The Post-Partisan Emporium

  The archaeology of the mind How ancient DNA is shedding new light on prehistory and history Peter Frost Impressions of a cityscape , Louis-George Legrand (1801-1883) We adapt not only to natural habitats but also to culture. As the latter became more important, human evolution speeded up to cope with new demands on cognitive ability. Genetic evolution accelerated some 10,000 years ago in our species. Back then, humans already occupied the full range of natural environments from the tropics to the arctic. They were now adapting to new cultural environments. First, there was farming and life in villages, towns, and cities. Then came other changes: specialization of labor, formation of states, development of reading and writing, codification of social norms into law, and so on. We used to think that cultural evolution simply replaced genetic evolution. In reality, the two have pushed each other forward, even into the time of recorded history. Humans create culture, and culture recre...

  The Empire Strikes Out Some thoughts on the end of ages Radio Far Side History, that unsentimental undertaker, has buried every empire that swaggered across the stage believing itself permanent. The corpses differ in costume, but the causes of death are tediously predictable. Empires rot internally long before their enemies bother to tap the door. The United States, that once-boisterous experiment in liberty, now lies half-conscious, slurring patriotic slogans while the monitors flatline one by one. Mouldy academic types identify five reliable symptoms of imperial demise: fiscal ruin, political cannibalism, military overstretch, economic decomposition, and cultural rot. Let us examine the American specimen before the embalmers arrive, shall we? First off, empires collapse when the ledger stops lying for them. Rome shaved its coinage like a drunk barber; the Byzantines watered the gold; the British mortgaged the furniture. The United States has refined the art: it spends money it ...