holly_ocean
10-09-2007, 04:04 AM
Ground breaking book. Whatever your take on evolution (I really don't know), I know the author and what I have practically implemented based on his research works.
This is a review of the book by Dennis McKenna (brother of Terence McKenna)
'One the great puzzles of primate evolution has been the explosive evolution of the anomalous human brain. Another aspect of evolution usually ignored or overlooked by evolutionary biologists has been the certain impact of bioactive plant secondary metabolites, abundant in the omnivorous diet of foraging primates, on the evolution of human cognition, as well as physiological and neurological adaptations. The authors of Left in the Dark have proposed a stunningly innovative and challenging theory that neatly ties together these issues and provides plausible, rational, and scientifically insightful explanations for many of the most persistent mysteries surrounding the evolution of the human brain, cognitive and cultural evolution, and human brain anomalies. The authors also show how human interactions and adaptations to plant secondary compounds continue to profoundly influence individual human development, human behavior, and contemporary societal evolution. The authors have made an ambitious and well-crafted argument, and have done so in an engaging manner that will be comprehensible to any intelligent layman, and will also be of interest to anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, cognitive psychologists, neurophysiologists, ethnobotanists, and virtually anyone else who has ever wondered how humans evolved to be the way we are. '
This is a review of the book by Dennis McKenna (brother of Terence McKenna)
'One the great puzzles of primate evolution has been the explosive evolution of the anomalous human brain. Another aspect of evolution usually ignored or overlooked by evolutionary biologists has been the certain impact of bioactive plant secondary metabolites, abundant in the omnivorous diet of foraging primates, on the evolution of human cognition, as well as physiological and neurological adaptations. The authors of Left in the Dark have proposed a stunningly innovative and challenging theory that neatly ties together these issues and provides plausible, rational, and scientifically insightful explanations for many of the most persistent mysteries surrounding the evolution of the human brain, cognitive and cultural evolution, and human brain anomalies. The authors also show how human interactions and adaptations to plant secondary compounds continue to profoundly influence individual human development, human behavior, and contemporary societal evolution. The authors have made an ambitious and well-crafted argument, and have done so in an engaging manner that will be comprehensible to any intelligent layman, and will also be of interest to anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, cognitive psychologists, neurophysiologists, ethnobotanists, and virtually anyone else who has ever wondered how humans evolved to be the way we are. '