Being a Human: Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness

Questioning what it is like to be human, British author and naturalist Charles Foster takes the reader through history from the Paleolithic, the Neolithic, and finally recent times by simulating the living style of natives of these three periods. For the earliest session, the author and his son camp out in the woods and forage animals and plants. He ruminates on the lifestyles of ancient and modern creatures and clearly records human shifts from dependence and reverence for nature’s bounty, to man’s domestication and conquest of the land for agriculture, and finally, to the modern era with its focus on technology and self-gratification.

Each section, from hunter gatherer to agriculturalist to citified residents, dealing with the three periods, includes sketches dealing with anthropology, natural history, theology, philosophy, and any thoughts that occur to the author in this seemingly stream-of-consciousness style tract. While the writer is considered to be brilliantly eccentric, this reader found the reading laborious, with constant repetitions in the first section and flights of fancy interrupting the continuity. Perhaps this writing style is more suited to the British frame of mind, but this reader found it tiresome.