A dramatic thing happened

As late as the mid-twentieth century, when I grew up, pre-history was felt to be very long ago and essentially irrelevant.

The lifeways of the pre-civilized hunter-gatherers was Something Else, as animal life was Something Else. Neither had any bearing on how we live, who we are.

From Darwin’s work came the inference of continuum. And with the emergence of the social science of Anthropology came the inference of relevancy. The latter exploded into consciousness during the latter half of the twentieth century. Part of the explanation was the increasing questioning of the righteousness of how we’re living now: “This is really problematic. How did this come about? Could it be possible to live differently?”

. . . and a dawning that people had lived sustainably and satisfactorily for hundreds of thousands of years prior to the genesis of how we’ve living now. Leading to a new interest and a very new positive appreciation.