Being a Human review – two go mad in the stone age

Charles Foster ’s search for the meaning of human life leads him and his son to become hedgehog-eating hunter-gatherers in a Derbyshire woodCharles Foster ’s previous book,Being a Beast, is one of the oddest things I ’ve read. In it, the author, a barrister, professor of law, part-time judge and former vet, attempts to live as a series of animals, often in the company of his charming and heavily dyslexic eight-year-old son, Tom. We see Foster eating worms and burrowing into the earth as a badger, swimming nake d as an otter, foraging in bins as a fox. Now Foster is back with a follow-up,Being a Human, which acknowledges the charges of eccentricity and even insanity that were levelled at the last book.Foster ’s new work continues the project of its predecessor, although this time, rather than seeking to understand the brains and bodies of animals, his question is closer to home: what does it mean to be human? He begins with a contentious argument: far from being a story of progress, the history of hum anity is one of disenchantment and loss, one where we have severed our links with other species and the natural world more broadly and in which we live meagre, circumscribed lives. “Few of us have any idea what sort of creatures we are,” he says and embarks on a quest to find out.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 29, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Alex Preston Tags: Science and nature books History books Evolution Biology Culture Source Type: news