Civilization #5: The Yamnaya Conquest of Europe
Homo sapiens originated in Africa 300,000 years ago, and for the vast majority of our history we were egalitarian, peaceful, and artistic. So where did concepts of patriarchy, war, and private propert...
8 Apr 41min
Civilization #4: The Paradise Lost of Marija Gimbutas
For centuries, linguists have believed that most European languages have so many similarities that they must have originated from a mother language, which is referred to as "Proto-Indo-European." Deca...
8 Apr 59min
Civilization #3: The Religious Imagination
Jiang Xueqin examines two case studies that highlight the power of religion.In his book "The Wayfinders," the Canadian anthropologist Wade Davis looks at the animistic cosmology and the shamanistic ri...
8 Apr 56min
Civilization #2: Religion and the Dawn of Society
The great French sociologist Emile Durkheim once wrote: “Religion is above all a system of ideas by which men imagine the society of which they are members and the obscure yet intimate relations they ...
8 Apr 56min
Civilization #1: Explaining Humanity's Transition to Agriculture
In this first lecture, Jiang Xueqin explains to his Chinese high school students why humans adopted agriculture.We now know that there were many consequences due to the transition to agriculture. Hunt...
8 Apr 52min
