains 2007; Sterling the Catholic environmental termi- your life. (Carroll 1872, Chapter 2003). nology (ecological awareness, eco- 6) The setting was a third grade logical consciousness, and possibil- My next steps revolved around classroom of thirty students in a ity for ecological conversion), along- an action-based methodology, with- Catholic primary school. It involved side Sterling’s theory (2011, 25) of in whole systems thinking, to devel- fifteen eight to nine-year-old stu- conformative learning (‘doing things op a qualitative, interpretative, and dents and their teacher. The posi- better’), to reformative learning participatory research design. The tive learning environment encour- (‘doing better things’), and the pos- action research took place within a aged child-framed learning opportu- sibility of transformative learning child-framed ethnographic and cy- nities (see Spyrou 2011; Kellett 2010)

Figure 2. Method: data collection and analysis.

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based on a shared understanding tions added to the rich data collect- but rather fed into and informed with students that both the class- ed during the visible learning peda- each other, as represented in an room teacher and I as researcher gogical intervention (see Hattie, adaptation of Sterling’s nesting were lead-learners in the classroom. 2013). framework (2003, 2011, 2016) in Fig- The methods consisted of six ure 3 below. semi-structured interviews of three Analysis of Data Nesting the Findings to four students, conducted before, “Alice asked, ‘Would you tell I present the following findings during, and after the implementa- me, please, which way I ought to go through my own reflective interpre- tion of a Big History pedagogical from here?’” “’That depends a good tations of the analysis, along- program. Data were principally deal on where you want to get to,’ side the authenticity of class teach- gathered from the semi-structured said the Cat.” (Carroll 1872, Chapter er and students’ voices as my co-re- interviews and were inclusive of 6) My research question and data searchers. evidence contained in student writ- analysis directed me toward five ing. Researcher journal observa- themes that were not seen as linear

Figure 3. Extending the storyline: nesting themes

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THEME 1. KNOWLEDGE: The extent the emerging story of the universe, taught through the vehicle of Big History, contributed to inform- ing students’ critical knowledge

Justification for the emphasis on teaching explicit knowledge and vocabulary of Big History became evident as stu- dents’ learning in the pedagogical intervention progressed. The following two interview excerpts were recorded before students’ Big History learning. As can be noted, students voiced a variation in the depth of knowledge and vocabulary, but both interview extracts display the lack of a cohesive understanding of the universe timeline.

Researcher: Do you think you know everything there is about the universe? Mia: I reckon a bit more. Aaron: A bit more. Indi: I know all about it. (Pre-pedagogical interviews, 29-30 June 2016)

Aidan: The universe has a lot of planets, all the planets, and it holds stars and no oxygen. Aidan: No gravity, no oxygen. Jack: Because gravity is oxygen, if there is no gravity, there is no oxygen. Aidan: Yup. That’s definitely correct. I agree with him 100%. Jack: I think I know what the Big Bang is. I think it is when all the planets were together. I have seen on some commercial that they said all the planets were like one big planet and maybe the Big Bang was when they exploded into the planets. (Pre-pedagogical interviews, 29-30 June 2016)

In comparison, the evidence in the following excerpt, from a post-pedagogical intervention interview, validates stu- dents’ growth in knowledge and use of appropriate vocabulary while also enabling student initiated inquiry.

Aidan: DNA is in many things. It can be in my blood and when the zipper opens, sometimes it can't make the exact same DNA parts so it's slightly different, but they're not really different. That's how every- one looks different. Researcher: Are there any words you now know? Jack: Astronomy, astronomer, scientist, archaeologist, … origin story, history Aaron: Goldilocks conditions Researcher: What does that mean for Big History? Jack: Just right. . . . Thresholds [looking very pleased with his answer]. Claim testers . . . to learn about what to ask the experts and knowledge and evidence but in scientific language. Aidan: Intuition, gut feeling Theo: Light years Jack: Authority (Fourth pedagogical interview, 17 October 2016)

The latter excerpt shows the students accessing and confidently sharing their common learning. Aaron, in particular, pre- viously had been reticent to join in with routine class discussions, but in this case, was empowered with his newly learnt Big History knowledge and vocabulary. The critical importance of informing students’ knowledge created a meaningful platform for informed, child-framed discussions in student interviews as revealed in the next excerpts.

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Mia: It's [zipper is] an example where DNA just keeps on splitting and splitting and splitting . . . Researcher: What happens every time it splits? Mia: It makes more DNA. Aidan: DNA is in many things. It can be in my blood and when the zipper opens, sometimes it can't make the exact same DNA parts so it's slightly different, but they're not really different. That's how every- one looks different.

(Fourth pedagogical interview, 17 October 2016)

Researcher: Why is DNA part of our human story? Charlie: It's like collective learning ... The scientist tells people and then they pass it on and pass it on and then pass it on. Georgia: I used to wonder about stuff. . . . Now I know everything that I wondered about. I wondered when the world was created: 13.8 billion years ago! Charlie: I didn't know that the stars gave elements to us . . . Georgia: I didn't even know there were elements. (Fourth pedagogical interview, 17 October 2016)

As the teaching and learning program progressed, students used their knowledge base to express their understanding of the evolving universe story. The analysed data verified that students accessed increasingly complex knowledge and com- mon vocabulary through successive Big History thresholds.

Molly: If we didn’t have Threshold 1, we wouldn't have anything because the world has started up as one little tiny cell . . . and some elements and the gravity fused them together to make bigger elements. Gabby: As Molly said, if we didn't have Threshold 1, there wouldn't be Threshold 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There would be no gravity; there would be no space; there would be no time. Nothing would be fusing: no stars; it would just be all dark, and nothing. (Post-pedagogical interviews, 15 November 2016)

The synthesis of that knowledge into a wider worldview opened the possibility of transformative environmental education learning. When comparing the following two excerpts, it is apparent by the second interview that Imogen’s use of ‘we’ has not only highlighted a growth in knowledge but also transformed her thinking of nature and humans as interrelated.

Excerpt 1: Researcher: . . . Are humans animals then? Imogen: Yeah, no. Imogen: Animals belong with nature, so they’re kind of nature and at the same time they're not. They kind of blend. Molly: In the middle, nature, not nature, in the middle of that.

(Pre-pedagogical interviews, 29-30 June 2016) Excerpt 2: Georgia: . . [W]e started off in the ocean. Imogen: Yes and bacteria. And cells . . . started off as one cell—that surprised me. We started off as like one cell like bacteria in the deep oceans. I thought we started out as like animals. I didn't know.

(Fourth pedagogical interview, 17 October 2016)

Jack likewise, in the last interview, used his Big History knowledge to explain his thinking about the future: “When you grow up, if there's a new Threshold, you can study it and you can maybe add new information to the other Thresholds.” The co-researcher teacher emphasised the progression of students’ understanding through the teaching of Big History, where she noted they were, “. . . applying and using Big History . . . in their writing and responses throughout the Thresh- olds and in their journals, . . . they’ve got a much deeper understanding.”

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THEME 2. CATHOLIC BELIEF: The extent that students transferred their prior knowledge of the Catholic teaching on God’s Creation to inform their emerging knowledge of the story of the universe

The integration of children’s newfound vocabulary into their understanding of the Catholic belief system was integral to em- bracing the local school culture within the wider worldview interpretation of the emerging Big History narrative.

The limited student perception recorded in pre-pedagogical interviews is in contrast to Catholic literature (Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC) 2002; Francis I 2015; Sydney Catholic Education Office 2012), which calls for the embracing of the interrelationship of the environment and humans.

Researcher: . . . Do you know how the Earth began? Amy: No. Jesus created it. Jack: Yeah, because everything is made up from God. (Pre-pedagogical interviews, 29-30 June 2016)

The ability of Big History to empower students with a richer worldview within their Catholic traditions was apparent when stu- dents’ prior knowledge and appreciation of God’s creation were interpreted within their new knowledge of Big History learning and environmental education values.

Indi: How did God get so much power? . . . How did he have such a good idea of building us? I learnt . . . how God created us and the steps that he used to create us. I think [Threshold one—the big bang] is important to humans so they know who created them . . . and they understand that God exists.

(First pedagogical interview 1 August 2016)

The growth in students’ Catholic understanding of God as creator was evident in students’ ability to correlate their known Catholic story and local school’s values framework to the new learning context of the Big History story.

Imogen: I think Big History is a more amazing story [of God’s creation] . . . . It says what was created, how it was created, all these big words like agriculture, dioxide ribonucleic acid, and all of that. Gabby: God's creation, it's not like it made itself. God made them, and it's like each of the Thresholds is each of the days. I'm saying that they're both like, both together. . . .

It was reassuring to observe, as the excerpts demonstrate, that students were not disturbed by the scientific evidence that was presented; rather they readily correlated the evidence into a greater sense of awe and wonder at the grander and more complex unfolding of God’s creation through the Big History story.

Gabby: When it was the beginning, it was just black, and there was nothing there except God. Then, every- thing started to get more complex, and then the stars came, and the planets came, and then they were all orbiting the sun, and then animals evolved.

Emma: [The universe] is more complex. I've always been wondering how we were here; since I was really little, I've been wondering what will happen in the future. Will there be robots or something? How are we here? How were we made? Who is God? Researcher: And did Big History help answer that? Emma: Yes (other students agreed) (Post-pedagogical interviews, 15 November 2016)

The co-researcher teacher commented on students’ ready acceptance of the Big History narrative within their Catholic understand- ing of God’s creation: that God is essential to the unfolding story.

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THEME 3. VALUES: The extent that environmental education values, particularly in the context of local school values, were interpreted by students through the lenses of Big History

The importance of analysing values at the local school level, as discussed by Somekh and Zeichner (2009) and Podger et al. (2013), was appropriate to apply to the child-framed methodological basis of my research. The students at the research school were immersed daily in the local values of their school: peace, respect, honesty, justice, empathy, compassion and tolerance. As evidenced in the following excerpt, they voluntarily connected those values to Big History learning, whilst also including the term ‘sustainable’ in their discussions within the context of student appropriate understanding.

Gabby: I think sustainable is also part of our values, because sustainable . . . we have to be fair, justice, and it could be like . . . It's like sustainable means like all of our [local school] values. Jack: You might need PRhOJECT LOVE—Love because you need love to take care; you need to re- spect everyone's ways. ( PRhOJECT LOVE is an acronym for the local school values of the re- search school—Peace, Respect, hOnesty, Justice, Empathy, Compassion, Tolerance LOVE.) Aidan: I think all of the [local school] values because if you have all of them you have a stronger heart and you can help the environment. . . . You should only use what you need. I would like to make the world sustainable. (Post-pedagogical interviews, 15 November 2016)

The data represented the local school values as a pivotal point around which students centred their discussions because the values were already so deeply embedded in all classes’ daily routines.

Gabby: We need a sustainable future, and we need all the [local school] values. Big History helped me think about the future and people.

Both co-researcher teacher’s observations and my journal notes concurred with the advantage of students’ previous knowledge of local school values and the ensuing enrichment of interpreting those values through the lens of the Big History universe story.

Co-researcher- Now through the Big History programme, [students are] more articulate and they're more able to see teacher [local school] values apply to the world and the universe . . . how something that happened so long ago is still something to respect and to value and to love . . . something that's going to happen in the future.

The above comment validates Dahl’s appeal (2012) to incorporate local vocabulary in articulating values, where the important learning of the children corroborates applying values to the past, present, and future from the perspective of the cohesive Big His- tory learning story.

THEME 4. TRANSDISCIPLINARY LEARNING: The extent of impacts on students’ environmental education values

Transdisciplinary learning enriched students’ understanding of environmental education values when nested in the emerging Big History narrative, their Catholic understanding of God’s Creation, and local school values. In the following child-framed dia- logue the children named the limits of learning subjects in ‘silos’ and highlighted their move away from an anthropocentric worldview.

Jack: [We are learning Big History] new words . . . so we can speak more like scientists and astronomers

Aidan: You can learn lots more and it’s part of different subjects—like religion, maths, history, science and all the other subjects that we know … because you can’t just learn one subject because if you just

learn one subject, when you do a test or when something comes to light that you need to do with other subjects, you won’t know it and so you should know lots of subjects so then you’ll be ready for life’s challenges. (First pedagogical interview, 1 August 2016)

The students’ conversation validates the significance of transdisciplinary skills in Big History learning, leading to the ability to articulate a wider worldview.

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Students’ broadening worldview away from anthropocentric thinking unfolded through the teaching of a universal story, lan- guage, and Big History learning framework. This became apparent as other students also articulated the need for the interconnec- tion of subjects to enable a deep understanding across subject areas.

Molly: I’m surprised that we have learnt all these difficult science things that a lot of us didn’t really know at the beginning. . . .

I’m wondering why we are learning, doing this—shouldn’t we do it at Year 6 or university because it’s Gabby: really hard stuff to do and maybe we can’t get it all—but we can!

(First pedagogical interview, 1 August 2016)

The co-researcher teacher, likewise, remarked on the learning across disciplines and the opportunities for children of varying aca- demic abilities to engage in inquiry learning at their own level of understanding, where they were empowered to see themselves as co-learners with the teachers. This is in keeping with cyclical and reflective components of action research as “part of the joy is in the doing” (McNiff, 2002, p. 17; Mertler 2008, 25). The nesting of diverse knowledge and transdisciplinary skills of the Big History course were powerful in allowing students to interconnect and to apply their understanding to the wonder of the universe’s increasing complexity. The extent of the impacts on students’ environmental education values was discernible in students’ enriched observations, their use of their newly learnt knowledge from Big History and their known local school values and Catholic teaching.

THEME 5. SOCIOECOLOGICAL LEARNER: The evidence for conformative, reformative, and transformative socioecological learning process

The fifth interrelated theme from my analysis, the socioecological learner, demonstrated the extent that students’ values were informed within the conformative, reformative, and transformative socioecological learning process of the emerging Big History narrative, as illustrated previously in Figure 1. The data representation I collated as central to my research, revolved around the nesting of the first four themes within this final theme of the socioecological learner. I continued to view each theme not merely as linear, but as nested in and informing each other. Theo expresses it as “If you would know any [only one] subject then you won’t be that smart to do anything in science or history or any subjects.” The lack of a wider worldview, in how we interact with society and the environment, as noted by Snaza and Weaver (2015), calls into question limited learning that is structured around the human. The evidence I collected is in keeping with the stance Big History Project promotes (2019), which empowers children to integrate a wide range of academic disciplines that aligns with socio- ecological learning (Gruenewald 2004; Hart 2012; Kyburz-Graber 2012).

The learning journey began as teacher initiated, but by the end of the intervention children had taken ownership as active learners with numerous references to themselves as ‘big historians’ during interviews and class activities. Aidan commented on the last day of school:

Oh, my Big History journal: Big History was my most favourite subject this year. It was awesome and my Mum is going to be amazed at what I have learnt when I show her this book. She’s going to say, “Good job Aidan. You’ve learnt so much.” I’ve already told her so much about Big History. I loved Big History. I learnt so much because I didn’t know anything about how the world was created and how it was so complex.

Aidan’s comments are in keeping with the concept of the socioecological learner and the report of the Australian Education for Sustainability Alliance Project (2014), which calls for learning that embraces comprehension, complexity, uncertainty, and risk that can be applied to future sustainability. An empathetic deeper level of learning was expressed by Imogen and Gabby:

Imogen: Imagine if you were nature, and people were building things on you, and cutting you down. How would you feel? Gabby: I think we should treat the earth as what we want to be treated because if we treat the earth (how) we want to be treated then we can help the earth and all the animals because the earth is like a human be- ing, it's like us except it doesn't walk. We want to keep the Earth safe so we have to treat the earth how we want to be treated as well.

An overall finding from the analysis of this theme was that a cohesive deep time story empowered students to embrace past, present, and future within a shared language and critical inquiry evaluation techniques. They evaluated the implications of our

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past, present, and future, moving away from anthropocentric thinking to critically examining the inclusiveness of all that is human and nonhuman in the universe. The following excerpt encapsulates the sense that socioecological learning can happen for any stu- dent. The insightful response below comes from a child who initially showed little awareness of the interconnectedness of human and non-human. His simple words echo the Delors Report’s four pillars of learning (1996): learning to know, learning to do, learn- ing to live together, and learning to be.

Aaron: Big History tells us about stuff that we can't see. Researcher: So do we need nature? Aaron: We need nature, but nature doesn't need us. Researcher: Did you understand why we need nature but nature doesn't need us? Aaron: Yeah, because if nature faults, we fault, and if it all collapsed, we collapse. (Post-pedagogical interviews, 15 November 2016)

Aaron’s observation is in keeping with Sterling’s call (2003, 2008) that conformative and reformative learning, may lead to the pos- sibility of transforming how we perceive whole systems and worldviews (also see Wattchow et al. 2014). The final rich data feedback from both co-researcher teacher and students is affirmation for the rich and emerging Big History story that encourages socioecological learners to be informed, and in turn to interpret, local school environmental education values within a Catholic school setting. The co-researcher teacher’s observations are significant; as lead–learner she naturally incorporated the newly learnt Big History terminology and the local school values to express her opinion: [Students developed] a very good understanding of—you just can't get some more oxygen; you can't get more helium or hydro- gen. What happened in the beginning created what we have now, and if we don't care for it now, and if it's not just and fair, and if we don't respect the environment, then it's going to be gone for the people in the future. If we don't respect each other and respect the environment, then parts of the environment will disappear. She believes Big History gives children a more powerful voice to articulate the socioecological aspect of learning in their own child- appropriate language, that humans’ relationship with the environment is fragile, and, as such, humans need to play our part for future sustainability. Socioecological learning became increasingly evident throughout student interviews in their intertwining of deep-time knowledge through the lenses of local school values, their learnt Catholic traditions, and transdisciplinary skills and concepts aligned to the Big History Project.

Conclusion Synthesising the five theme Big History learning empowers I conclude with words of wisdom Like Alice, I needed to take the students to reflect critically on and eval- toward a bigger worldview future from Queen’s advice to correlate the extensive uate their worldviews from a child- Alice, students involved in the action findings from my data analysis. Among framed perspective, which relates to my research, Big History, and my research the most pertinent was the verification methods reference to Spyrou (2011) and findings: that environmental education is all the Kellett (2010), who promote the place of richer when teachers and students are children in education as critical reflective Firstly, the Queen’s advice to Alice: empowered with a narrative that em- thinkers. The students’ immersion in the ‘‘I can’t believe that!’ said Alice. braces a wider worldview, encompassing cohesive story of Big History learning ‘Can’t you?’ the Queen said in a sociological learning. Most importantly enables them to express confidence in pitying voice. ‘Try again: draw a the cohesive Big History story enables their new, shared knowledge and to ar- long breath, and shut your eyes.’ students to understand the intercon- ticulate a growing sensitivity to and awe Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use nectedness of the evolution of human of their own interconnection and inter- trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe life within the history of the universe. dependence as socioecological learners. impossible things.’ This knowledge allows them to critique My research shows that 8-9 year old stu- ‘I daresay you haven’t had much environmental actions being discussed, dents easily transferred the emerging practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I alongside an underlying joint responsi- scientific story of the universe of the past was your age, I always did it for bility to take care of the Earth and the and present to inform both their local half-an-hour a day. Why, understanding that everything AND eve- school and environmental values for sometimes I’ve believed as many as ryone is interconnected from a rich val- deeper future thinking. The following six impossible things before ues perspective. written student comments at the conclu- breakfast.’ (Carroll 1872 Chapter 5) sion of the pedagogical intervention

39 school and environmental values for Limitations have identified as significant. deeper future thinking. The following A clear benefit of my research Implications from this research in- written student comments at the conclu- demonstrates that knowledge of a cohe- dicate that researchers and educators in sion of the pedagogical intervention up- sive and interconnected history of our teacher education and primary schooling hold my conclusion: universe empowers primary-aged socio- need to be provided with educational ecological learners to inquire critically I can tell my family things they didn’t models to empower them to use Big His- beyond anthropocentric models of learn- know. . . . I’m a Big Historian now! :) tory effectively, in line with transdiscipli- ing and to embrace an emerging post- [sic]. . . . It’s fun and interesting! We nary learning that is already embedded in anthropocentric future. need to know about evolution and contemporary curricula. Future research elements because we need to know The lack of a recognised, evidence- requires further qualitative and quantita- where we came from. based, and systemic educational frame- tive studies into teaching the universe work and affirmation of Big History as a story that examine how success is man- I know all the thresholds now and valued learning framework in the prima- aged and maintained throughout a stu- some people can’t learn Big History, ry school made it difficult for me to have dent’s primary schooling years, alongside so I am very grateful; and I think we my research acknowledged by both Cath- the extent that children’s environmental should now teach everyone. . . . and olic education and state education au- values are transient or long lasting. Mac- we should use these thresholds to care thorities. I approached many schools quarie University Big History School Pro- for our future environment to make a before my research was seen in the light ject (2019) is worthy of ongoing post- better universe. of authentic and relevant education. The graduate research as it promotes a sup-

reticence of some schools was articulated portive and holistic primary and second- Employing Big History as a teaching as not wanting to counter the perceived, ary education curriculum. Such embed- vehicle for the scientific universe story conservative beliefs of school communi- ded support networks that are authentic achieves a cohesive, wider worldview for ties. In the case of Catholic schooling, I to critical enquiry learning would ensure primary-aged learners, empowering them produced official Catholic documenta- that the socioecological learner, not the to engage in transformative, socioecolog- tion to counteract that concern, particu- Anthropocene, is at the heart of the ical thinking for the future. These signifi- larly Pope Francis I’s latest official docu- teaching and learning. cant findings have wider implications for ment on caring for our Earth (Francis I systems-wide education and curricula Significantly, I address unfounded 2015). In hindsight this may have been development, providing evidence that concerns that Catholic schools may not overcome by holding a pre-research Big History is accessible and relevant to be mandated to teach within a Big Histo- whole-staff discussion to validate the primary-aged students where environ- ry-based scientific model. Student re- educational worth of my project. No ob- mental education is not taught as a silo sponses from my research provide evi- jections from parents arose to teaching discipline but as a transdisciplinary-based dence that students were empowered to the Big History course to the class before and socioecological learning structure. further their understanding of sustaina- or during the intervention, which was a bility threaded throughout the curricu- The child-framed pedagogical inter- positive sign. lum. They learnt an enriched worldview vention empowered students with a Recommendations for future of amazing awe and wonder of what God common learning platform to connect research has created, alongside the values needed the new knowledge they had gained from for a sustainable world. Big History within the lenses of their em- Once more Alice found herself in the bedded Catholic traditions and local long hall and close to the little glass My research has broken new school values. Building on this substan- table. Taking the little golden key, she ground into adding original, significant tial foundation the transdisciplinary and unlocked the door that led (back) into literature to environmental education socioecological learning inspired stu- the garden. (Carroll, 1886 Chapter 3) research beyond Catholic education. dents to critically reflect on their environ- Clear evidence exists that my study raises The findings from my research are mental values and query their previous significant issues requiring innovative an initial validation that teaching Big assumptions of sustainability. address by all primary schooling systems. History to primary-aged students em- Environmental education is significantly In light of the findings presented, powers socioecological learning, informs enriched when viewed from the perspec- there is clear evidence of students’ shar- known values, and invites the possibility tive of a shared universe story, inclusive ing story and knowledge of the universe of transforming student worldviews to an of transdisciplinary socioecological learn- to inquire critically and evaluate their understanding of human and nonhuman ing perspectives. learning, not merely to promote a cause interrelationships and interdependence. (see Scott 2009). The evidence presented The emerging scientific story of the As this is an initial study at a doc- is heartening at a crucial time when we universe is a story of the past and present toral level into teaching the cohesive Big need our students’ learning to incorpo- informing the future through socioeco- History story in primary education, the rate informed and shared values within a logical learning where action requires holistic and nested nature of the inquiry post-humanist environment for a better love, understanding and, equally as im- alludes to a breadth of future directions; future for everyone and everything. portant, cohesively taught critical however, I outline below the areas that I

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knowledge as emphasised in the follow- ing quotation: It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which consider the interac- tions within natural systems them- selves and with social systems. . . . We lack an awareness of our com- mon origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared. A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal. (Francis I 2015, 139 - 202) The words of Pope Francis summa- rise my new-found hopes stemming from this research: that Catholic primary school education systems, and education broadly, take up the challenge to evaluate critically the teaching of a cohesive and interconnected history of our universe. Figure 4. Deep Time Entanglements Wider implications from this re- Collaborative Deep Time entanglements, Image created by author and photographer search open up opportunities for critical inquiry beyond anthropocentric models (Ahearn, M. & Smith, L. 2019, with permission) of learning. The evidence clearly indi- cates that the deep-time framework of ——— (2019 April 2017) The Australian Connected, 6(3). Retrieved from Big History is accessible and relevant to Curriculum. Retrieved from http:// http:// primary-aged students. The research www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/. worldhistoryconnect- findings were significant in the context of Ahearn, M. (2019) An Tairseach ed.press.illinois.edu/6.3/ child-framed deep learning pedagogy (threshold): An exploration of con- benjamin2.html>. that informs environmental values for necting the emerging scientific story Berry, T. and B. Swimme. (1992) The Uni- current and future learning. If educators of the universe to authentic Catholic verse Story. San Francisco: Harper. are truly to comprehend the importance primary school environmental edu- Big History Project. (2019) Big History that values play in transdisciplinary, soci- cation. (Doctor of Philosophy), Project. Retrieved from https:// oecological learning, then our universal Southern Cross University, Gold www.bighistoryproject.com. deep-time story needs to be embedded at Coast, Australia. Retrieved from Board of Studies (2010) Statement of Val- all levels of the education continuum, https://epubs.scu.edu.au/ ues. Retrieved from http:// inclusive of primary-aged students. Fig- theses/635/. www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ ure 4 captures my post-anthropocentric Ahearn, M. and L. Smith (2019) Resonat- manuals/values.html. vision, where all education encompasses ing with deep time [original photo- Bowers, C. A. (1994) “Children, Environ- our learning toward the many questions graph]. Unpublished work. mental Education, and the Implica- of our unknown future. tions of Changing from a Liberal to Australian Catholic Social Justice Council a Cultural/Bio-Conservative Ideolo- (ACSJC). (2002) A new Earth: The gy.” Childhood, 2(1-2) 56-72. References environmental challenge. Sunshine, Burford, G., E. Hoover, I. Velasco, S. Victoria: Australian Catholic Social ABC Radio National (Writer) & R. Wil- Janouskova, A. Jimenez, G. Piggot, Justice Council (ACSJC). liams (Director). (2016) How people M. K. Harder et al.(2013) “Bringing Australian Education for Sustainability connect with the natural world the ‘Missing Pillar’ into Sustainable Alliance. (2014) Education for sus- [Radio National], The Science Show. Development Goals: Towards Inter- tainability and the Australian Cur- ACARA (2013) Australian curriculum: subjective Values-Based Indicators.” riculum Project: Final report for re- Cross curriculum priorities— Sustainability, 5(7) 3035-3059. search phases 1 to 3. Melbourne: Sustainability. Retrieved from Carroll, L. (1872) Through the Looking- AESA. http://www.australiancurriculum. Glass, and What Alice Found There. Benjamin, C. (2009) “The Convergence of edu.au/CrossCurriculumPriorities/ Retrieved from https:// Logic, Faith and Values in the Mod- Sustainability. en.wikisource.org/wiki/ ern Creation Myth.” World History Through_the_Looking-

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to unsustainability. Policy and prac- ——— (2012) Exploring synergies be- www.un-documents.net/wced- tice: A development education re- tween faith values and education for ocf.htm. view., 6(Spring) 63-68. Retrieved sustainable development: UNESCO. ——— (1992) Agenda 21: The United Na- from http:// UNESCO Education Sector (2012) Educa- tions Conference on Environment www.developmenteducationreview tion for Sustainable Development in and Development. Rio de Janeiro. .com/issue6-perspectives1. Action: Good practices in addressing http:// ——— (2011) Transformative learning climate change. Paris. sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ and sustainability: sketching the UNESCO-UNEP (1976) The Belgrade content/documents/Agenda21.pdf. conceptual ground. Learning and Charter. Connect, 1(1) 1-9. Wallette, A. and L. Edgren (2013) Post- Teaching in Higher Education, 5, 17- ——— (1978) The Tbilisi Declaration. modernism, Globalization and the 33. Connect, 3(1) 1-8. Metanarratives of Global-World- ——— (2016) A commentary on educa- ——— (2008) The Ahmedabad Declara- Transnational and Big-History. tion and sustainable development tion 2007: A Call to Action. Re- Wattchow, B., R. Jeanes, L. Alfrey, T. goals. Journal of Education for Sus- trieved from http:// Brown, A. Cutter-Mackenzie, and J. tainable Development, 10(2) 208-213. jsd.sagepub.com/ O'Connor (2014) The socioecologi- Sydney Catholic Education Office (2012) content/2/1/87.short. cal educator: a 21st century renewal Catholic social teaching: A frame- ——— (2012) The Future We Want: of physical, health, environment and work for faith in action. Sydney. United Nations Conference on Sus- outdoor education. UNESCO (1997) Declaration of Thessalo- tainable Development. In UNESCO Wraga, W. and P. Hlebowitsh (2003) niki. Retrieved from http:// (ed.). Rio de Janeiro. Toward a renaissance in curriculum www.unesco.org/iau/ United Nations (1987) Report of the theory and development in the tfsd_thessaloniki.html. World Commission on Environment USA. Journal of Curriculum Studies, and Development: Our Common 35(4) 425-437. Future. Retrieved from http://

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Size Relationships of Big History Objects: From the Universe to the Atomic Nucleus

David J. LePoire Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | LePoire, David J. 2019. “Size Relationships of Big History Objects: From the Universe to the Atomic Nucleus.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 44-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4160. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4160

Abstract: Big History involves a variety of sizes from the atomic nucleus to the size of the universe. How can we make sense of this? A popular video (Eames 1977) about the power of 10 took a “picture” for every factor of 10 in distance with over 40 “stops” from a nucleus (not even the smallest distance we can talk about) to the edge of the universe. Instead, we will explore just nine steps in distances of things we know about: the atomic nucleus, the atom, a bacterium, a human, the Earth, the distance to the sun, the distance to the closest star, the size of the galaxy, and the size of the universe. Quite amazingly, many of these distances can be estimated with only a few fundamental physics constants. Also, the ratio of the distances of the larger to the next smaller is about the same (with some exceptions): about 150,000. How can this factor of 150,000 be visualized? It is about the ratio of a commercial jet’s height compared to your palm, or, using the American standard unit of a football field, the smaller distance would be about 1/32 of an inch. Introduction the environments in which the objects momentum remains constant (related Besides the different time scales would occur. Here those relationships to the Planck constant, P). This leads in Big History, quite a range also exists are reviewed, and actual distances are to a simple estimate of the size of an in sizes of objects involved in Big His- compared: nine of the fundamental atom, which is denoted as ‘a’. With the tory. The time range includes the bil- distances in Big History follow a pat- mass of the electron being m, and the lions of years of the universe, stars, and tern with a ratio of the sizes being charge of the electron C, then balanc- planets; millions of years for species; about 150,000. ing the energy leads to the estimate of (PC)2/m, which gives about 10-10 meters thousands of years for historical pro- The path starts with the relation- (about a tenth of a nanometer). For cesses; generations for humans and ship between the atom and the size of reference, DNA is about one nanome- technology development; and seconds the universe. Then intermediate sizes ter wide and the transistors in your for DNA replication, thoughts, and follow along with the smaller size of computer or smartphone are about computer calculations. The size scales the proton. cover the range of the universe as a fifteen nanometers wide. Size of an Atom whole to the atomic nucleus. Many of the remaining distances The first distance to discuss is the While one might think that there can then be expressed as the product size of an atom. While quantum me- are so many physical phenomena in- of this fundamental distance and some chanics may give details, the size can volved in determining these sizes, any powers of two unitless parameters, G be estimated based on the need to bal- systematic discussion about this range and A. The first (G) is just the ratio of ance the attraction between the charg- would involve innumerous details and the electromagnetic and gravitational es of the electron and proton with the inputs from a range of fields. Instead, forces between two protons (any dis- energy caused by the uncertainty prin- many in the late 1970s (e.g., Carr and tance). This has a numerical value of ciple. That is, as the negatively charged -39 Rees 1979; Press and Lightman 1983) about 5x10 . The second (A) is called electron attempts to move closer to the explored these size relationships to the electromagnetic fine structure con- positively charged proton, its velocity 2 uncover estimates that were based sur- stant (C /(Pc), where c is the speed of and momentum increase, but the prisingly on just a few constants and a light), which is numerically equal to product of uncertainty in distance and few physical phenomena constraining about 1/137, or 0.0073. This is related to

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the maximum charge of 137 protons in sider the relative rates of cooling and of stellar environments such as the an atomic nucleus. (So far the highest gravitational condensation of a cloud crowded central hub and the less charged nucleus has 118 protons and of mostly hydrogen and helium gases dense spiral arms (like we are in) with the highest natural nucleus is uranium that existed about a billion years after fewer stars between the arms. This with 92 protons.) The square of this the Big Bang. As these clouds begin to consideration of galactic size and parameter is the fraction of energy in condense because of gravity, this grav- number of stars can be used to find the bound hydrogen atom compared itational energy is converted to heat, the average distance between stars, to the mass-energy of the electron, which must be expelled from the which is similar to the distance from mc2. This energy can be estimated in a clouds to maintain the condensation. the sun to its nearest star, Proxima way similar to how the distance was If it is not expelled quickly enough, Centauri, of 4.2 light years away. derived in the paragraph above. the pressure builds up and the gravita- Distance from Earth to Sun tional force is canceled by the pres- Size of the Universe sure. Much of the cooling is done The Earth is in the “Goldilocks” Now jump to consider the other through ionization of hydrogen, which zone, better known as the habitable end of the size spectrum, the size of is dependent on the energy of ioniza- zone around the sun where the tem- the universe. To simplify matters, let B tion that can be estimated from the perature is such that liquid water represent the ratio A/G, which is size of the atom (as above). The largest might form. While some supercom- 36 about 1.5x10 . Then, the size of the mass at which this cooling mechanism puters might be able to calculate some universe is about this many atomic works gives a galactic mass of about a properties of water from first princi- distances (‘a’ from above), i.e., size of trillion solar masses. Further discus- ples, it is unlikely that all the special the universe (U) = Ba, which is about sion of this process and its relation- and unique properties of this sub- 15 billion light years, i.e., the distance ships to other Big History eras can be stance could easily be explained. The light would travel from the beginning found in a recent paper by Grinin and electrons around hydrogen and oxy- of the universe. However, since the Grinin (2019). gen do their dance to create an unusu- universe has been expanding, the true al substance that floats when it freez- size of the observable universe is Distance to Nearest Star es, can dissolve both salts and organic about six times this distance. How is As these galaxies form from cloud compounds, can easily evaporate, and this simple formula derived, especially collapse and merging of smaller galax- can be moved around the world in since the size of the universe changes ies, a net rotation of the stars around a clouds while occasionally condensing with time (from a point in the Big common center can occur. The rota- to water the planet. Bang to the current size)? The deriva- tion tends to flatten out a galaxy just The distance from the sun that tion of this relationship requires an as a clump of pizza dough takes its this habitable zone incorporates de- additional assumption that enough shape as the baker throws it in the air pends mostly on the energy output time had passed for the universe to with a good spin (similar to the way from the sun. The paragraphs above generate enough carbon (and other planets orbit around the sun in a disk). mentioned that many aspects of phys- elements) to make planets and life. The mass of a typical star can be esti- ics were combined to estimate the Hence, this is really an estimate of the mated based on the physics of nuclear mass of stars. With this mass, the rate size of the universe when conditions reactions. This is done by balancing of nuclear reactions in the core can be are ready for life with many genera- the thermal pressure from the nuclear estimated and with that the energy tions of stars. fusion reactions in the star’s core with output of typical stars. The energy per the weight of the outer part of the star Size of Galaxies area falls off as the square of the dis- pushing in because of gravity. This tance from the sun. Some assumption Making other assumptions estimation requires knowledge of very needs to be made concerning how (discussed below) about the condi- many fundamental aspects of physics much energy would be absorbed by a tions necessary for the formation of including gravity, electromagnetism, planet while that remaining is reflect- galaxies and planets leads to an esti- both the strong and weak force, along 2 ed out into space. This absorption can be mated typical galaxy size of about A U. with thermodynamics and quantum used to find the temperature by assuming This shows that the size of galaxies mechanics (as protons react through that the planet comes into a balance relative to the universe is about the quantum “tunneling”). same fraction (0.005%) of the energy between the energy being absorbed in the hydrogen atom compared to the By knowing the mass of a typical from the sun and the amount of ener- electron mass-energy. This estimated star and galaxy, the number of stars gy being radiated back out into space galactic size is about four times larger can be estimated. Combining this at the planet’s lower temperature. than the size of the Milky Way (150,000 with the disk size of the galaxy (as (This radiation is similar to the orange light-years), which is quite accurate, con- found above), an estimate for a typical glow coming from a heated stove or sidering the simplicity of the estimate distance between stars in a galaxy can toaster.) Knowing the mass and lumi- and the variability in galactic sizes. be found. Note that in nature are nosity of a star leads to an estimate of many different types of galaxies and a planet’s temperature. This estimated The necessary assumptions con- within each galaxy are different types distance is again close to the actual

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distance from the sun to Earth of 150 mated with slightly less simple models be taken. One approach is to consider million kilometers. than considered earlier, while the grav- the range of the strong force keeping ity is based on a planet that can main- the three quarks in the proton togeth- Size of a Habitable Planet tain its atmosphere (as above). Consid- er, but this strength is not included in Rocky planets are large enough ering material of lengthy polymers the parameters considered so far. An- that gravity tends to pull the rocky ma- gives an estimated size close to human other approach is to find the terial into near spherical shapes. Gravi- -sized scale. (Compton) wavelength of light, which ty also helps hold atmospheres. The has the same energy contained in a Size of a Cell gases in the atmosphere might escape particle’s mass. Then the proton size if gravity is too weak since the mole- The basic unit of life is a cell. Bac- compared to the ‘classical’ electron size cules move at fast speeds. The estimat- teria are 0.2 to 10 microns but the com- would be scaled by the ratio of electron ed rocky planet’s radius that can hold mon bacterium, E.coli, is a rod two and proton masses. However, this mass an atmosphere at temperatures com- microns long by one micron in diame- ratio (approximately 1/2000) is current- fortable for life comes to about 4,000 ter. Animal cells are between ten and a ly not explained. Despite no direct the- km, which is about 60% of the Earth’s hundred microns. While these cells ory for this ratio, certain relationships radius but within 15% of the size of have membranes to separate the cellu- between the electromagnetic and Mars. lar interior from the outside, the small- strong forces are needed for the exist- est natural size of a water droplet (in To grasp an idea of the magnitude ence of complex elements that are fog, for example) is about ten microns. of the gravity needed, the average needed for life. This results in the con- At this size the surface tension forces speed of a typical atmospheric mole- clusion that the proton size is much of the water molecules at the boundary cule, N , can be easily found (about 500 (about 100,000 times) smaller than the 2 are equal to the evaporative forces. m/s), whereas the speed of anything size of an atom. This can be estimated with the inter- (rockets or molecules) to escape the molecular forces of hydrogen bonding Other properties (like mass) can Earth’s gravity is about 11 km/s, that is, (weaker than a covalent chemical also be estimated with these methods. about twenty-two times the average bond) and the temperature of liquid The figure from Carr and Rees’s (1979) velocity of molecules. water on Earth. paper shows the range of sizes (x-axis) However, many other factors and mass (y-axis) from the proton to Size of an Atomic Nucleus should be considered. For example, the universe. Note that an additional Mars currently has about 1% of the Finally, we consider the proton item is labeled in the lower left of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at its sur- size (smallest atomic nucleus). A few Figure 1. This is the “Instanton” at the face, and it is still losing it. On the oth- approaches to estimating this size can er hand, Venus has a mass and a radius more similar to Earth but contains an Figure 1. Estimates of relative sizes from mostly first principles (Source: Carr & Rees 1979) atmosphere with a pressure nearly one hundred times larger. The atmospheres of Venus and Mars might have been more similar to the Earth long ago (Way 2019). Size of a Human Since we are looking for only an estimate for the size of a human, we will consider in general how big ani- mals can grow on land. Many criteria, such as heat management, might be considered, but a significant aspect is that animals would not survive long if they were easily severely injured when they fell. Even at our size it is relatively common to break a bone or sprain a muscle, but a fall is usually not fatal until the height is about fifteen meters, i.e., about ten times a human’s size. A key factor in this estimate is the strength of the material that might break compared to the planet’s gravity. Some material properties can be esti-

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with the few parameters used above, Planck scale mentioned above would Planck scale, which is the smallest but the ratios from one item to the be another four of these scaling fac- size anything can be, considering next in the sequence are somewhat tors smaller than a nucleus. gravity and quantum physics. It oc- constant, about 150,000. (One item in Another way of looking at this curs at quite a qualitatively different the list stands out as being a bit out of reveals some connections among the location on the diagram, i.e., the ver- place. Using 10% of the radius of the sizes. An item’s size is the geometric tex of the quantum and black hole Earth rather than the full radius is average of the two items equally regions. The size is about 10-35 m or better.) This number makes sense spaced above and below. For example, twenty orders of magnitude smaller because remember that we started the size of a person should be about than the atomic nucleus. with estimates of the sizes of an atom the geometric average of the size of an and the universe as being the ratio of Comparison to Real Sizes atom (two steps smaller) and the dis- Alpha to Alpha-G, which is about tance to the sun (two steps larger), Now we can take a look at the 1.5x1036. Since there are seven factors i.e., the square root of 150 million kilo- real numbers and ratios of these dis- between these two, we can see that a meters x 0.1 nm. After making sure tances and sizes (Table 1 and Figure factor of 150,000 applied seven times the units are the same, we end up 2). Not only can they be estimated would lead to a factor of 1.7x1036. The with a size of about 4 m. This is about a factor of 2 too large, but it is quite Table 1. Actual Ratios of Distances and Sizes amazing it is this close. How, then, can we relate to a factor of 150,000? We definitely know the difference between $1 and $150,000, but are there some sizes to which we can relate? There seem to be. Commercial jets fly at about 6.5 miles, which is a bit over 10 km (equivalent to a million centimeters); 1/150,000 of this distance is about 7 cm (3 inches), a bit less than the width of a hand. The next time you are in an airplane at cruising altitude, look down and try to visualize someone’s hand. (It is easier to see cars and then imagine the people in them). That ratio of sizes and dis- tance, the size of a hand to the alti- tude is about the same as the ratio among these nine sizes and distances in Big History, i.e., nucleus to atom, atom to bacterium, bacterium to hu- man, human to (smaller) Earth, Earth Figure 2. Plotting data of Table 1 (Source of images: Wikipedia) to sun, distance to sun compared to distance to the nearest star, distance of the nearest star to galactic size, and finally galactic size to the (observable) universe. Alternatively, using the American standard unit of a football field, the smaller distance would be about 1/32 of an inch.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02- 06CH11357

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References Evolution.” Journal of Big His- Way, M. 2019. “Could Venus Have tory III:4, 99-122. Been Habitable?” European Carr, B. J., and M. J. Rees. 1979. “The Planetary Science Congress- Anthropic Principle and the Press, W. H., A. P. Lightman, Rudolf DPS Joint Meeting, Geneva Structure of the Physical Ernst Peieris, and Thomas Switzerland, (September). World.” Nature 278:12 (April). Gold. 1983. “Dependence of https://www.europlanet- Macrophysical Phenomena on Eames, C. O., and B. A. Eames. 1977. society.org/could-venus-have- the Values of the Fundamental Powers of Ten. https:// been-habitable/ Constants.” Philosophical www.youtube.com/watch? Transactions of the Royal Socie- v=0fKBhvDjuy0 ty of London, Series A, Mathe- Grinin, L. E., and A. Grinin. 2019. matical and Physical Sciences “The Star-Galaxy Era in Terms A310, 323-336. http:// of Big History and Universal doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1983.0094.

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A Four-billion-year Story: The Making of India

Barry Wood University of Houston

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Wood, Barry. 2019. “A Four-billion-year Story: The Making of India.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 49-66.. http:// dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4190. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4190

Abstract Sixty-five years ago, A. L. Basham highlighted the making of India in his book, The Wonder that was India (1954). It acknowledged human presence 100,000 years ago; the dawn of agriculture around 10,000 BC; the rise of the first villages; ancient goddess figurines; the Indus Valley civilizations; and the great discovery by Sir William Jones of India’s languages linked to the languages of Europe. Basham also emphasized the importance of the Himalayas and the great fertile plains watered by the multiple tributaries of the Ganges—the spiritual and cultural center of ancient India. With intensely eco- nomic and political perspectives today, we are likely to adopt the narrower focus of Ranbir Vohra’s The Making of India: A Political History (2013), which leads us through British colonialism to India’s emergence as an independent democracy of over a billion people. In recent years a broader perspective has emerged that extends far beyond the beginnings of Indian civilization or even beyond the first nomadic migrants. Discoveries of geology, biology, and paleontology define the making of India as a vast narrative, the creation of a stage with ancient roots upon which modern humans have only recently com- menced their walk-on drama. This perspective impels us to think historically, sequentially, and diachronically rather than topically or synchronically. India turns out to be a dramatic example of continental migration culminating in a collision that has shaped Asia far beyond India’s borders. The making of India emerges as a dynamic, moving sequence where the most ancient planetary and biological events are seen as contingencies of the present world and human existence. This per- spective is more than history; it is big history; more than narrative, it is a grand narrative.

Introduction sion was that this cycle went on erous rocks revealed an equally im- The central discovery of twentieth “without end”; he could not define a measurable sequence of life forms -century geology in India and else- beginning. Hutton was the first to rec- from primitive to modern with many where has been a recognition of slow ognize what we call “deep dead-end pathways to extinction. As but constant planetary change that put time” (Wood 2019a). To this, the emi- the nineteenth century came to an an end to the notion of a world as fixed nent geologist, Charles Lyell (1830- end, these various kinds of change had and finished. “Change,” however, is an 1832), added regional specificity. From provided multiple perspectives, but abstract term without precise parame- his study of geological change at they hung together with impenetrable ters. This was clear when geologist Mount Etna, the Joggins Fossil Cliffs complexity. James Hutton (1726-1797) put forth his on the Canadian coast, and the Grand A new view of change began with “theory of the Earth.” Hutton saw a Canyon, Lyell documented change at Alfred Wegener’s theory of a supercon- continual process of mountain erosion, specific sites: ninety eruptions on Etna, tinent which he called Pangea (All settlement of water-borne erosional millions of years of fossiliferous layers Earth) which he sketched in his book, materials on ocean bottoms, their at Joggins, and mile-deep sedimentary The Origin of Continents and Oceans hardening into fossil-laden sedimen- layers at the Grand Canyon. Their cru- (1912), that went through several edi- tary rock, and subsequent upthrust of cial recognition was that the Earth had tions until 1929. His evidence included sea bottom that formed new moun- an immeasurably long history; such the obvious “fit” of continents on each tains. This was change—a rock cycle— vast changes could not have occurred side of the Atlantic Ocean and same- that by definition must have occurred within any restricted time frame. To species megafauna fossils occurring on everywhere that mountains tower and this insight, Charles Darwin (1859) landmasses separated by thousands of rivers flow to the sea. Hutton’s conclu- added a biological dimension: fossilif- miles of ocean. His solution was the

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theory of a supercontinent he called ing, but this movement could be clues led to evidence and the pieces of Pangea (All Earth) where all the land- tracked backward in time. One could narrative stretching over billions of masses of the planet were once joined see not only where continents were years began to emerge. As the search (Illustration No. 1). headed, but where they had been. Ge- went forward, outcrops of very ancient Wegener’s theory of an ancient ological change suddenly acquired rocks were located and dated. Rocks continent he called Pangea along with pattern and structure. It signified a that indicated formation 3.5 billion drifting continents, which accounted history. (3500 million) years ago were found in for the widely separate locations of Once the reality of Wegener’s Africa, Australia, Greenland, and lands once joined, became “a theory Pangea was established, geologists Northern Canada. Gradually their ori- that most academics quickly branded began the complex task of working gins and movements were traced to eccentric, preposterous, and improba- out the earlier history of the planet. construct a chronology of plate tec- ble . . . a classic example of wild, over- One approach was to trace out the tonic events. The ancient narratives of reaching supposition” (Ballard 2000, precise configuration of Pangea by Earth’s continents are all of great in- 117-119). His theory thus made little exploring continental shelves and con- terest, but the making of India is headway and was largely ignored for tinuities between geographical fea- unique. decades. How continents supposedly tures on opposite sides of the oceans. rooted into the rocky surface of the Discoveries included identical chemi- Craton Earth could possibly move challenged cal signatures on facing coastline rock What geologists have learned is the geological imagination. But ocean- outcrops originally together during that India is the most dramatic exam- bottom exploration during IGY, the the Pangea era. Working out details of ple of continental migration, initially International Geophysical Year (1957- Pangean configuration was soon ex- moving faster than any other terrane 1958), led to the discovery of mid- tended to the daunting task of tracing and colliding so forcefully that it ocean undersea mountain ridges, sea- the history of plate movement before altered the geography of Asia far be- floor spreading (Dietz 1961), a system- the assembly of Pangea. Bit by bit, yond the site of the original collision. atic creation of seafloor, and thus a “history of ocean basins” (Hess 1962). The evidence confirmed that conti- nents did move, and a rapid assess- ment of the evidence led to the master theory of modern geology: “plate tec- tonics” (Takeuchi 1970; Sullivan 1974). Within two decades, instrumentation capable of measuring continental movement had developed. This was refined enough to show that North and South America were moving away from Europe and Africa at approxi- mately one centimeter per year. We- gener’s continental drift was no longer a theory; it was a fact. Verification that continents moved brought astonishment and it remains astonishing for anyone first encountering it. This, however, can momentarily conceal its significance. The various kinds of “change” Hutton, Lyell, and Darwin had recognized lacked direction. Lyell’s observations confirmed local change; Hutton’s flow of erosional material to form ocean bottoms and their subsequent up- thrust to form mountains was vertical change. But the movement of conti- Illustration 1: Pangea. Alfred Wegener proposed an ancient supercontinent called nents involved change “that played Pangea to account for similar megafauna fossils on continents separated by thousands itself out far more in the horizontal of miles of ocean. In The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1912) he provided sketches than in the vertical direction” (Ballard of how Pangea might have been configured. His theory of “continental drift” was nec- 2000, 125). Moreover, this was direc- essary to account for the locations of today’s continents. Source: com- tional change: continents were mov- [email protected].

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In the process, India has rafted a his- he inferred had made up an earlier ing of India must begin somewhat ear- tory of ancient cratons and the rise of supercontinent. Further explorations lier. The rocks of all five cratonic out- life hundreds of miles from where of continental movement soon opened crops display a suite of igneous-origin these originated, relocating this land- up further reaches of prehistory: inter- metamorphic gneisses and schists that mass where it became a coastal route mediate cratonic conjunctions were appear to have formed around 500 traversed by early humans and a place recognized, and a series of superconti- million years after Earth formation 4.5 congenial for others who decided to nents were understood as assembling billion years ago; that is, around four stay and settle. and breaking up between Ur and Pan- billion years BP. Whatever rocks hard- The prehistoric history of India gea. ened toward the end of the Hadean began to emerge around the mid- In a boldly titled article, “History were then subject to subsequent ero- twentieth century. In his early work of Continents in the Last Three Billion sion and breakdown. Subsequent con- on cratons the oldest foundational Years,” which expanded his observa- tinental cratons worldwide are thus crustal underlying Peninsular India, B. tions from India, Rogers (1996), laid conglomerates of erosional compo- Rama Rao (1945, 16) remarked on Ar- the groundwork for an extended geo- nents from these pre-existing rocks chaean rocks in general that they logical narrative. Some of his conjec- that finally hardened and survived “constitute a complex of highly crum- tures have since been modified, but without further meltdown. Today they pled crystalline schists and gneisses his emphasis on a chronological se- make up the basement foundations of massed into a confused jumble.” These quence of events has become a foun- continental cratons and the Indian are metamorphic rocks formed from dation for diachronic geology. Piecing Shield. earlier sedimentary or igneous rocks. together what has been observed Plate tectonics was understood as Rao’s description of a “jumble” refers about other cratonic assemblies, we a phenomenon explaining hitherto to gneisses formed at high tempera- can work out a supercontinent timeta- unexplained geological events. Once tures mixed with schist formed at low- ble: 2.5 billion-year-old Laurentia, 2- the fact of seafloor spreading and sub- er temperatures, a combination not billion-year-old Baltica, and most of duction was recognized, mechanisms easy to explain. From their conglom- northern Asia collided around 1.5 bil- for earthquakes and volcanoes came erate composition, Rao concluded that lion years ago to form Laurasia; then a into focus. But the driving force of the oldest Archean rocks were formed billion years ago these collided with plate tectonics was only vaguely un- from preexisting rocks that had erod- Ur and Atlantica to form Rodinia, the derstood. Now we infer that continen- ed and been subject to subsequent predecessor of Pangea. Rodinia lasted tal movement most likely originates igneous and metamorphic processes. about 300 million years, and then frag- with plumes of superheated lava deep Rao’s explorations identified dozens of mented around 700 million years ago. in the Earth which rise toward the components of these cratonic rocks Laurasia remained somewhat intact surface, split, spread, and flow off in that were laced with recrystallized while a great southern continent was different directions. This sets up con- sediments rich with magnesium and assembled from most of the southern vection currents near the surface of iron. Half a century later, University of hemisphere cratons. Once this and the Earth’s mantle immediately be- North Carolina professor of geology, Laurasia drifted together around half a neath the crust which is of lighter den- John J. Rogers (1993), established an billion years ago, the familiar super- sity and thus “floats” on the heavier age of 3.1 billion (3100 million) years continent of Pangea was formed. mantle. Crust thickness varies: under for cratonic rocks, not only in India Through these various combinings the Indian Ocean, it averages 100 kilo- but also in West Australia and East and separations, the Indian basement meters (62 miles) in contrast with the Africa. The predecessor rocks suggest- cratons remained intact. crust under the cratons of Africa, Ant- ed by Rao may thus have formed as Rogers’ initial speculations about arctica, and Australia which runs to much as 600 to 900 million years ear- Ur and subsequent supercontinents 180 kilometers (110 miles) in thickness lier, toward the end of the Hadean began with the rocks of the Dharwar (Kumar et al. 2007). Continents sup- Era. This estimate pushed the earliest craton of southern India where less ported by huge crustal slabs ride on chapter of the making of India as far overlying sediment has left outcrops of mantle currents like rafts on a river. back as four billion years ago. the underlying craton exposed. The Here we see the fundamentals of the From similarities between rocks crustal foundation of India includes entire theory of plate tectonics. In ad- from widely separated landmasses, four other cratons that were sutured dition, some plumatic material finds Rogers surmised that the cratonic together during the late Pre-Cambrian its way into cracks and crevices in the foundations must have formed togeth- Era: from these earlier dates have Earth’s crust as lava intrusions which er in the Archean Era after which they emerged. Basu et al. (1981) have dated slowly force crustal plates apart, thus remained crowded together for more remnant Archaean granitic rocks from aiding their convectional flow. than 3 billion years until they drifted the Singbhum craton in northeastern Through all of these breakups apart during the breakup of Pangea. India at 3.8 billion (3800 million) years and reassembles, the India cluster of Rogers provided the name Ur old. In light of Rao’s intuition that cratonic fragments seem to have (German: Motherland) for the earliest these preserve components from earli- remained intact. Unlike the African stage of these conjoined cratons which er rocks, the first chapter of the mak- craton, which was located at the center

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of supercontinents and thus sur- first to explore mid-ocean ridges and ples from the 510+ million-year-old rounded by other cratons, India gen- black smokers has provided a riveting Burgess Shale hundreds of miles from erally occupied the periphery. Thus, account of their discovery along with the Pacific at an elevation of 8,000 when Pangea broke up—eventually the varied environments occupied by feet in the Canadian Rockies. birthing the seven continents we these “chemosynthesizing organisms,” In India, Schopf and Prasad know today—India was positioned for that are powered by the constant flow (1978) located a conjunction of stro- a separate departure, a migration of metals, gases, and sulphur com- matolites and microfossils dating to north from Pangea at what in geologi- pounds spewing out of the vents. 1.4 billion years ago in the Cuddapah cal terms was breakneck speed, and As the ocean surface cooled fol- Basin of South Central India. A rather an eventual collision with Asia. Calcu- lowing the Hadean Era, new forms of spectacular outcrop of stromatolites of lations indicate that India may have solar-tolerant plankton evolved: auto- similar age was discovered far re- commenced its travels at 20 centime- trophic bacteria capable of separating moved from their original oceanic ters (12 inches) per year (Kumar et al. hydrogen from H2O and retaining the location in the Uttar Pradesh province 2007). But as Jonathan Aitchison et al. hydrogen while releasing the oxygen of Northern India, now protected in (2007) have shown, its movement var- into the atmosphere and harvesting the Salkhan Fossils Park (Leis and ied over its 100-million-year journey solar energy to create sugars. This Stinchcomb, 60). Based on geochro- north. Moreover, even though it col- photosynthesizing process defines nology, these may have formed origi- lided with Asia 40 million years ago, it these as ancestral to the entire king- nally around the coastal regions of is still moving at 5 centimeters (3 dom of plants. Cyanobacteria that Atlantica to which the Indian cratons inches) annually, the result being a collected in “mats” or “colonies” were attached in the Archean Era. But continuous crushing and compression formed stromatolites—mushroom- these are not the earliest fossils in In- of the South Asian landmass and the like structures several feet high in dia. Geologist Naresh Ghose (Ians still-rising peaks of the highest moun- shallow water where tides brought a 2017) has reported locating microfos- tains in the world, the Himalayas. continual supply of nutrients. Leis and sils, probably formed during the time Stinchcomb (2015) have assembled a of the original Ur supercontinent, da- Life gallery of evidence showing that stro- ting to more than 2 billion years BP in While geological changes were matolites were a dominant form of life the Gwalioer Basin of the Bundel- occurring, a parallel narrative was un- for two billion years in every part of khand region. Fossil microbiota from folding. The evidence in India consists the world. Examples from Pilbara 2.4 to 2.6 billion years ago have been of stromatolite fossils marking the Rock in Australia date to 3.4 to 3.5 located in Precambrian rocks in vari- advent of bacterial colonies more than billion years BP (Walter 1983); from ous locations in India (Lopuchin and 3 billion years ago (Sharma 2008). But South Africa, 3.5 to 3.6 billion years BP Moralev 1973; Lopuchin and Gowda the broader story has several earlier (Knoll and Barghoorn 1977). Stephen 1983). In all cases these fossils were chapters; the first is planktonic and Jay Gould (1989) remarked that stro- carried by the India cratons from their microscopic. Evidence for the origin of matolites were “the highest form of places of origin in earlier superconti- life, or abiogenesis, is found in the macroscopic complexity” in the Pre- nents. oldest cratonic rocks on most of to- cambrian world 3.5 billion years ago. Toward the end of the Precam- day’s continents. Matthew Dodd et al. But around 500 million years ago they brian Period around 750 million years (2017) have found microfossil evidence waned under competition from other ago, a new form of marine life ap- of primitive bacterial life dating to the life forms, and they are rare today, peared that provided a new biological early Archean Era in the Canadian though some still thrive in a few re- chapter. Multi-celled organisms province of Quebec; undoubtedly, mote locations, most notably in emerged, probably from cooperative these were not unlike today’s plank- Sharks Bay in Western Australia assemblies of planktonic bacteria, eu- ton which make up over ninety per- where they are exposed at low tide. In karyotes, and the like. The earliest cent of Earth’s present biomass addition, a variety of open-ocean stro- were soft-bodied invertebrates resem- (Sardet 2015). These Canadian micro- matolites are found at Carbia in West- bling jellyfish. Lacking either bones or fossils were found within precipitates ern Australia and Exuma Sound in the shells, invertebrates are poorly record- from hydrothermal vents which occur Bahamas where subtidal currents pro- ed in the fossil record, though the on ocean floors and date from 3.77 to vide a constant nutrient flow. Howev- Burgess Shale of the Canadian Rockies 4.28 billion years BP. Hydrothermal er, the fossil evidence is ubiquitous, has preserved some (Briggs et al. vents or “black smokers” several kilo- revealing that stromatolites colonized 1994). During the Cambrian Era (542 meters below the ocean surface which ancient shorelines everywhere and to 488 million years ago) the fossil occur along mid-ocean ridges provide thus were subject to tectonic move- record reveals an astonishing prolifer- an environment isolated from solar ment, coastal mountain building, sea- ation of species with hard parts— radiation, meteoric bombardment, floor uplift, and terrane additions to bones and shells. This occurred as and the intense heat at the Earth’s ancient coasts that moved stromato- Laurasia—North America, Europe, surface during the Hadean Era. Robert lite fossils far inland and often to high and northern Asia—was drifting D. Ballard (2000), who was among the elevations. There are numerous exam- toward the clumped cratons of southern

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continents: “At this time,” writes M. S. rich fossiliferous beds in Kashmir and years ago. Chronicling events through Krishnan (1982, 239), “there existed a the Spiti regions consist primarily of vast prehistoric eras of India is almost great Southern Continent or a series of brachiopod valves and trilobites indistinguishable from narrating the land masses which were connected (Krishnan, 217). As we trace the fossil history of Gondwana itself. To appre- closely enough to permit the free dis- record of India from the Cambrian ciate this geological and biological tribution of terrestrial fauna and flora. (544-488 mya) through the Ordovi- history, we need to adopt a double This continent, which included India, cian (488-444 mya), and Silurian (444- vision for which Mary White has pro- Australia, South America, Antarctica, 400 mya), trilobite fossils are plentiful vided suggestive terminology. Her South Africa and Madagascar, has (Sharma 2008), but they decline Flowering of Gondwana focuses on been called Gondwanaland.” But since through the Devonian (400- 359 mya) Australia, but her emphasis on a geo- wana means “land,” Gondwana-land is and Carboniferous (359-300 mya) peri- historical term, “Australia-in- redundant and so has been officially ods with their extinction complete by Gondwana” (1990, 34), prompts us to shortened to “Gondwana” (Illustration the end of the Permian (250 mya). As adopt the parallel “India-in Gondwa- 2). The name goes back to the nine- the Indian record of trilobite fossils na.” Thus evolutionary development teenth century: the geologist Otokar gradually decreases, brachiopod valves and detail belongs not simply to India Feistmantel (1876), who was studying remain, along with a multitude of but to India-in-Gondwana. While the fossils in the north central provinces shells of many shapes and designs— trilobites came and went, thousands of of India, named this region Gondwana fans, spirals, cones, and pyramids species originated in India-in Gondwa- after the ancient tribe of Gond who (Krishnan, 217, 224, 229, 233, 297)— na, then continued far beyond the still occupied it. which continue to modern times. breakup of Gondwana. According to Shortly after Laurasia collided The supercontinent of Gondwana Mora et al. (2011), the approximate with Gondwana to form Pangea of which India was a part existed from number of species worldwide today is around 500 million BP, the Cambrian 550 until approximately 180 million 5.5 million land species, 2.2 million Explosion of proliferating genera and species set in, resulting in a biodiversi- ty of millions of life forms across the supercontinent. Despite the relatively brief duration (50 million years) of the Cambrian Era, 20 to 35 of the major phyla known today emerged. This in- cludes an array of marine phyla, in- cluding invertebrate, three-lobed trilo- bites, with over 50,000 separate spe- cies identified. As Riccardo Levi-Setti (2014) illustrates, they have been found in Bohemia, China, Morocco, Newfoundland, North America, Rus- sia, and the United Kingdom; they are also found in the Devonian Era Hunsrück Slate west of the Rhine Val- ley in western Germany along with numerous other highly evolved inver- tebrates (Kühl et al. 2012). Among fos- sils, trilobites have inspired more fos- sil hunters than any other form of life, with spectacular museum collections in Boston, Cancun, Glasgow, London, New York, Prague, Toronto, and Washington DC. Some, like the Hou- ston Museum of Natural Science, have benefited from donations of superla- tive private collections (Wessman and Eberle 1999). This proliferating form of Illustration 2: Gondwana. Before Laurasia (North America and Eurasia) collided with exoskeletal life, which evolved eyes the southern continents and, subsequently, after Laurasia had separated, the gather- long before mammals and primates ing of southern continents known as Gondwana persisted as the longest-lasting su- (Clarkson et al. 2006), dominated the percontinent. These southern continents were then clustered with present-day Ant- world’s oceans for 300 million years. arctica. Evidence of glaciation is thus found on all the landmasses that surrounded Cambrian fossils in India from Antarctica, including southern India. Source: [email protected].

53 marine species, for a total of 8.7 mil- corner of the planet with approxi- along with retention cells and water- lion, though some estimates have sug- mately half occupying oceans and the proof skins evolved to retain water gested as many as 100 million. Since other half adapting to freshwater envi- within vine-like creeping branches, most have very ancient histories, the rons. Conway Morris and H. B. Whit- gradually restructuring plant life as story of life on Gondwana has several tington (1979) point to the importance “vascular,” a description that now ap- additional chapters, for this is where of the Pikaia discovery: “The superb plies to all plant life. Meanwhile, spe- today’s faunal and floral species of preservation of this Middle Cambrian cialization of parts like roots in the India originate. organism makes it a landmark in the ground, stiffened stems, and reaction Creatures now considered ances- history of the phylum to which all wood to support heavy angled branch- tors of vertebrates—bilaterally orga- vertebrates, including man, belong.” es were precursors of today’s solidly nized around a stiffened dorsal rod- All vertebrates. Since new species of rooted trees, wide-spreading crowns, like structure known as a notochord— fish are still being discovered, the to- and tree tops towering hundreds of have shown up in Laurasian sites. The tal number is unknown, though it is feet above the ground. Referring to tiny fish-like Pikaia in the Burgess certainly in the hundreds of thou- this greening of the Earth, Loren Eise- Shale of British Columbia first de- sands. Based on the exhaustive world- ley (1957, 62) called it “the epic march scribed by Charles Walcott (1911), pho- wide FishBase data, fish species of In- of life from the tidal oozes upward tographically illustrated by Briggs et dia alone number 250, with subspecies across the raw and unclothed conti- al. (1994), and thoroughly analyzed by numbering in the hundreds (Froese nents.” Morris and Caron (2012) swam the and Pauly 2018), a proliferation that Once established, forests and world’s oceans twenty million years began during the India-in-Gondwana jungles became the constant cover of before true vertebrates. A cephalo- Era and the supercontinent Pangea. tropical and temperate lands, with chordate in southern China called This astonishing diversity of the most thousands of species developing in Yunnanozoon, “Animal of Yunnan basic vertebrate—a precursor for mil- lowlands, wetlands, and river valleys [province],” appears to be morpholog- lions of more diverse species brings and hardier species adapting to dry- ically related to Pikaia, which dates to the significance of these unassuming lands and upland slopes. Thousands the mid-Cambrian Era approximately fossils into the clear light of day. of generations of lowland vegetation 520 million BP when life existed en- Gould’s observation (1989, 322) that lived, matured, fell, and decayed on tirely in the oceans. Since these were Pikaia is a “final link in our story of the forest floor. The resulting deposits without any hard parts, the surprising contingency” summarizes how a sin- of coal establish India as fifth in the survival of their fossils is due to the gle species may be ancestral to a world in coal reserves and fourth in rare way they were preserved: for whole range of descendants which, in the world in coal production, though, Pikaia, an undersea mudslide isolated this instance, includes Homo sapiens. as geologist Krishnan (1982, 283) and preserved an entire ecosystem Fish speciation of India-in- notes, many coal seams in India are from deterioration of soft body parts Gondwana Era may be surprising, but “of small extent and thickness and (Gould 1989, 69-70). this is still an early chapter in the sto- generally of inferior quality” (Krishnan Since we have no evidence that ry of life. A momentous shift occurred 283), forcing importation of high qual- larger predators had yet evolved, it is in the late Silurian and early Devonian ity coal for steel production. On a likely that these finned Pikaia would Era from 420 to 385 million years BP. different note, the fossil record in- soon have numbered in the billions as The initial movement onto land of cludes an India version of what is well they spread to every part of the plan- floral species began as the necessary known in America—a collection of et. By the time they emerged, three precursor for faunal life ashore. It is petrified trees. The National Fossil billion years of planktonic marine life generally thought that autotrophic Wood Park at Santhanur in Peramba- had developed not unlike today’s: “a green algae, most likely descended lur, approximately 35 km (20 miles) bewildering swirl of tiny creatures . . . from cyanobacteria, were pioneers in from Puducherry, displays a collection more numerous than the stars in the occupying land, probably along of two hundred petrified trees, dating universe . . . unseen marine communi- beaches where tidal nutrients were to the early Cretaceous Era 120 million ties of viruses, bacteria, archaea, sin- available, but eventually evolving to years BP. gle-celled eukaryotes, and small draw nutrients directly from rocks Working in India, the geologist planktonic animals” (Armbrust and and soil. Lichens, which grow in hos- and paleontologist Otokar Feistman- Palumbi 2015). Plankton form the tile environments worldwide and on tel (1876) provided the first descrip- foundation of a food chain that has rock, provide a suggestive model. The tion of Glossopteris, which means nourished marine life throughout change of the reproduction process “tongue” (Glosso) “fern” (pteris); it Earth’s history. The direct vertebrate from releasing spores in water may referred to a plant with tongue- descendants of Pikaia with major spe- have taken millions of years to evolve shaped leaves up to a meter in length, ciation occurring from the Mid- spore-retention on land, seed repro- a pronounced midrib, and veins Cambrian through the Silurian and duction, and utilization of wind to linked together appearing like a net. Devonian Eras (520 to 360 million scatter seed-spores. Moisture Glossoptera indica and its variations years BP) eventually populated every transport channels within floral stems, (Gangamopteris, Gondwanidium) are

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widespread in coal deposits in India from the Permian and Carboniferous Eras; seventy species have been identi- fied in India (Chandra and Surange 1979). Feistmantel recognized that the plant group now known as “Glossoptera flora” extended across all of the southern landmasses (Illustration 3). Feistmantel found this species in a region of northeast India inhabited by the Gond people, and chose to call its extra-India locations “Gondwana,” a metaphorical leap that suggests India as the heartland of the earlier super- continent. Mary White (1990, 34) brings this into focus: “It would seem that the observations of early explorer scientists, who noted the similarities Illustration 3: Glossoptera Range. Glossoptera appeared early in the Permian Era (c. of vegetation in isolated southern 300 million BP). While Glossoptera was first identified in India, fossil varieties were lands, started the modern theorizing about moving continents and former recognized as common in South America (1), Africa (2), Madagascar (3), India (4) the supercontinents”—thirty years before temperate rim of Antarctica (5), and Australia (6), thus providing evidence for an an- Alfred Wegener’s suggestion of a cient gathering of landmasses in a supercontinent now known as Gondwana. Glossop- southern supercontinent and almost tera thrived for 50 million years; most species fell victim to the mass extinction at the eighty years before its existence was end of the Permian (c. 250 BP), with a few survivors evident in India from the early verified. Eventually Feistmantel’s Triassic (Pant and Pant 1987). “Gondwana” was officially adopted for the Great Southern Continent where these regions once cohered. The im- them failures, until the most effective portance of glossopteris in India as a variety emerged. Despite remarkable key to the Great Southern Superconti- designs that emerge in nature, evolu- nent has been recognized in the 1997 tion is a hit-and-miss affair with plenty issuance of a stamp (Illustration 4). of loose ends and runny edges. But Long before the greening of the effective varieties eventually prevailed landscape was complete, its coloration in the flowering; these included lures began. Some seventy years ago, Loren and strategies that bound faunal life to Eiseley published a series of essays floral. No matter how one frames the which he eventually drew together in a meandering road to cooperative floral- book called The Immense Journey faunal ecosystems, the flowering (1957). His chapter, “How Flowers plants that produced nectar in order Changed the World” is an evocative to spread their seeds, cone-seeds that account of the reproductive innova- are spread by foraging mammals, and tions of plant life. “The flowers hanging fruit that serve as attractive bloomed and bloomed in ever larger forms of nutrition—all these provided and more spectacular varieties. Some new sources of food for new species of were pale unearthly night flowers in- life. And all these innovations oc- Illustration 4: Fossil Glossoptera. On the tended to lure moths in the evening curred while India was still India-in- fiftieth anniversary of the Birbal Sahni twilight, some among the orchids even Gondwana. Institute of Paleobotany, Lucknow, India took the shape of female spiders in With the land prepared as a habi- issued a series of stamps picturing signifi- order to attract wandering males, tat that included thousands of varie- some flamed redly in the light of noon ties of plant life, vertebrate invasions cant fossils. Glossopteris, the largest ge- or twinkled modestly in the meadow of land were inevitable. India experi- nus of seed ferns, is known only from its grasses” (1957, 73). Some may hesitate enced it as fully as every other part of leaves which grew up to one meter (3.3 at Eiseley’s attribution of intention to the supercontinent. The transitional feet) in length. Since no fossils of woody flower blossoms; their decorative col- creatures were amphibians: tetrapodal parts have survived, its configuration as a oration may be the result of thousands creatures evolved from fish that are plant, bush, or tree is unknown. Source: of mutational experiments, most of capable of living in water or on land. A www.paleophilatelie.eu.

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huge data bank, Darrel Frost’s Am- Brusatte (2010, 2015) has shown, the 20 South Pole (Crowell and Frakes 1970, phibian Species of the World (2006), or so earliest varieties uncovered since 1975; Crowell 1978). Geological effects lists hundreds; Ranjit Daniels’s Am- 2000 from the Arctic, Russia, Mongo- of glaciation are evident in southeast- phibians of Peninsular India (2005) lia, and North America were of modest ern South America, Africa south of the describes and pictures seventy-two, size—some small, some not much big- Sahara, southern India, Madagascar, about one-third of the India total. ger than domestic mammals. They and Southern Australia. Around 100 Their proliferation and survival to the tended to be overshadowed by the million years ago India and Madagas- present is surprising since their navi- larger allosaurs and ceratosaurs, but car detached from Gondwana (Powell gation on land is often poor. With ever since the largest Tyrannosaur, 1988), probably because of crustal rift- awkwardly placed limbs evolved from Tyrannosaurus rex (“tyrant king of ing that separated them from the vast side-located fish fins, amphibians such lizards”) was discovered in Montana in land mass of Antarctica. Today the as alligators and turtles experience a 1902, it has held center stage. Howev- Southwest Indian Ridge on the floor of muscular challenge and are often poor er, the Tyrannosaur experiments with the Indian Ocean marks the rift travelers, walking on wide-spaced gigantism appear to have commenced where, in all likelihood, an upwelling limbs and dragging a low, horizontal with the extinction of allosaurs and plume from deep in the Earth’s mantle body along the ground. ceratosaurs around 100 million years powered the separation, the opening In general, correction of this awk- BP, with Tyrannosaurus rex achieving of the southwest Indian Ocean, and ward limb placement had to await the enormous size during the last 10 mil- the movement of the India plate emergence of reptiles. The legs of lion years before the extinction of all north. Its estimated velocity was the these cold-blooded, egg-laying tetra- the dinosaurs in 66 million BP. fastest of any plate movement on the pods migrated under the body to pro- Some 25 genera of dinosaur fos- planet—twenty centimeters (7.9 inch- vide vertical support. Having devel- sils are known from India-in- es) per year. Kumar et al. (2007) note oped lungs, they no longer lived in Gondwana. Their dates run from the that five seismographic stations on water, though they often waded and earliest Mid-Triassic varieties to the Archaean rock of the Indian Shield hunted in it, immersing themselves modest-size predators of the Jurassic indicate a thickness of 80 to 100 kilo- only as short-term swimmers, never and Cretaceous Eras (230-66 million meters (50 to 62 miles), about half the full-time residents. Three orders of years BP). Like dinosaurs worldwide, 180-kilometer thickness of the other reptiles have been identified in India- these include bipedal and quadrupedal Gondwana shields. It is thought that in-Gondwana, including sixteen Fami- varieties that range in size from small the base of the Indian Shield may have lies, with hundreds of species extant to mid-size. Tyrannosaurus rex is ab- been eroded by passage over plumes today: A Naturalist’s Guide to the Rep- sent from India and in fact from the or hotspots; in any case, its thinness tiles of India (Das and Das 2018) pro- southern continents; this enormous may account for its unusually rapid vides a rich photographic survey of species evolved on the northern conti- migration. How much of the ocean 280 species; R. Aengel’s Checklist of nents of Laurasia after it had separated bottom in advance of (to the north of) Reptiles in India (2018) lists five hun- from Gondwana. Thus dinosaur re- the India Plate was actually part of it is dred seventy-two. mains in India are confined to species unknown for it exists now as deeply- The most dramatic reptiles were that had evolved on the southern con- subducted crustal fragments sinking the dinosaurs that achieved faunal tinents before the Laurasian separa- into the mantle beneath Eurasia. prominence in the mid-Triassic Era tion from Gondwana. The iconic varie- Ocean bottom that trailed the India and dominated the planet for 165 mil- ty, with a symbolic Indian name, Raja- craton undoubtedly accumulated from lion years (230 to 65 million years BP). saurus (“king, sovereign, or royal liz- upwelling along the Southwest Indian P. C. Sereno et al. (1993) suggest that a ard”), was roughly twenty feet in Ridge and consequent seafloor spread- small bipedal reptile about a meter in length (Wilson et al. 2003), half the ing. length called Eoraptor, “Dawn preda- length of Tyrannosaurus rex. When India began its migration tor,” that inhabited Western Gondwa- north, the Indian subcontinent rafted na (Argentina) 231-228 million years Collision a rock-and-fossil record that had accu- BP may be the ancestor that eventual- When Laurentia and Eurasia mulated over more than 3000 million ly bifurcated into 500 genera and (= Laurasia) broke away from Pangea years. An interwoven chronology of 1000+ species. Many, perhaps the ma- (200 to 180 million years BP), the geotemporal, petrotemporal, and bio- jority, were small—the size of terres- Great Southern Continent of Gondwa- temporal events includes microfossils trial birds or our familiar mammal na remained intact; its southern conti- from Archean rocks, autotrophic bacte- species—with one well-known line nents dispersed at various later times. ria, stromatolites, trilobites, vertebrates experimenting with gigantism. The Prior to this breakup, during the Late from fish to amphibians, and reptiles up Tyrannosaur (‘tyrant lizard”) line, Paleozoic Era (330 to 240 million years to the great age of the dinosaurs. Some of evolved a separate genealogy around BP), the Gondwana landmasses were these fossil remains indicate that parts of 60 million years after Eoraptor, around subject to approximately 90 million the India craton were periodically flood- 170 million BP. Tyrannosaurs were years of glaciation—a result of super- ed during its migration, creating above- bipedal predators, but, as Stephen continent movement over a wandering water fossilization of undersea life.

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(Illustration 5) from Gondwana; it is thus found in As this cratonic raft moved away northern regions—China and North from Gondwana, existing species lived America (Brusatte et al. 2010; 2015). on. For perhaps 30 million years (96 to Among the mid-sized dinosaur re- 66 million BP) late Cretaceous dino- mains in India, the extensive collec- saurs coexisted with diminutive mam- tion of bones near Balasinor in the malian species not much larger than a western province of Gujarat ranks as cat or dog that had long coexisted with one of the most prominent fossil sites dinosaurs since they had diverged in the world. Here dinosaur bones are from reptiles 225 to 200 million years spread over 70+ acres, littering the ago. This India raft had moved far be- surface of the ground; fossilized dino- yond its beginning point where it was saur eggs have been located; and attached to Antarctica and was half- scores of skeletal remains of numerous way to Asia when a dramatic volcan- species have been preserved. The Su- ism set in. The drifting subcontinent keti Fossil Park on the bank of the Riv- evidently ran over a deep mantle er Markanda, in Nahan, preserves a plume of enormous power that broke different era of prehistoric life— through the underlying crust and primarily vertebrate fossils and skele- poured out massive quantities of lava tons. which spread over a huge territory in The striking uniqueness of India western, central, and southern India. is its collision with South Asia and the The resulting formation is known as profound geographical effect this im- the Deccan Traps, the latter a Scandi- pact had. Recent studies (von Hinsber- navian word that refers to a step or gen et al. 2012; Jagoutz et al. 2015) have stair structure that was most likely placed the collision of the Indian cra- formed from layers of lava overspread- ton with offshore islands of Eurasia at ing earlier layers. The Deccan Traps Illustration 5: Migration of India. Plate 50 million years BP and collision with today are up to 2000 meters (6600 tectonics carried India north from Gond- the Eurasian landmass 10 million years feet) thick in the coastal region near later. If this chronology is accurate, wana to its collision with South Asia. This Mumbai, tapering off to the east to the extinction of late Cretaceous dino- illustration shows rapid movement (c. 20 less than 60 meters (under 200 feet). saurs happened approximately 26 mil- cm. per years) following departure from Upwelling lava was evidently super- lion years before India became part of heated, resulting in an extended hori- Gondwana gradually slowing to 5 cm. per Asia. Species that survived the mass zontal rather than vertical accumula- year as it approached South Asia. Source: extinction included smaller amphibi- tion; virtually level lava flows have en.wikipedia.com. ans, reptiles, avian dinosaurs (birds), been traced for 100 kilometers (60 and mammals that now emerged as miles). The whole expanse is now on the Yucatan Peninsula. The story of the dominant species. While some spread over 500,000 km2 (200,000 the Chicxulub impact can be traced evolutionary development of surviving miles2), with a volume of 1,000,000 through the geological work of the species undoubtedly occurred in India km3 (200,000 miles3). However, now- father-and-son, Luis and Walter Alva- between its separation from Gondwa- separated outliers indicate that exten- rez (1980, 1992, 2017). Whether there is na and suturing to South Asia, the sive erosion has reduced both the some connection between this impact subsequent 40-million-year movement thickness and area of the original and the eruption of the Deccan Traps of species between Asia and the Indian Traps, which is estimated at three has been put forward as tenuous theo- subcontinent has rendered these less times its present size, making it one of ry but has not been demonstrated. The significant today. Within a few million the largest geological features on the effect of the asteroid strike, however, years, India’s animal population in- planet. Fossils located between layers was a worldwide mass extinction that cluded species originating in the im- of lava indicate that eruptions were eliminated 90% of terrestrial life, with mense landmass of Eurasia. discontinuous, possibly recurring spo- dinosaurs in India and elsewhere driv- The migration of India north radically with pauses of tens of thou- en to extinction. The Indian subconti- from Gondwana to the south coast of sands of years, and coming to an end nent thus became a graveyard for the Eurasia was largely marked by the when the Indian subcontinent had last Cretaceous Era dinosaurs, includ- preservation of lifeforms along with an moved clear of the underlying hotspot, ing Rajasaurus. The inventory of dino- immensely long fossil record of their which now lies under Réunion Island saur remains in India, however, does history. Meanwhile, the collision of in the Indian Ocean. not include the enormous Tyranno- the Indian craton with Southern Asia A worldwide catastrophe oc- saurus rex or its smaller ancestors, for began one of the most dramatic events curred 66 million years BP when an the Tyrannosaur line seems to have of planetary history. With the collision asteroid struck Earth with an epicenter developed on Laurasia after separation of the subcontinent with offshore

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islands (c. 50 million BP), the collec- tion of island terranes began, though they were subsequently crushed or subducted. With the full-bodied meet- ing of India with the Asian mainland, a slow-motion 40-million-year collision was set in motion which is still going on. Prior to the collision, the India plate set a tectonic speed record, mov- ing at 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) per year (Kumar 2007). Since the collision, movement has gradually slowed to the present 5 centimeters (2 inches) per year. One way of observing the effect of India’s continuing collision suggest- ed by Krishnan (1982, 73) is the distor- tion of the Tethyan Basin (the last remnant of the Tethys Sea, which sep- arated Laurasia from Gondwana in the pre-Cretaceous Period). This basin can be traced from Turkey through Iraq and Iran and it may have run as a straight line into the Indonesian Ar- chipelago. This suggestive calculation indicates that the collisional mass of India has pushed the basin north by approximately 1300 kilometers (780 miles). The result was a progressive crushing of landmasses that reduced the area of land along the line of colli- sion. Krishnan, who has written exten- sively on Indian tectonics (1953; 1967), concludes that “the estimate of the crustal shortening of about 1300 km . . Illustration 6: Collision with South Asia. The crushing and collision of landmasses is . would therefore seem to be quite a visible in the distorted lines of the Himalayas and the complex mountainous ripples at modest estimate for the numerous both ends of the range. The raising of the mountains outpaces erosion caused by wind, folds, overthrusts and nappes present rain, snow, avalanches, and rock slides. The area of Asia affected is several hundred in the Himalayan-Karakorum belt” miles in width and more than 1500 miles from east to west. Source: www.usgs.com. which indicates that “a region of great width was involved in the Tertiary deeper into the water. of her history. In the final phase of its mountain building movements” (1982, The present location of India to- history, India provides a unique exam- 74). While the precise reduction in day presents some striking facts of ple of continental migration with a area may remain beyond precise deter- chronology. During its extensive pre- collision more momentous than others mination, the impact region is highly history, India was elsewhere. Its histo- around the planet. In addition, India visible (Illustration 6), and the volume ry of stromatolites and trilobites, fish reminds us that every craton, terrane, of rock and sediment affected is incal- and amphibians, reptiles and dino- region, and nation has an equally vast culable, though the result is obvious. saurs and early mammals occurred prehistory that unfolded elsewhere The entire region north of India, in- while it was part of a sequence of su- from where it is now. It has been esti- cluding both the Himalayas and the percontinents extending far back in mated that most of the continental Tibet Plateau, has been forced upward time: Pangea, Gondwana, Atlantica, landmasses of the world have moved by this landmass collision. What is Rodinia, and Ur. The whole time span at least 10,000 miles. Alfred Wegener visible, however, is a partial picture. since verifiable life began is 3500 mil- would be amazed. When continental crust attains eleva- lion years while the time India has At less than 50 million years of tion through orogeny (mountain been a part of Asia is 50 million years. age, the Himalayas make up the new- building), it also gains depth or thick- In a scale we can understand, 97.7% of est mountain range on Earth. Their ness that displaces some of the under- India’s geological and biological past peaks are craggy and jagged and con- lying mantle, thus maintaining its occurred elsewhere with the time In- structed of huge slabs of obducted crust buoyancy, like a loaded ship settling dia was part of Asia calculating to 1.3% and sedimentary rock. Observation

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confirms that the direct impact of con- (220 miles) in width and stretches sive flows from mountain elevations. vergent plates slowly folded, rippled, 2400 kilometers (1,500 miles) across crumpled, crushed, and buckled huge northern India. Immediately north, a Culture slabs of surface crust which have been tectonic valley roughly 30 to 35 miles When we consider our bipedal steadily thrust upward, adding to the across—the remnants of the Tethyan ancestors around five million years overall height of the entire range Ocean basin—separates the Himalayas ago, we are confined to the miniscule (Illustration No. 7). Embedded in sedi- from the Tibetan Plateau, a 2.5- mil- fraction of time when India was part of mentary rock, shells, trilobites, and lion-square-kilometer (970,000-square Asia. If we focus our perspective to the other fossils mark the rippling and mile) plateau averaging 4,500 meters whole time of Homo sapiens, we are folding of seabed forced over the Asian (14,800 feet) above sea level. The vol- more confined to 300 thousand years, continent. Among these the oldest ume of all this land displaced and a vanishing fraction of the whole. Yet whale fossil on the planet was discov- thrust upwards is unimaginable, our day-to-day perspective, in India ered (Bajpai 1998): Himalayacetus sub- though the collisional history of the and everywhere else is so consumed by athuensis, a mammal that returned to planet suggests immense changes on the human concerns of families, the ocean—perhaps to the Tethys Sea. this scale have happened many times friends, school, work and recreation Dating to the Eocene Era 53.5 million in many locations. Meanwhile the in- that these easily swell to become our years ago, it is one of several Eocene crease in elevation outpaces erosion major or even our only perspective. mammal fossils found in the Himala- which began as soon as the first hills From this viewpoint, earth and biolog- yas (Thewissen 2001). were pushed up 40 million years ago. ical history can easily disappear like The highest peak in the world, The result is the deep, rich, erosion- the splash of stars in the Milky Way Mount Everest, stands at 29,017 feet fed lands immediately south of the now mostly out of sight beyond our (29,029 to the top of the snow), but range that form a fertile belt across the dust-laden skies. We need a double the Himalayan range features fifty north of India. The four greatest rivers perspective. No matter how consuming mountains over 7,200 meters (23,600 of South Asia—the Indus, Ganges, our lives may be, there is a larger story feet). The range varies from 150 kilo- Brahmaputra, and Mekong—are fed where the groundwork and possibility meters (90 miles) to 350 kilometers by Himalayan ice and snow with mas- for our existence was laid down over

Illustration 7: The Himalayas. The collision of India with Southern Asia led to a crushing and compression of thousands of square miles of landmass that subducted, obducted, and rippled, leading to a deep thickening of continental crust while raising the greatest mountain range on the planet, and creating the Tibetan Plateau. Beginning 50 million years ago, the collision continues today, rais- ing the mountains an average five millimeters a year. Continuing mountain erosion has result in the rich fertile lands of northern India and the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra River Valleys. Source: www.sciencing.com.

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billions of years on long forgotten and DeVore (1968) have suggested was complexity and detail; it began with earthscapes. Our significance lies in the “magic number” for prehistoric the decline of the Indus Valley Civili- our ability to imagine the whole story: band size. zation between 2500 and 1900 BCE to realize the place of humanity in the The second gene pool dominant (Possehi 1997) and a demographic shift light of this immense prehistory. India in India, identified by Reich et al. to the upper Ganges-Yamuna River provides one of many landscapes for (2009) as Ancestral North Indians, Valleys. Here the Hindu religion ma- exploring our imaginings. were later migrants from the Iran and tured, though its roots had been estab- In the past thirty years we have the Middle East, and points farther lished millennia earlier. The nexus of recognized that Homo sapiens migrat- north. More than two hundred years the Hindu-Buddhist civilization, ed out of Africa some time earlier than ago, this migration became an inevita- which was primarily mythic, laid out 65,000 years BP. A growing list of sites ble assumption when Sir William broad parameters that underlie the and artifacts has shown us that the Jones made his presentation in the subsequent cultural history of India. primary migration route out of Africa Third Discourse to the Asiatic Society The earliest spiritual texts were the was across the Gate of Grief at the (1786) in Calcutta, identifying Sanskrit Vedas; of four collections, the Rig Veda south end of the Red Sea to the south- and derivative languages as belonging is the oldest, having been transmitted ern coast of Arabia (Armitage 2011)— to what is now known as the Indo- orally and musically for almost 3,000 now called the Southern Route. In European language family (Cannon years until it was given written form in fact, an extensive sequence of artifacts, 1990). Subsequent research has shown ancient Sanskrit between 1500 and 900 human remains, and relict settlements that this family originated in the re- BCE (Basham 1991). The Rig Veda con- along oceanic margins indicates that gion of the Black Sea, near or east of sists of 1,028 hymns that are addressed the primary route that peopled the Ukraine or possibly Anatolia (Ruhlen to early deities (250 celebrated Brah- world was coastal—following the 1994). Indo-European peoples had ma, the god of creation) and appear to shorelines of South Asia, then beach- thus migrated, following the east coast be musical accompaniments to ritual combing around the entire Pacific of the Persian Gulf into the Indus Riv- originating in the Indus Valley Civili- Ocean from Philippines to Patagonia er Valley, and mingled with the indig- zation. (Wood 2019b). Genetic markers enous nomadic people in the region. It is rare that a single text can coastal migrants into India, or what Historically, they called themselves capture the essence of an entire cul- Reich et al. (2009) call Ancestral South “Aryans,” a term recording the most ture, but Rig Veda x.90 manages just Indians, provided one of the two major recent leg of their migration route— that. According to this hymn, creation gene pools of India today. Metspalu et out of Iran. Genetic evidence of lactose began by the sacrifice of Purusha Suk- al. (2004) suggest that the fertile ecol- tolerance among these migrants sug- ta, the Cosmic Man, who had a thou- ogy of India may have made it a pri- gests they arrived after the Agricultur- sand heads and equally prolific num- mary stopping point for some coastal al Revolution in the Middle East which ber of arms and legs. His sacrifice, migrants. Undoubtedly, numerous dates from 12,000 to 10,000 BP which resembles an “Indo-European South Asia rivers—the Indus, Narma- (Maisels 1990, 65-77). Their arrival corpus of myths of dismember- da, Sabarmati, Krishna, Godavari, with agricultural skills in what is now ment” (O’Flaherty 1981, 19), transforms Brahmani, Ganges, and Brahmapu- Pakistan is typically placed around him into the world, sky, Sun, and tra—would have invited inland river- 5000 BCE. By 3000 the Indus River Moon; all the wild and domesticated ine migration. But geological events Valley was cultivated extensively animals of the Earth; the four seasons; constrained the chronology of human enough to support numerous perma- the entire hierarchy of human society occupation of India. The Mount Toba nent settlements; by 2700 BCE the from Brahmins to warriors to farmers, explosion in Sumatra that dates to dominant cities of Harappa and Mo- and servants. From his sacrifice even 74,000 BP provides an important mile- henjo-daro represented the high point the Vedas were created, including the stone. As Stephen Oppenheimer of Indus Valley culture (Kenoyer 1998). Rig Veda where this hymn appears. (2004) notes, the Mount Toba explo- Asko Parpola (2015) confirms the long- From the various parts of his body, sion is thought to have caused such standing theory that these migrants too, the gods are born—the supreme extensive deforestation, ash fall, and established the roots of Hinduism. Sir deities, Indra and Agni, from his ecological damage in India that hu- William Jones had concluded as much mouth—a remarkable detail that sug- mans already there might not have in the 1780s: the Hindu Vedas and gests that the gods themselves come survived. Tools atop volcanic ash at Upanishads were written in Sanskrit, from the mind and words of man him- Jwalapuram on the Krishna River indi- the earliest extant Indo-European lan- self. The symbolism of this hymn and cate settlement occurred soon after guage—a clear indication that these its connection to other Hindu writings the Mount Toba event. In general, Ho- northern migrants provided not only deserves the attention of anyone mo sapiens in India over the next the language but also the fundamental seeking to understand the roots of 65,000 years were nomadic hunter- concepts and beliefs that evolved into Indian culture (Wood 2017). The over- gatherers (Misra 2001), most likely Hinduism (Basham 1954; 1991). all structure of this narrative says that clustered into tribal units of approxi- The history of India over the past the multiple heads and limbs of the mately thirty individuals, which Lee 3000 to 4000 years is encyclopedic in Cosmic Man are in fact the heads and

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limbs of all humankind, 7+ billion so cosmic in scope, that it has in- satta” (Francis and Thomas 1987, 5). heads and double that number of spired cultures across what Ptolemy According to the mythology that de- arms and legs, though they cohere as labeled on his map INDIA EXTRA veloped around the Buddha (560-480 a spiritual unity originating in the GANGEM, “India beyond the Gan- BCE), he was the most recent of twen- creative event itself and evident in the ges” (Ptolemy 1991) where it has been ty-five Buddhas born at intervals of history of Indian society for the past translated multiple times in Myan- 5,000 years. People routinely forget thirty centuries. mar, Thailand, and Indonesia and its the message of the Buddha; hence it is The unity of humankind in India episodes have been sculpted on tem- necessary that he regularly return to earned further confirmation in the ples from Bangkok’s Grand Palace in renew the Four Noble Truths and the Upanishads. The word means “forest Bangkok, Angkor Wat in Kamboja, Eightfold Path. Simple mathematics discourses.” These were one hundred the Prambanan Temple in Central shows that this sequence of earlier nine philosophical writings composed Java, Majapahit temples in East Java, Buddhas extends over 125,000 years. by spiritual philosophers—ascetics and carvings in dramatic relief on the The mythology behind the Jataka Ta- who escaped to isolated forest set- island of Bali (Illustration No. 8). les “has little to do with the funda- tings, thus setting themselves apart The central narrative is the cap- mental teachings of Bud- from society to pursue the enlighten- tivity of the princess Sita and her dra- dhism” (Conze 1951, 97), and has no ment known as moksha: the realiza- matic rescue by prince Rama. The part in the profoundly complex phi- tion that one’s atman (the individual story is too complex to summarize, losophy of Buddhism (Guenther 1972). self) is one with Brahman (the cosmic but the narrative unfolds against a But the mythology itself constitutes self). This ultimate discovery is sum- time frame unknown in Western liter- further evidence that history and pre- marized in the Chandogya Upanishad ature. Before Rama was born, his fa- history in India is conceptually far as Tat tvam Asi (VII, viii, 7), “That art ther Dasaratha ruled the kingdom of more expansive than other temporal Thou,” colloquially, “You are It.” No Ayodhya for 60,000 years; after Rama matter how many divisions occur, no rescues Sita and takes up the king- matter how many conflicting interests ship, he rules the kingdom for more appear, no matter what other reli- than 10,000 years. This, of course, is gions, beliefs, philosophies, ideologies literary myth, but intuitively it tells us may arise in India, the central truths that the world and the universe as of the Rig Veda and the Upanishads conceived in India are much greater, assert the underlying unity of the cos- with a much longer history, than the mos, world, society, and humankind. mere centuries of present civilization. This realization is the culmination of A similar mythic temporality is the Indian epic, the grand narrative of found in the Buddhist tradition. The the making of India. story of Siddhartha, the prince of a There are, however, two other kingdom at Lumbini, now in Nepal, is discoveries in Indian culture. They do well known: having witnessed suffer- not contradict what these earlier texts ing, he left the kingdom behind, assert; rather they deepen and broad- sought enlightenment among the for- en their truths, and remarkably, they est sages, then ultimately attained seem intuitively to recognize the an- enlightenment on his own, from cient roots of India that extend deep which point he was known as the into the past before civilization and Buddha. His wisdom is summarized culture existed. One of these recogni- in the Four Noble Truths and the No- Illustration 8: Rama and Sita. Although tions is that the everyday time, clock ble Eightfold Path (Walshe 1995). Fol- the Ramayana epic is dominated by time, the constricted time of mere lowing his death a body of legends jealousy, betrayal, kidnapping, abuse, decades, centuries, or millennia fails known as the Jataka Tales took shape and war, its underlying story is the cap- to do justice to India and its under- as one of the earliest literary collec- tivating love between king Rama and standing of the Infinite. The best- tions from India. The tales, which Queen Sita who suffer through exile and known text of India is the Ramaya- have origins in the fourth century Sita’s captivity to attain their rightful na—most of it available in the Clay BCE, appear to be a folkloric collec- destiny as king and queen of the king- Sanskrit Library (Goldman et al. 2005- tion, many of them animal tales dom of Ayodha. Episodes from the story 2006)—a magnificent epic of betrayal, somewhat like Aesop’s fables that exile, love, rescue, and kingship. As V. have migrated into the Buddhist can- appear in sculptured temple panels Raghavan (1980) assembled in a land- on. Here they take the form of lives of from India to Indonesia. Pictured here is mark conference and forty-four re- former Buddhas (Cowell 1895), each a woodcarving from the Island of Bali, gional essays, the Ramayana influence one “containing the life of Buddha recognized worldwide for its painting, has touched nearly every culture in during some incarnation in one of his carving, sculpture, music, and drama. Asia. It is so powerful, so magnificent, previous existences as a Bodhi- Source: www.Pinterest.com.

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traditions. Moreover, it constitutes a fictional history that adds to the au- thority and power of Buddha and Bud- dhism. While Hinduism has provided a power culture for India that continues today, the practice and theory of Bud- dhism gained its greatest strength elsewhere: in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, with influence in Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Japan. Its great- est monument is Borobudur in Central Java, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Illustration No. 9). This Buddhist view of time un- derlying the Jataka Tales, greatly ex- panded, informs the Indian Mahabha- rata, though on a much grander scale. This ancient epic is the longest literary work ever composed. The title means “great” (maha) “cherished one,” (bharat) and refers to the father of two brothers, Bharat, and thus the ancestor of the two tribes descended from these brothers, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. A disequilibrium in hu- man society occurs when the two brothers fall into conflict. Subsequently, their contentious relationship is passed on to future generations to become a blood feud between rival clans. A vast Illustration 9: Borobudur. The largest Buddhist stupa in the world, Borobudur, a square time scheme, which is also described in the Vishnu Purana, lies behind the pyramidal structure 118 meters (387 feet) per side, is located in Central Java, Indonesia. Mahabharata. Its units are yugas and It has six square lower levels and three circular upper levels topped by a large central kalpas. As Troy Wilson Organ (1974) stupa surrounded by an array of smaller bell-shaped stupas. Built over an estimated 75 clarifies, history unfolds through four years, its completion is estimated at 825 CE. The lower levels display 2,672 relief carv- yugas, or “great years”: the Satya, ings that stretch for hundreds of yards. Of the 504 statues of Buddha, seventy-one are Dvapara, Treta, and Kali Yugas seated in bell-shaped stupas on the top levels (shown in the background) and can be stretched through 1,728,000, 1,296,000, viewed through diamond-shaped openings. In the foreground, one stupa was deliber- 864,000, and 432,000 years for a total ately left incomplete. Following a 9th or 10th century eruption of nearby Mount Merapi of 4,320,000 years, known as a kalpa. the monument was covered with volcanic ash and jungle growth; thus the monument Rama, we learn, lived in the second disappeared for several hundred years, known only as hidden ruins by indigenous lo- age of the world, presumably the cals. Rediscovered early in the 19th century, the monument was cleared of trees and Dvapara Yuga, which situates the sto- ash by Sir Stanford Raffles. Source: www.unsplash.com. ry of the Ramayana well over a million years in the past. The Mahabharata time stretching into an infinite past reality, we need to emphasize the feud occurred many thousands of and a universe of endless galaxies so massive tragedy also realized and ar- years in the past toward the end of the vast that modern astronomy slips into ticulated in Indian philosophy. Sid- Treta Yuga. Indians intuitively under- its fold without a ripple. The correla- dhartha, who became the Buddha, was stood that present human life occurs tion of this mythic temporality with motivated by witnessing hunger, sick- in a minor sliver of time within an the geotemporality, petrotemporality, ness, suffering, and death. His Four infinitely long history and prehistory. and biotemporality of India’s past— Noble Truths include the facts that In his presentation of “India and the most of it in India-in-Gondwana— “existence is suffering” and “suffering Infinite” (1979) religion historian Hus- unifies science, philosophy, and spirit- is caused by selfish craving.” This is ton Smith pointed out that while the uality in a manner unique to human the ongoing fate of every human, but West was still thinking the world civilization. another great truth is that selfish can might be no more than 6,000 years But lest we seem to overpraise be overcome by following the Noble old, India was already envisioning India’s intuitive grasp of this larger Eightfold Path allegedly uttered by

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Buddha himself at Benares following are likely to think of Hinduism as a within the vast panorama of the uni- his enlightenment “religion,” but it is so much more. It is verse even as this journey may occur A variant presentation of human a culture that penetrates ever dimen- amidst the tragedy of conflict and war. suffering and selfish craving on a mas- sion of Indian life. It is not likely that it These central truths of the Maha- sive scale appears in the Mahabharata can solve the problem of armies pre- bharata and the Bhagavad Gita appear epic. As this enormous story unfolds, pared to fight against their own kin; to have been recognized as fundamen- generation after generation, the feud- that is the virtually unsolvable tragedy tal through Indian history until mod- ing clans grow in numbers. Eventually, of human history, of wars that have ern times. The ancestor of warring after millennia of feuding, they num- besieged the underlying unity of hu- feuds, Bharat, was idealized as the uni- ber in the hundreds of thousands, but man life since civilization began, and fying king before civilization was shat- no one remembers what the original they continue today. Amid this trage- tered by division and conflict, war and feud between the brothers was all dy, however, the underlying unity of destruction, and thus a symbolic union about. Moreover, the warring clans life remains, and there are many paths of opposites, the One behind the have forgotten the primary truth that to that realization. Our understanding Many. Understood this way, Bharat all humans are ultimately brothers— of Hindu culture is too small; seen in has remained the transcendent symbol and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles, its entirely, it is a final episode in an for a great ideal. Thus when India nephews and nieces. Everyone on epic journey “from atoms to atman,” a gained independence and framed her Earth is related, as in fact genetically grand narrative tracing out the emer- modern constitution in 1950, the sym- we are. The realization of this tragedy gence of infinite spirit (Wood 2017). bolism of Maha Bharata, Great Cher- comes in a collection of eighteen chap- The multiple paths confirm that all of ished One, was seen and felt as the ters in The Mahabharata when the ar- human life—every path, every practice, unifying power of Indian civilization mies of the Pandavas and Kauravas, every task, every human endeavor—is and culture. The Indian Constitution descendants of the original feuding central to the task of finding one’s way begins, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a brothers, are drawn up on the battle- Union of States.” field before dawn, ready to begin the final, decisive war, scenes from which have been carved in temples across Southeast Asia (Illustration 10). These chapters have taken on a life of their own; they make up the Bhagavad Gita, the central spiritual text of Hinduism. The action focuses on a warrior in a war chariot, Arjuna, and his dialogue with his charioteer, who happens to be the god Krishna in disguise. In despair, Arjuna looks out through the mist of morning at the vast armies waiting for the full light of dawn and asks his charioteer what it all could mean. The answers Krishna provides to Arjuna’s questions provide a systemat- ic presentation of Hindu thought and practice, specifically the many ways that humans may overcome egotism and selfish craving and pursue spiritu- ality: the many paths to enlightenment available to people from different lev- els of society. There are meditational paths, paths through learning and wis- Illustration 10: The Mahabharata War. A manuscript scene of Arjuna and his chariot- dom and work, family life, devotion eer in the thick of the final battle between the Pandavas and Kuravas. Eighteen chap- and love. All of these are different ters of the enormous Mahabharata epic that precede this battle make up The Bhaga- forms of yoga—“disciplines” that are vad Gita, the most sacred of Hindu texts, where Krishna, disguised as Arjuna’s chariot- equally important in the human quest for knowledge, wisdom, truth, and uni- eer, explains the multiple ways to moksha (enlightenment)—the many yogas of work, ty. With this wisdom understood, the study, family life, service, meditation. These spiritual truths mitigate the tragedy of tragedy of war now fits into the larger war between two clans descended from feuding bothers, sons of the ancient king, scheme of things, and the war begins. Bharat. The war led to 1,660,020,000 deaths, approximately 300 million more than As we look at Indian culture, we the present (2019) population of India. Source: https://isha.sadhguru.org.

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213. 1999. Trilobites from the Fred Place in the Cosmos: Big History Van Hinsbergen, D. 2012. "Greater Wessman Collection. Houston: and Universal Consciousness. In India Basin Hypothesis and a Houston Museum of Natural Sci- The International Journal for Two-stage Cenozoic Collision ence. Transformation of Consciousness between India and Asia." Pro- White, Mary E., 1990. The Flowering of 3, no. 1 (Jan-July): 246-260. ceedings of the National Academy Gondwana. Princeton, NJ: Prince- ———. 2019a. “Petrotemporality at of Sciences 109 (20): 7659–7664. ton University Press. Siccar Point: James Hutton’s Dis- Walshe, Maurice, and Sumedho The- Wilson, J. A. et al. 2003. "A New Abeli- covery of Deep Time.” Time’s Ur- ra. 1995. The Long Discourses of saurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) gency. Ed. Carlos Montemayor. the Buddha: A Translation of the from the Lameta Formation Leiden: Brill, 2019. 57-78. Digha Nikaya (The Teachings of (Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) of ———. 2019b. “Beachcombing and the Buddha), 2nd edition. Somer- India." Contributions from the Coastal Settlement: The Journey ville, MA: Wisdom Publications. Museum of Paleontology Univer- from South Africa to Patagonia.” Wegener, Alfred. 1915. The Origin of sity of Michigan 31 (1): 1–42. Journal of Big History 3, no. 4. 19- Continents and Oceans. New Wood, Barry. 2017. “From Atoms to 46. York: Dover Publications. Atman: The Grand Narrative and Wessman, Fred, and Jaelyn J. Eberle. the Emergence of Spirit.” Our

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A New Era for Our Fellow Creatures

Andrés Arias Rodríguez Uníversidad de Ovíedo

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Arias Rodriguez, Andrés. “A New Era for Our Fellow Creatures.” Journal of Big History IV, no. 1: 67-68, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4120. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4120

Christine M. Korsgaard is a re- nowned philosopher who has taught at Harvard University for almost three decades. She works on moral philoso- phy, interpretations of ethical theory, the works of Immanuel Kant, and the ethics surrounding our treatment of animals. This is her first book that addresses the treatment of animals. Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals has been brew- ing since the author became a vegetar- ian several years ago. This became her reason, her motivation for writing about the ethical treatment of ani- mals. Animals have changed the course of human history. They have provided food, shelter and clothing, companionship, and labor; they have worked for us; they have even fought for us. Without them our history would have been far less certain and it is unlikely that advanced civilization would have developed. Yet our current society seems to have forgotten how much we owe to animals. I fully sub- scribe to the author's belief that “the way human beings now treat the other animals is a moral atrocity of enor- mous proportions” (p. xi). In clear lan- guage, and in a style suitable for non- specialists, Korsgaard presents her passionate moral views and her rea- soned, objective philosophical argu- ments, on this controversial topic. In Fellow Creatures she establishes her argument in the framework of two philosophical commitments: 1) Kant’s ethics, which effectively support the

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notion of animal rights and the con- derived from them, aiming to defend ment of animals as pets; and using of comitant idea that we, therefore, have her interpretive view of Kant’s ethics. working animals, animals in the mili- obligations toward them; and 2) a par- Although these sections are heavily tary, or the animals in scientific exper- ticular point of view derived from the theoretical, they provide non- iments. At this critical juncture, she theory of Aristotle about why some specialist readers, even those without argues that one needs a good reason things are good and others bad. She a strong background in philosophy, to kill or harm an animal, and often defends as her core thesis the basic the opportunity to immerse them- we do not have it. She considers that correctness of Kant’s account of why selves in Kantian ethics and to acquire all situations that involve the treat- we have obligations to animals, alt- some basic knowledge that will surely ment of animals as a mere means to hough she admits that Kant himself help them to understand debates our ends are morally wrong, conclud- did not explicitly endorse this idea as about the treatment of animals from ing that the “fundamental wrong is explicitly as she does here. Thus, an ethical point of view. Korsgaard the system that allows us to view ani- Korsgaard argues that the common explains in great detail her proposed mals as our resources, here for understanding of Kant’s general theo- terminology, covering all the neces- us” (220). Further topics she addresses ry—i.e. the notion that animals are sary key concepts, like “creatures,” for with clever insight and good judgment non-rational, unselfconscious beings example, which she uses to refer joint- are of an ecological nature and have (thus giving them no rights) is mistak- ly to both humans and other animals, environmental implications, i.e., the en, and that Kantian philosophical or the term “companion animal,” in- value of the species, communities, the terms do not necessarily exclude ani- stead of “pet,” the latter of which she habitat loss and the biodiversity crisis. mals from being ends in themselves. considers demeaning. In her own words, “ecosystems, and “Even within the framework of Kant’s All together her use of terminolo- even the world biosphere, nature it- theory,” she writes, “it is possible that gy, her ethics, and her general ap- self, have intrinsic value, and [. . .] the rational beings legislate moral laws proach are convincing and will cause value of a species consists in its contri- whose protections extend to other any reader to sympathize with her bution to those” (192). animals. . . . We rational beings arguments and her point of view. In This amazing book represents a must claim the standing of an ‘end-in- addition, Korsgaard explores evolu- great opportunity for a specialized and itself’ not only for ourselves, but for tion, extinction, senescence, and other non-specialized audience to dive into the other animals as well” (131). topics that are an added value in this animal ethics and the ethical treat- Korsgaard goes on to explain how book. She even takes a look at the so- ment of animals and to ascertain how she sees Kant’s ethics as leading to the called “immortal jellyfish” (Turritopsis the philosophical reflection can help conclusion that animals are not mere dohrnii), which is one of the few us to provide a more robust response means to human ends, but ends in known cases of animals capable of to a current, pressing problem in our their own right. She does not support reverting completely to a sexually im- society. Hopefully, this book may Kant’s notion that our duties to ani- mature, colonial stage after having serve to raise awareness worldwide mals are indirect; instead, she believes reached sexual maturity as a solitary about animal cruelty and presently that our obligations to other ani- individual. neglected animal rights, making us mals—although not exactly the same The final part of the book—part one step away from ushering in a new as our obligations to other people— III, the last three chapters—deals with era for our fellow creatures. “arise from the relations to our- more practical issues, which, as such, selves” (XI). She feels that “Valuing”, are far more accessible to the general with a capital letter, is an original ac- reader, as well as those who come Reference tivity of Life, i.e., an important charac- from the natural sciences. Here teristic of a sentient being’s relation- Korsgaard offers her insightful vision Korsgaard, Christine M. Fellow Crea- ship to itself. on controversial issues like eating tures: Our Obligations to the Oth- Throughout most of the chapters meat and using animal products that er Animals. New York: Oxford of this book—parts I and II—the au- require us to kill animals or make University Press, 2018. thor reels off these ideas and others them suffer; the abolishing the treat-

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The Past, Present, and Future of Progress

M. O. Lozano-Justice Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Lozano-Justice, M. O. 2019. “The Past, Present, and Future of Progress.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 69-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4140. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4140

The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer sacrifice to [. . . .]” —Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

“The story of human progress is truly heroic. It is glorious. It is uplifting. It is even, I daresay, spiritual.” —Steven Pinker (Enlightenment Now)

“[I]f you dream of a society in which truth reigns supreme and myths are ignored, you have little to expect from Homo Sapiens. Better to try your luck with chimps.”—Yuval Noah Harari (21 Lessons for the 21st Century)

At a time when anger and anomie lightenment project worked reasona- Both men agree that we are living appear to be the order of the day, and bly well but that when properly appre- at a time when it is difficult “to find the ideals of the Enlightenment are ciated, “the ideals of the Enlighten- meaning and purpose if traditional being bombarded from every direc- ment are, in fact, stirring, inspiring, religious beliefs about an immortal tion, Yuval Noah Harari and Steven noble—a reason to live” (Pinker 6). soul are undermined by our best sci- Pinker have entered the fray once Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century ence” (Pinker 3) and that we are, more to remind us that all is not lost picks up at the point where Pinker therefore, “left with the task of creat- and to ensure us that reports of the leaves off. After establishing early in ing an updated story of the death of liberalism are greatly exagger- his book that liberalism is (as Pinker world” (Harari 16). In a world where ated. Taken together, Pinker and Ha- also contends), “the most successful many exhibit “an inability to conceive rari, in their most recent books, offer a and most versatile political model hu- of a higher purpose in anything other calculated and compelling assessment mans have so far developed for dealing than religion,” and where “cynicism of how far humanity has come as a with the challenges of the modern about the institutions of moderni- species and where we should look to world” (Harari xviii), Harari then looks ty” (Pinker xv) has become the norm, go in the future. In Enlightenment to the immediate future and asks how will this new story go? Is a new, Now: The Case for Reason, Science, whether the ideals of the Enlighten- captivating, and unified narrative even Humanism, and Progress, Pinker con- ment will be enough to deal with the necessary— or desirable? Harari, for tends that now, more than ever, as the oncoming revolutions in information one, is unequivocal on the matter: “If dominant narrative has become that of technology and biotechnology. He this generation lacks a comprehensive a deepening global crisis and the fail- maintains that in the next few decades view of the cosmos, the future of life ure of modernity, classical liberalism humankind will be confronted with will be decided at random” (Harari needs a forceful and steadfast defense. the most challenging dilemma we 266). Although Pinker and Harari do Using a bewildering amount of data have ever faced. If liberalism wishes to agree on much and more, they also that are neatly broken down into di- survive in a world where infotech and have their points of disagreement. In gestible graphs, Pinker is able to argue biotech collide, it will have to adjust fact, they are somewhat reminiscent of convincingly that not only has the En- and reinvent itself once again. Pestov and Sergey Ivanovich at one of

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Stiva’s parties in Anna Karenina. “Both tues and values of the Enlightenment. which Harari directly addresses. [are] men respected for their character As Pinker rightly asserts, it is these To Pinker’s charge that universities and their intelligence” but are in masters of suspicion, or as he disparag- have become infested with a pessimistic marked disagreement on several sub- ingly calls them, “prophets of doom,” frame of mind and that there is a dire jects, “not because they belong to oppo- who have become the rock stars of the need to change this outlook to a more site parties, but precisely because they liberal arts curriculum. Where Pinker is optimistic one, Harari offers a simple [are] of the same party,” where “each on weaker footing is in his tacit asser- and straightforward explanation. In the has his own special shade of opinion.” tion that we would all be better off if book’s introduction, while detailing his However, at this party, the task of these men never existed. In one passage reasoning for writing the book in the “jeering without anger” at their (penned with palpable vitriol and bit- manner in which he does (focusing on “incorrigible aberrations” will fall to me. terness), Pinker defends the Enlighten- the shortcomings of modernity and the ment project against charges that it is a In two early chapters titled liberal worldview), Harari states that “I Western creation that refuses to ac- “Counter-Enlightenments” and do so not because I believe liberal de- count for the great diversity of thought “Progressophobia,” Pinker takes aim at mocracy is uniquely problematic but throughout the world and, therefore, is the academic pessimism that has infil- rather because I think it is the most unsuited to deal with all the world’s trated and spread throughout universi- successful and most versatile political problems. While refuting the charges ties—in particular, the Arts and Hu- model humans have so far developed [. that “the Enlightenment is the guiding manities departments. Pinker venom- . .]” and that, moreover, “[w]ithout crit- ideal of the West,” Pinker tellingly re- ously attacks everyone from the Ro- icizing the liberal model, we cannot sponds, “If only!” before going on a two- mantics and Rousseau to Fanon and repair its faults or move beyond chapter tirade against any intellectual Foucault—with a particular rancor re- it” (Harari xviii-xix). Put differently, tradition that does not fall within the served for Nietzsche—and urges us to progress does not happen and has nev- purview of the Enlightenment. This line abandon these thinkers with their em- er happened by praising how great and of thinking is shortsighted and prob- phasis on the shortcomings of moderni- perfect the world is but rather by recog- lematic for several reasons—many of ty in favor of those who extol the vir- nizing and criticizing our flaws in order

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to improve them. This is an obvious been mostly incompatible and can ple have always voted with their hearts point that Pinker not so much ignores; travel only so far together before they and not their minds. However, what instead, he seems to view as a useful are forced to go their separate ways. Pinker does best in his book tool of a bygone era, yet it is no longer This is not a new discovery but rather (sometimes subtly, other times heavy- applicable to our modern world ruled a dilemma that scholars are aware of handedly) is to remind us that it is the by the self-correcting procedures of and have been wrestling with for hun- very “nature of progress that it erases science and reason. In a quite frankly dreds of years. If you want a powerful its tracks, and its champions fixate on shocking display of presentism, Pinker story, you have to invent fictions; on the remaining injustices and forget praises the “muckraking journalists the flip-side of that, if you want a how far we have come” (Pinker 215). It and novelists like Upton Sin- truthful story at some point, you will is this last profound point of Pinker’s, clair” (Pinker 186) for propelling pro- have to renounce power. When sitting which he underscores throughout, gress during the early 20th century down to write, scholars have to ask that brings me to my final critique. while simultaneously bemoaning the themselves, “Do they serve truth or Throughout his book, Pinker is fact that in recent years works on top- power? Should they aim to unite peo- able to make a compelling case for ics such as genocide, terrorism, can- ple by making sure everyone believes progress in large part because he takes cer, and racism have received major in the same story, or should they let a long-durée view of history. Pinker is literary prizes as works on progress people know the truth even at the correct that if we take a broad view of have been given short-shrift. In a book price of disunity?” (Harari 247) Some history as opposed to a narrow one, about progress, this blatant disregard of the most successful scholars and all what we begin to see is a more pro- for how progress continues to work is of the most powerful narratives gressive and optimistic trajectory of troublesome. throughout history have valued unity history. However, it is equally im- over truth— in part because they un- Moreover, throughout the book, portant to keep in mind that we derstand that humans as a species pre- Pinker showcases a surprising display should never replace wholesale one fer power to truth. When writing his of bad intellectual history that I can view for the other. It can be extremely book, Pinker was faced with this same only assume is used intentionally to dangerous and misleading to empha- dilemma, and at times (though indeed bolster his argument. For instance, in size long-term progress at the cost of not always), he chooses to sacrifice a percipient paragraph discussing short-term atrocities. Doing so can truth on the altar of power. “scientific racism,” which reached peak make indefensible inhumanities seem popularity in the late nineteenth and Before this runs the risk of reading like right actions justified through the early twentieth centuries, Pinker cor- as a full-on diatribe against Pinker, it name of progress. Although it can be rectly concludes that “[y]et to pin ide- must be stated that Enlightenment easy to agree with Pinker that we live ological racism on science [. . .] is bad Now is a thoroughly engaging and in- at a time when progress needs a deter- intellectual history” (Pinker 397). Alt- valuable read that gets much more mined defense, it is vital that this de- hough his statement is 100% correct, right than it does wrong. One of the fense must not turn into a fetishiza- the problem arises when Pinker then stronger points of the book comes tion of progress. turns around and participates in this when Pinker details how the Opti- So, now that we have been dually same bad intellectual history by blam- mism Gap combines with the Availa- introduced to both the self-eradicating ing all of modernity’s ills on the coun- bility Heuristic to form a bias toward nature of progress and the dangers in ter-enlightenment thinkers and pro- negativity, which is further reinforced fetishizing progress—what does the gressophobes. To display such a con- by the daily news cycles to form a dis- future of progress look like? As Harari cise and cogent understanding in the torted view of reality that convinces us points out, we find ourselves living in one case only to turn around and com- that the world is all going to pot. Oth- an age of bewilderment where simul- mit the same errors is a baffling show- er strong chapters include his chapters taneously the credibility of liberalism case of willful ignorance and intellec- titled “Terrorism” and “Science.” In the is being questioned, and the twin rev- tual dishonesty. former chapter, Pinker reminds us olutions in information technology (through data, as is his forte) that the As perplexing as Pinker’s reason- and biotechnology are confronting us very nature and design of terrorism is ing is in the matter, it may have its head-on and threatening to reshape to create an outsized panic by combin- roots in something Harari directly the world as we know it. In such a ing major dread with minor harm. confronts in a particularly insightful time of uncertainty, one cannot be While in the latter chapter, Pinker’s chapter titled “Post-Truth: Some Fake faulted for calling into question the coverage of C. P. Snow and Snow’s News Lasts Forever.” After succinctly progressive projection of history and advocation of a “Third Culture” going explaining that humans have always wondering what the future will hold. forward is particularly refreshing. In lived in an age of post-truth because Questions such as “Who are we? What his chapter, “Democracy,” Pinker Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, should we do in life? What kinds of shines when discussing what he aptly Harari moves on to a discussion on skills do we need? Given everything refers to as our civics-class idealization truth vs. power. As he masterfully de- we know and don’t know about sci- of democracy and makes the compel- tails, truth and power have always ence, about God, about politics, and ling case that throughout history, peo-

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about religion, what can we say ner self that we choose to create. As culated, and thoroughly researched about the meaning of life to- misleading and false as the stories of assessment of the state of the world day?” (Harari xviii) require fresh an- ourselves are, they nevertheless pro- and should be given a serious look swers in an era of looming ecological vide us with explanations to the by anyone concerned with the con- crisis and the growing threat of questions of who we are; where we temporary story of who we are, weapons of mass destruction. Add to come from; and where we should where we come from, and where we the mix the fact that the revolutions look to go. However, as Harari elo- should look to head in the immedi- in infotech and biotech are “giving quently explains: if you really want ate future. humanity the power to reshape and to understand yourself, “The first reengineer life” (Harari xviii), and thing you need to know about your- these questions become even more self is that you are not a sto- pressing. As Harari concludes, noth- ry” (Harari 306), and that we should References ing is more crucial in an age of be- cease to identify with these sanitized wilderment than self-observation and fictitious inner narratives with Harari, Yuval Noah. 21 Lessons for and self-knowledge. In the penulti- which we choose to delude our- the 21st Century. New York: Spie- mate chapter of 21 Lessons titled selves. In the immediate future, self- gel & Grau, 2018. “Meaning: Life Is Not a Story,” Harari observation and self-knowledge will Pinker, Steven. Enlightenment Now: underscores the vital importance of be paramount, for “Unless you are The Case for Reason, Science, understanding ourselves. As he happy to entrust the future of life to Humanism, and Progress. New states, “in order to understand our- the mercy of quarterly revenue re- York: Penguin Books, 2018. selves, a crucial step is to ports, you need a clear idea of what acknowledge that the ‘self’ is a fic- life is all about” (Harari xviii). tional story that the intricate mecha- Although Pinker offers an opti- nisms of our mind constantly manu- mistic take on our past and present facture, update, and rewrite” (Harari and Harari takes a more tempered 305). This story that we tell our- and pessimistic approach to our im- selves, about ourselves, often bears mediate future, taken together, En- little resemblance to reality, and the lightenment Now and 21 Lessons for vast majority of our experiences nev- the 21st Century offer a sobering, cal- er enter into the narrative of the in-

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Big History and the New Story William Katerberg Calvin University

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | Katerberg, William. “Big History and the New Story.” Journal of Big History IV (1): 73-75. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4150. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4150

Father Thomas Berry was born in “geologian,” and “Earth scholar.” In the Readers will learn much about Berry, North Carolina in 1914, the third of context of Big History, he might best but the biography also is written to thirteen children. He joined the Pas- be described as an “ecotheologian” in encourage readers to learn from Ber- sionist Order in 1933, after his first the spirit of Teilhard de Chardin. Berry ry’s life and work. It is not a hagiog- year of college, and he earned a PhD promoted ecumenical and interfaith raphy. Neither is it a work of neutral from Catholic University in 1948, fo- dialogue over his long life and career, or critical scholarship. Rather, it is an cusing on Giambattista Vico. Berry notably with a deep interest in indige- engaging appreciation of Berry by studied in China in 1948-1949. He de- nous spirituality. More famously still, scholars who were his students and veloped a lifelong interest in Asian he promoted the “New Story,” a spirit- colleagues. This point should not be religions, later writing Buddhism ually inflected creation account, epic read as negative. It is to honor the (1967) and Religions of India: Hindu- of evolution, or Big History. spirit of the book—that readers not ism, Yoga, Buddhism (1971).1 In the “The story of the universe is the just learn about Berry but learn from United States, Berry taught at a variety story of the emergence of a galactic him about how to understand and live of Roman Catholic universities. At system in which each new level of ex- well in the modern world. Fordham (1966-1981), he helped to pression emerges through the urgency Berry defined his calling as closer create a distinctive religious studies of self-transcendence,” Berry argued in to that of a shaman than a scholar or a program, teaching courses in world “The New Story” in 1978. His “gospel” priest—“one who entered deeply into religion and cosmic Christianity. message was that the “human emerges the powers of the universe and Earth In 1970, Berry founded the Riverdale not only as an earthling, but also as a and brought back an integrative vision Center of Religious Research on the worlding. We bear the universe in our for the community,” in Tucker, Grim, Hudson River just north of Manhat- beings as the universe bears us in its and Angyal’s words. “It was the sha- tan.2 The center promoted human being. The two have a total presence manic dimension of my own psychic spiritual transformation and reflection to each other and to that deeper mys- structure that required that I go into on the mysteries of reality. Berry di- tery out of which both the universe some manner of inner experience with rected the center from 1970 to 1995. and ourselves have emerged.”5 the natural world,” Berry explained From 1975 to 1987, he was president of Berry retold this “New Story” in near the end of his life. “This was not the American Teilhard Association many forms, notably in Dream of the simply to enter into some form of the and editor of Teilhard Studies.3 Berry Earth (1988), The Great Work: Our spiritual life but to take on a social retired to Greensboro, North Carolina Way into the Future (1999), and with role.”7 That role came in promoting in 1995, living in an apartment above a cosmologist Brian Thomas Swimme in the New Story and the activism it former stable owned by his brother Joe The Universe Story (1992). Swimme called forth. and sister-in-law Jean. He suffered and Mary Evelyn Tucker, in turn, re- Tucker, Grim, and Angyal tell several strokes and moved to a care told it in a book and documentary film Berry’s life as an arc from an old story facility in 2008, dying in 2009. entitled Journey of the Universe (2011).6 to the New Story. “From his begin- More than a scholar and a priest, Berry’s goal was for people not just to nings as a cultural and intellectual Berry was a “shaman.”4 As a priest and learn about indigenous cultures, reli- historian”—and his upbringing as a a scholar, he was trained in theology gious traditions, and modern science, traditional Roman Catholic—“Berry and in history, culture, ideas, and reli- but to learn from them how to live. became a historian of the Earth.” He gion. He described himself variously, This same goal animates Tucker, “witnessed in his own lifetime the using terms like “cosmologist,” Grim, and Angyal’s biography of Berry. emergence of a multicultural planetary

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ics of evolution try to weave together such weavings are intellectually coher- scientific fact and explanation with a ent, they are appealing to people be- mythic arc. Like other epics of evolu- cause they offer scientific reference tion, Big History blends elements of points, cultural rituals, and spiritual modern science with philosophical and emotional experiences. and religious assumptions that are Berry’s New Story has been influ- rooted in premodern religious and ential among some advocates of Big cultural traditions. Sometimes the History and his ideas have been fea- blending is implicit and intellectual.10 tured at conferences—notably when Sometimes it is overtly spiritual or reli- the documentary film Journey of the gious in character. In this fashion, Ber- Universe was screened at the Big His- ry’s New Story uses modern science tory conference at Dominican Univer- but is defined by its spirituality, draw- sity in California in 2014. The confer- ing on Judaism and Christianity, other ence at Villanova in 2018 included New world religions, and indigenous tradi- Story-style “liturgy” in its opening and tions. The New Story was not material- closing sessions—all to some contro- Thomas Berry. Source: Wikipedia ist, but appealed to primordial experi- versy. A conflict between “spiritual ence, mystery, and mysticism. It re- agendas” and “science” has been part civilization as cultures came in contact flected Berry’s eco-theological interests of discussions at Big History confer- around the globe,” and he wanted to and his inter-faith sensibility. ences in 2014, 2016, and 2018 and in the put this story in “the larger arc of Like many Americans, Berry pages of Origins and the Journal of Big Earth history and the evolution of the viewed Native Americans as the History. 13 universe.” Berry “recognized the power world’s “first ecologists.”11 One of his Perhaps the greatest value of of an evolutionary story to engage hu- influences was Nicholas Black Elk, a Thomas Berry: A Biography, then, is mans in the great questions: where Lakota healer-shaman and Roman that it can help the International Big have we come from, how do we be- Catholic catechist. Black Elk lived History Association to work through long, why are we here?” Humanity closely to the land, especially as a boy how to engage both Big History schol- needed the New Story to meet the before the American conquest of the arship and New Story-style impulses in needs of a globalizing humanity trans- Lakota in the 1870s. He never gave up the Big History movement; for Big His- forming not just themselves but the his Lakota culture and rituals, but he tory is more than an academic disci- planet too. Berry believed that such a converted to Roman Catholicism and pline. From the start it has aspired to, transformation was “not only possible baptized more than four hundred Na- in Berry’s words, “the ‘Great Work,’ but already emerging.” Tucker, Grim, tive Americans. The Church has begun namely, what each person and com- and Angyal argue that the possibility the process of canonizing Black Elk.12 munity can contribute to a flourishing of transformation is “the promise of Black Elk’s life journey was very differ- future.” The conclusion of David Berry’s perspective.” The New Story ent than Berry’s, of course, but they Christian’s TED talk (2011) and its pop- “adds fresh energy to what Berry called shared an inclination to treat tradi- ularity, attest to the appeal of this the ‘Great Work,’ namely, what each tions not as mutually exclusive but “great work.” person and community can contribute cross-pollinating. My own view is that Big History’s to a flourishing future.”8 value is precisely that it is not just What Big Historians will make of Thomas Berry is not structured as meant to teach people about history, Berry’s New Story depends on whether a straightforward biography or a life- but to provide them intellectual tools they are put off by or value engaging and-times story. The first two-thirds of to live better as individuals and citi- with mysticism and religious tradi- the book cover Berry’s formative expe- zens. It exemplifies the holism of a tions. Berry described himself among riences, the development of his liberal arts approach to learning. Aca- other things as a “cosmologist.” The thought, and the major components of demia does not need yet another new term can refer to both scientific and his career as a teacher, guru, and activ- trans-disciplinary movement aspiring philosophical or theological accounts, ist. The last third of the book, in to be a new discipline; it needs public or a mix of all three. Mythopoetic ac- greater depth, explores both their scholars who bring together science, counts probably belong in a different, sources and their evolution. It includes politics, historiography, philosophy, if overlapping, category (e.g., the ac- chapters on “narratives of time,” Teil- and, yes, religion in compelling ways. count in Genesis 1-3 is a quite different hard de Chardin, Confucian thought, If so, then it is appropriate to explore genre from a systematically developed and indigenous traditions. the cosmological and eco-spiritual im- cosmology written by a twentieth cen- Nasser Zakariya’s assessment of pulses of figures like Berry, both as tury theologian). But mythopoetic ele- “epics of evolution” helps to assess something to study and critique and as ments often are woven into epics of where Berry’s “New Story” fits with Big something from which to learn. evolution, especially popular ones. History.9 Zakariya explores the ten- This biography, the writings of Ber- Even if it is not always clear whether sions, even contradictions, in how ep- ry, Swimme, and Tucker, and similar

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writings are a way to explore what in- 2017). Note Ken Baskin’s thought- of cross-cultural and cross- tellectually engaged writing looks like ful review of the book in “A Cos- religious influences, see Louis that crosses the borders among schol- mological Crisis?: A Review of Warren, God's Red Son: The Ghost arship, advocacy, spirituality, and pop- Nasser Zakariya, The Final Story: Dance Religion and the Making of ular writing.14 Whether one agrees Science, Myth, and Beginnings,” Modern America (New York: Basic with Berry’s ideas, or with Tucker, Journal of Big History, III:4 (2019): Books, 2017). Grim, and Angyal’s belief that we have 171-176. 13. See my account in Katerberg, “Is much to learn from Berry, there is in- 10. For more on this issue, see my Big History a Movement Culture?” tellectual, moral, spiritual, and politi- essay, Katerberg, “Myth, Meaning Journal of Big History 2:1 (2018): 63 cal profit in engaging a book like this. and Scientific Method in Big His- -72 (https:// tory,” Origins V:12 (December jbh.journals.villanova.edu/article/ Notes 2015): 3-12 (https://bighistory.org/ view/2255/2121). Origins/Origins_V_12.pdf). See 14. For other examples from Christian 1. Thomas Berry, Buddhism (New also Allan Megill, “‘Big History’ traditions, see John Haught, New York: Hawthorne Books, 1966); Old and New: Presuppositions, Cosmic Story: Inside Our Awaken- Religions of India: Hinduism, Yoga, Limits, Alternatives,” Journal of ing Universe (New Haven: Yale, Buddhism (New York: Bruce- the Philosophy of History 9:2 2017); and David P. Warners and Macmillan, 1971). (2015): 306-326. Matthew Kuperus Heun, eds., Be- 2. http://thomasberry.org/life-and- 11. Tucker, Grim, and Angyal, Thom- yond Stewardship: New Approach- thought/about-thomas-berry/the- as Berry, 241. Shepard Krech III es to Creation Care (Grand Rapids, riverdale-center-for-religious- has criticized what he calls the MI: Calvin Press, 2019). Note also research mythology of the “ecological Indi- the illustrated companion to Be- 3. http://teilharddechardin.org/ an,” arguing that historic indige- yond Stewardship at https:// index.php/teilhard-studies nous practices, before and after spark.adobe.com/ 4. This is the term that Tucker, Europeans arrived in the Ameri- page/4ddndTy8JoFcT/ (accessed Grim, and Angyal use; see Mary cas, included dramatic alterations 28 September 2019). Haught is a Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and to the land in their agriculture and Catholic’s exploration of the Andrew Angyal, Thomas Berry: A hunting, including damage to en- boundaries between science and Biography (New York: Columbia vironments. He also describes how theology; Beyond Stewardship is a University Press, 2019), 38. Native Americans in the 1960s- Protestant effort to develop a 5. Thomas Berry, “The New Story: 1980s came to weave their tradi- “New Story.” For more examples Comments on the Origin, Identifi- tions together with modern eco- of “green Christianity, see Christo- cation, and Transmission of Val- logical ideas and goals; see The pher Hrynkow, “Greening God? ues,” Teilhard Studies 1 (1978). It Ecological Indian: Myth and Histo- Christian Ecotheology, Environ- was also published in CrossCur- ry (New York: Norton, 1999). mental Justice, and Socio- rents 37:23 (Summer/Fall 1987): 12. Kirk Petersen, “Vatican considers Ecological Flourishing,” Environ- 187-199. sainthood for Black Elk,” National mental Justice, 10:3, June 2017 6. Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Catholic Reporter, August 25, 2018, (https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/ Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club, https://www.ncronline.org/news/ full/10.1089/env.2017.0009). See 1988); Brian Thomas Swimme and people/vatican-considers- the “Faith and Environment” page Thomas Berry, The Universe Story: sainthood-lakota-sioux-medicine- on the Earth Day Network site From the Primordial Flaring Forth man (accessed 22 September (https://www.earthday.org/ to the Ecozoic Era—A Celebration 2019). Black Elk’s canonization is campaigns/campaign-for- of the Unfolding of the Cosmos controversial as is the authenticity communities/communities-of- (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancis- of his conversion. The weight of faith/; accessed 28 September co, 1992); Brian Thomas Swimme evidence in Black Elk’s case and in 2019) for examples of and “earth and Mary Evelyn Tucker told Ber- relationships between Christian keeping” and “new stories” from a ry’s New Story in a book and doc- and Native spirituality and revital- wider array of religious traditions. umentary film, Journey of the Uni- ization movements suggests sig- verse (New Haven: Yale Universi- nificant cross-fertilization. For Reference ty, 2011). conflicting views of Black Elk, see 7. Tucker, Grim, and Angyal, Thom- Joe Jackson, Black Elk: The Life of Tucker, Mary Evelyn, John Grim, and as Berry, 38. an American Visionary (New York: Andrew Angyal, Thomas Berry: A 8. Tucker, Grim, and Angyal, Thom- Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016); Biography. New York: Columbia as Berry, xviii. and Michael Steltenkamp, Black University Press, 2019. 9. Nasser Zakariya, The Final Story: Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala

Science, Myth, and Beginnings (Norman: University of Oklahoma (University of Chicago Press, Press, 1997). For an excellent study

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In the Midst of the California Wildfires

J. Daniel May Dominican University

Correspondence | [email protected]

Citation | May, J. Daniel. 2019. “Writing in Context: Reviewing a New Book on Natural Disasters, the Review Being Com- posed in the Midst of the California Wildfires of October 2019.” Journal of Big History, IV (1): 76-79. http:// dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4180. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4180

26 October 2019, Bodega Bay, Cali- once it has struck. This resonates deep trast, we also see human nature re- fornia, USA within me today because, although it maining relatively unchanged, exhibit- You are doubtless reading these is true that wildfires have ignited nat- ing over and over behaviors such as words as published some weeks or urally for millions of years, the wildfire scapegoating, wishful thinking, and perhaps even months after the de- sweeping toward my home at this mo- the leveraging of natural events to structive wildfires that struck Califor- ment was likely ignited by faulty elec- achieve political ends. nia in October of 2019, but in the mo- trical transmission equipment. Mod- Jones opens with a theme that is ment at which I am setting these ern human beings have hundreds of familiar to Big Historians but much words to page, my wife Diana and I unnatural ways of sparking what was underappreciated by many people in a remain, unwilling to leave despite a once a purely natural occurrence. In modern world that insulates us from mandatory evacuation order, in our The Big Ones, Jones weaves an inter- our natural surroundings: coastal home. Just one week ago, I'd connected narrative of human psy- completed reading (for the second chology, culture, politics, economics, We plant farms near rivers and time) the 2019 non-fiction book by Dr. and technology. Her storytelling is near the springs that form along Lucy Jones: The Big Ones: How Natural compelling in itself, while her rich mix faults, for their access to water; Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What of disciplines should be a pleasure to on the slopes created by volca- We Can Do About Them). When I'd readers who appreciate a Big History noes, for their fertile soil; on the reached the final page last week, I had approach to understanding our world. coast, for fishing and trade. These no idea that we would soon be experi- Though the chapters are each multi- locations put us at risk of disrup- encing the very subject matter of the faceted, the book as a whole is orga- tive natural forces. (8) book I'd just finished reading. nized by simple chronology, starting But such obliviousness as mine is with the volcanic destruction of Pom- My wife and I were certainly aware of very much a theme of Jones's book. peii in 79 AD, and proceeding with those facts eighteen years ago when The Big Ones goes well beyond the each chapter devoted to a particular we purchased our Bodega Bay home, a physics of natural disasters. Though a event, leading up to recent 21st- property that sits almost directly atop leading seismologist herself, Jones ex- century disasters. The chronological the San Andreas Fault. Indeed, Bodega plains only enough of the natural phe- organization serves an important pur- Bay exists precisely because of tectonic nomena to allow the reader to com- pose in developing the key ideas Jones plate movements. But Diana and I prehend the sheer unopposable power wishes to impart. We may not see were both born and reared just north of earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, and much change in the physical phenom- of San Francisco, a region where the the like. These forces of nature are ena of planet Earth, but we see a huge 1906 earthquake and the specter of a truly beyond human control, but well evolution in the cultural and techno- future Big One loom large in the pop- within human control is how we plan logical responses to disaster over the ular imagination from an early age. for disaster and how we respond to it last two thousand years. In sharp con- Like most Californians, we have

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developed a variety of coping mecha- the various governmental entities from our house. Now Miracle's fidget- nisms and emotional adaptations to charged with ensuring public safety. ing made sense. She must have this knowledge. (For example, I am No, our first hint came from our cat, smelled the first traces of distant coping right now by concentrating on Miracle. Around four in the morning, smoke while Diana and I slept peace- writing this book review because I Miracle began poking us with her fully unaware. have no control over the conflagration paws and pacing back and forth across However, before you imagine blazing just forty miles away.) our bed, not unusual behavior for her that I am about to wax eloquent about How humans respond to the when she wants food or attention. But the wonders of feline threat- pure randomness of natural disasters two hours later, the young cat's fuss- perception, I must point out the con- is another important theme of The Big ing and fretting still continued. I be- trasting case of Miracle's litter-mate Ones. Such randomness "means that gan dreading my drive to work after and brother, Merlin. Far from living every moment presents a risk, leaving losing so much sleep due to Miracle's up to the prophetic fame of his name- us anxious" (10), to which I would add prolonged nervous behavior. Several sake, Merlin continued to lounge that humans simply cannot go about hours later, fortified by much coffee, I about the house as always, a laid-back their everyday lives in a permanent was on the road to my job at Domini- little lion-king, blissfully oblivious to state of anxiety. Jones draws on what can University while listening to the any possible danger. Although it's rea- psychologists describe as local news on the radio. Wildfire was sonable to speculate that Miracle "normalization bias," the tendency by the lead story, indeed almost the only might have smelled smoke, the fact is which "what we experience now or in story being covered that morning. A that animals of any kind are not good recent memory becomes our defini- blaze had begun around nine-thirty predictors of impending disaster, de- tion of what is possible" (10). For Di- the previous night about fifty miles spite the popular belief that they are. ana and me, recent This is one of the many memory includes nearby popular myths regarding wildfires of the previous natural disasters that The two years that inundated Big Ones debunks. Jones our region with noxious emphatically makes the smoke and a horror mov- point that the animal- ie orange sky for weeks. predictor hypothesis, But we never saw the which was taken serious- flames near our home; ly by scientists for dec- our electricity stayed on; ades, has been methodi- life continued despite the cally and exhaustively discomforts. Our "new investigated and has normal" became frequent yielded no supporting nearby wildfires but not evidence whatsoever. something we had experi- Another popular myth enced directly. As Jones that Jones addresses re- explains further, "We peatedly, and in convinc- think the common small- ing evidence-based detail, er events are all we have is the claim that scientists to face, and that, because already know how to pre- the biggest one isn't in dict various disasters, but anyone's memory, it isn't are hiding what they real" (10). know from the public. But the "new nor- Quite to the contrary, mal" began changing for scientists have been ac- us just a few days ago (as tively and energetically I write this), in the early attempting to predict morning of October 24th. disasters for over one We'd gone to bed the hundred years without night before with very coming up with a reliable routine expectations for method. In particular, the the next few days. Our United States, China, Ja- first hint of something pan, and Italy have in- strange came, not from vested huge amounts of the Weather Channel, time, effort, and money nor from the local electric attempting to solve this company, nor from any of problem. But if no one

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can predict disasters, why does the 2011 (which each receive a detailed leash) and our cat (in a pet carrier) myth persist that prediction is already chapter in The Big Ones) were entirely into our SUV. We'd bought this rug- possible? Jones offers several explana- predictable results of magnitude 9.1 ged vehicle specifically for emergency tions. and 9.0 earthquakes—but those enor- conditions, especially the annual The first is basic wishful think- mous quakes were themselves thor- flooding to which the roads near our ing. Disasters are scary, but we could oughly random, absolutely unpredict- home are vulnerable. While I tried to be less afraid if we could be warned in able events. concentrate on my duties at work, advance. When scientists refuse to Because of the seismic technolo- Diana drove the SUV to the parking give such warnings, conspiracy theo- gy and global communication net- lot of the general store (yes, those still ries are born. Many people choose to works in place in 2004, Jones was no- exist) located on a hillside from which believe, for example, that the govern- tified by e-mail about the Indian she could see our house. Not surpris- ment has a top-secret method for Ocean quake only fifteen minutes ingly, all of our closest neighbors had forecasting earthquakes, rather than after it occurred, and could easily picked the same spot to await the ar- accept the fact that an earthquake can foresee the devastating tsunami that rival of the big wave. There was no strike at any second with no warning would soon follow. Unfortunately, the doubt it was coming. The suspense whatsoever. Jones personally receives technological infrastructure was not lay in the fact that the experts could requests on a weekly basis asking her available to warn the coastal popula- not predict its size upon reaching to divulge this secret knowledge. In tions along the Indian Ocean that a landfall. one poignant example, a woman deadly wave was heading for their As Diana described it to me that wrote that she knew that Jones was shores. This was all the more tragic evening, it turned out not to look like not allowed to share her secret infor- because all the necessary seismic de- a wave at all. Instead, it looked like a mation, but perhaps Jones could an- tectors and communication devices fast-motion film of the daily tide: the nounce when her own children were already existed, but it takes the coop- water in the harbor dropped rapidly, taking a trip out of town. eration and vision of scientists, engi- right down to the muddy bottom, A second difficulty is the counter neers, bureaucrats, and governments then refilled just as rapidly, stopping -intuitive quality of statistical infor- to create such a rapid-response inter- just short of the level required to mation. Scientists do have the histori- national warning system. The ease of overflow the banks protecting our cal records to make reasonable proba- modern air travel meant that thou- home and the homes of our neigh- bility statements. For example, I re- sands of foreign tourists and business bors. It held that height for a few sec- cently learned (because I was renew- travelers were in the stricken regions, onds—and all watching held their ing insurance) that my own home has with the result that citizens of fifty- breath—then the sea water dropped a 3% chance of flooding within the seven countries perished, making this about a foot, stabilizing at the normal next one hundred years. But that's not a disaster mourned by a truly global level for that time of day. Everyone the kind of answer frightened people community. Within two weeks, ag- broke into applause, whistles, cheers, want. They want to know exactly gressive steps began to update the and some car-horn-honking. Later, in when the next Big One will hit them, antiquated warning systems. a more reflective moment, Diana and and that information simply does not When the magnitude 9.0 quake I, well aware that the roles could easi- exist. struck offshore at Fukushima, Japan, ly be reversed with the next big Cali- A third factor fueling the myth of on March 11, 2011, coastal residents of fornia quake, weighed our own good disaster prediction is that some short- western North America were rapidly fortune against the catastrophe still term events are predictable, creating alerted that a tsunami was headed unfolding in Japan. There is simply no the illusion that longer-term predic- their way. Video via television and way to know when such a disaster will tion must also be possible. But cur- Internet showing the devastation tak- strike. rent short-term prediction is limited ing place in Japan aroused both sym- 27 October 2019, Bodega Bay, Cali- to obvious observations with simple pathy and fear. In the days following fornia, USA cause-and-effect relationships. the Fukushima earthquake, Diana and Official warnings began arriving Weather satellites can observe tropi- I closely followed the news reports of on Thursday, October 24th, by e-mail, cal storms forming near the equator; the resulting tsunami traversing the text, and automated phone messages; and experts can make sound predic- Pacific Ocean and heading for the each new message becoming increas- tions of the speed, strength, and path California coast and quite literally ingly dire, arriving with increasing of the nascent hurricane; but the ob- aiming at our front door. frequency. The wildfire was largely servable process is already well under- One morning just after daybreak, uncontained. Record-breaking high way by the time such predictions are we received a reverse-911 phone call, winds were expected to whip the made. Likewise, the causal relation- the recorded voice predicting arrival flames across hundreds or thousands ship between earthquakes and tsuna- of the tsunami in five hours and urg- of acres yet untouched. One town mis is well understood. The tsunamis ing residents to seek high ground. I after another received mandatory that devastated the coastlines of the needed to leave for work, so Diana evacuation orders, the speed of the Indian Ocean in 2004 and Japan in took charge of loading our dog (on conflagration being described on the

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local news as "three football fields per Ocean. On the other hand, this is a system) and Merlin (the nonchalant minute." It was all headed right for us. rural area with limited roads and only aristocrat), take turns sleeping in her Even though the skies remained tem- one practical escape route. What if we lap. Fortunately, the fire itself is still porarily blue and clear in our little guessed wrong, and found ourselves quite distant from us, and we have village of Bodega Bay, every new text trapped by an inferno? My strong gut been advised to continue to "shelter-in or automated phone call raised our feeling was that the whole combina- -place" for the time being. The skies in anxiety another notch. My wife and I tion of electricity cutoffs and evacua- Bodega Bay are thick with wildfire began to jump at every sound, and tion orders was bogus, a sham display smoke. The sun is crisply outlined as a with two cell phones plus a land line of private and public officials covering bright orange disc. The electricity re- at home, we had an ongoing chorus of their own derrieres. As I tried rational- mains off. We are cold and uncomfort- ring tones going off, each new auto- ly to calculate our odds, another por- able, but we are also counting our mated text or voice message delivering tion of Jones's book kept coming to blessings. So many other people have increasingly ominous news. mind, her discussion of the evolution- already lost their homes or been By Saturday, October 26th ary psychology that drives life-or- forced to flee with no place to go. This (yesterday as I write this), fewer than death decisions: is bad, but it is hardly "the big one" for three full days after the blaze began, Evolutionary pressure rewarded us. Diana and I received the phone call brains that saw patterns, even in Speaking as a scientist, Jones ex- we'd been dreading: electricity being randomness. When we heard a plains the rigor expected in defining a turned off by the utility company as a rustle in the grass, we could im- relativistic word like "big" in objective, safety precaution and mandatory evac- agine it was a random breeze and measurable terms, especially when uation ordered for our little coastal ignore it, or we could hypothesize communicating with other scientists. town. Our SUV was already packed that it hid a waiting predator and Much of her work is consumed by with the essentials, including Diana's try to escape it. For the many translating how scientists speak in wheelchair. You see, Diana has been times it was a breeze, the wrong terms that are useful to urban plan- coping for years with a steadily debili- answer made us unnecessarily ners, public safety officials, and the tating arthritic condition, a glacial anxious, but it did not interfere general public. Much of the value of affliction that makes moving about with our survival. For the rare reading The Big Ones is that it deepens incrementally harder for her each times that it was a predator, the the reader's understanding of this year. She still walks short distances, anxious survived, and those who complicated interplay of objective re- using a pair of fore-arm crutches, but believed it to be random made a search and practical decision-making. it was critical to have the wheelchair fatal error. (22) How big is "big"? How big does a dis- packed and ready for the other end of If we gambled by remaining in our aster have to be to count as "the big our journey, wherever that might be. home, would we be making such a one"? What is the biggest "big one" for Evacuation was going to be especially "fatal error"? Some of our neighbors which we should prepare? rough on her. came by to check on us and commiser- In my personal experience, there We weighed the mandatory evac- ate; they, too, were contending with is a psychological, emotional, intuitive uation order against our up-close the same questions. use of the phrase "the big one" that knowledge of our own particular cir- In the end, we decided to remain demands no such rigorous definition cumstances. The fire was nowhere in our home, but vigilant. We still had and thrives in common usage because near us yet. Were we being flogged cell phone service, so we could easily it feels right. Californians talk about into fleeing by overzealous safety offi- see updates on the spread of the fire. "the big one" with a quasi-legendary cials? Was the Pacific Gas & Electric By the next morning it was plain to see quality, as though it were the name of Company cutting our electricity prem- that hundreds of people in Bodega Bay a monster hinted at in a prophetic aturely? Part of me was deeply suspi- had made the same choice. Traffic vision, always moving toward us but cious of the motives of both our gov- bustled back and forth on local streets. never quite arriving. No matter what ernment and the private corporation The sound of gasoline-powered gener- happens—earthquake, storm, wild- that delivers our power. But then I ators was humming from nearby fire—the damage and destruction you thought of the scapegoating psycholo- households everywhere. If we had live through may be horrendous, but it gy that Jones documents in her book. guessed wrong, at least we had plenty is never quite "the big one," because Was I falling into the trap of blaming of company. we know in our hearts that something faceless "big government" and "big even worse is always possible. The Big business" just to avoid the reality of 30 October 2019, Bodega Bay, Cali- One is always coming. what was happening? fornia, USA If we ignored the order and chose As I complete this writing, several Reference to remain in place, what were our more days have passed, and we remain Jones, Lucy. 2019. The Big Ones: How risks? On the one hand, we are about in our home, with Diana exhausted Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us as far west of the blaze as a person can and asleep in her armchair while the (and What We Can Do About get without falling into the Pacific two cats, Miracle (the early warning Them). New York: Anchor.

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