Where Are We Heading?: The Evolution of Humans and Things

by Ian Hodder

In this engaging exploration, archaeologist Ian Hodder departs from the two prevailing modes of thought about human evolution: the older idea of constant advancement toward a civilized ideal and the newer one of a directionless process of natural selection. Instead, he proposes a theory of human evolution and history based on entanglement, the ever-increasing mutual dependency between humans and things.

Not only do humans become dependent on things, Hodder asserts, but things become dependent on humans, requiring an endless succession of new innovations. It is this mutual dependency that creates the dominant trend in both cultural and genetic evolution. He selects a small number of cases, ranging in significance from the invention of the wheel down to Christmas tree lights, to show how entanglement has created webs of human-thing dependency that encircle the world and limit our responses to global crises.

Genres: Science, History, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Archaeology, Sociology

Paperback

First published August 21, 2018

About the author

Ian Hodder is Dunleavie Family Professor of Archaeology at Stanford University. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has received numerous awards for his accomplishments, including the Oscar Montelius Medal from the Swedish Society of Antiquaries, the Huxley Memorial Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Fyssen International Prize, and the Gold Medal by the Archaeological Institute of America, along with honorary doctorates from the Bristol and Leiden Universities. Hodder is the author of numerous books, including Symbols in Action (Cambridge, 1982), Reading the Past (Cambridge, 1982), and Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things (2012).

Reviews

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where Are We Going is anthropologist Ian Hodder’s historical account of human “progress” from the perspective of human-thing entanglement theory.

What the fuck is human-thing entanglement theory?

I thought you’d never ask!

Human-thing entanglement theory assumes: (1) people depend on things,(2) things depend on other things, (3) things depend on humans, (4) humans get caught in a double-bind, depending on things that depend on humans, (5) human entanglement with things (and vice versa) is an important and unique aspect of the human evolutionary story, (6) humans are probably fucked if they keep it up.

Essentially, you could unpack all of that as follows.

Humans (us naked apes) create and use things to survive.

Then, over time, we become dependent on those things.

Just think about how hosed you are without your smart phone and that should illustrate the point.

Hodder refers to this as:

Human-thing (h/t) dependence.

Hodder gives the example of wheat cultivation.

For most of human history, people were nomadic hunter gatherers.

Then (at some point) they started settling down and cultivating wheat and other crops.

Populations exploded.

Hunter gatherer skills were lost.

And just like that, people were depending on wheat, and there’s pretty much no turning back once that happens.

Only that’s not the end of the story.

Not by a long shot.

Because wheat crops fail without tons and tons of human labor.

In other words, wheat is dependent on humans.

Hodder refers to this as:

Thing-human (t/h) dependence.

Ok.

If you follow me so far, people are dependent on wheat (h/t) and wheat is dependent on people (t/h).

But wait.

There’s more.

In order to cultivate wheat, shit like ox drawn plows, irrigation systems and harvesting tools start out really handy, and then a bunch more babies happen, and then all those handy accoutrements are essential to maintain productivity, otherwise some of those babies are quite simply not going to make it.

So in other words, the wheat (thing) is now dependent on the cultivation (things).

Hodder refers to this (increasingly complex shit show) as:

Thing-thing (t/t) dependence.

But here’s the other thing.

Those things that the things that humans depend on, the things that the things depend on, are also dependent on humans.

Wait what?

So people need wheat, and wheat needs cultivation tools, and the cultivation tools need to be created and maintained by humans, which intern need machines and tools to create maintain the cultivation tools, and so on and so on.

This is what Hodder generally refers to as:

Human-thing entanglement (HTE).

And he uses HTE to discuss the human tendency towards exponential growth in complexity.

And by human exponential growth in complexity.

He means to say…

We’re all COMPLETELY FUCKED if we keep going in this direction.

So, where are we headed?

We’re headed to heck in a handbag!

That’s about as nice as you can say it.

We’re all increasingly strung out on increasing complicated built systems, that need increasingly complicated built soloutions, which themselves need increasingly complicated built soloutions.

I don’t mean to be alarmist.

But that just doesn’t sound like it’s going to end well.

In fact, we’re all going to die in a hot heap of trash if we keep going like we’re doing.

And….

It probably doesn’t matter that much if you drive a Tesla or recycle your kombucha bottles.

But let’s all please keep doing that stuff.

Anyway.

This is such an interesting read.

It’s a little short on solutions.

But that’s ok.

Because sometimes a great explanation is the gateway to a great solution.

And sometimes there just isn’t a soloution.

😳

This is easily one of my top five reads of 2021.

5 Stars ⭐️

[Vassilis MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5*

Στη ζοφερή για πολλούς πραγματικότητα των ημερών, προέκυψε το ερώτημα περί της προσωπικής περιουσίας, της οικίας και των πραγμάτων με τα οποία είμαστε δεμένοι και της ενδεχόμενης απώλειάς τους. Ποια είναι η γενεσιουργός δύναμη η οποία κάνει τον άνθρωπο να εξαρτάται από τα πράγματα ήδη από τα χρόνια του Homo Faber και του Homo Sapiens; Μήπως όμως εξαρτώνται και τα πράγματα από τον άνθρωπο, απαιτώντας ειδικό χειρισμό για να αποδώσουν σύμφωνα με τις προδιαγραφές τους;

Η εξέλιξη αυτή είναι γραμμική; Αν γυρνούσαμε εκατομμύρια χρόνια πίσω, με τις ίδιες παραμέτρους θα είχαμε τα ίδια αποτελέσματα; Θα ανακαλύπταμε πάλι τον τροχό ή θα υπήρχε μια εναλλακτική, τελείως απρόβλεπτη εφεύρεση; Είναι όλη αυτή η εξέλιξη ένας καλογραμμένος υπολογιστικός κώδικας, εν είδει δαρβινικής εξέλιξης ή μήπως ο γονότυπός μας εμπλέκεται με το πολιτισμικό περικείμενο για να δώσει κάθε φορά και διαφορετικά αποτελέσματα; Αληθεύει ότι η συνολική ενέργεια που απαιτείται για να δημιουργηθεί ένα iphone υπερβαίνει σε ετήσια κατανάλωση ένα οικιακό ψυγείο;

Ένα ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρον βιβλίο το οποίο εμπλέκοντας την επιστήμη της αρχαιολογίας, αποπειράται να μας διαφωτίσει σε πολλαπλά επίπεδα αναφορικά με την αμοιβαία εξάρτηση ανθρώπου και αντικειμένων. Άλλοτε πρόκειται για απλότερα ερωτήματα όπως το εάν όντως ένα ηλεκτρικό αυτοκίνητο έχει μικρότερο περιβαλλοντικό αποτύπωμα από ένα με κινητήρα εσωτερικής καύσης, από τη στιγμή φυσικά που θα βάλουμε στο παιχνίδι τον τρόπο παραγωγής ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας, το κόστος των μπαταριών και τις ιδιαίτερες απαιτήσεις τους (μαγνήτες, σπάνιες γαίες κ.λπ.). Άλλοτε πάλι αφορά τις άπειρες συνυφάνσεις που συνοδεύουν την κατασκευή ενός κολοσσιαίου φράγματος.

Πάντως, ένα είναι σίγουρο: το ερώτημα για το αν τελικά η εξέλιξη/εκτύλιξη συνιστά και πρόοδο, είναι απολύτως σχετικό. Προσωπικά δεν καλύφθηκα απόλυτα ως προς τις αιτιάσεις του συγγραφέα για την κατευθυντικότητα ή μη όλης αυτής της εξέλιξης, όμως πρόκειται κυρίως για ένα βιβλίο που προβληματίζει και οδηγεί σε αναστοχασμό, παρά ένα μια κλισέ ιλουστρασιόν έκδοση εκλαϊκευμένης επιστήμης. Προτείνεται.

[Katie]

Fascinating take on human social evolution that postulates that the main driver is human interdependence on things. The more things the we use, the more things we need. I have ruminated on this topic before when thinking about cars and how cars lead to roads and then to urban sprawl. Archaeologist Ian Hodder goes much more into details on this idea and where it could be taking us. I have been reading this book in bite-sized pieces because it is written more like a textbook. I concur with other reviewers that I would like to hear a lecture series or take a course on the topic.

Thanks to NetGalley, Yale University Press and the author Ian Hodder for the an advanced electronic review copy (Goodreads note- I reviewed an eBook version, not the audiobook version)

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humans have an obvious impact on the things they create. In Where are we Heading?, the author postulates that the things created also impact humans—and not always in a positive way.

The author uses the creation of the spinning wheel and its subsequent industrial machine replacement to illustrate the impact of things on humanity. The spinning wheel allowed the poor to create not only clothes for their families but also items to sell to fund other basic necessities. Once industrial machines appeared, individuals couldn’t compete with their speed or consistent quality. This forced many people to move to cities and deplorable working conditions. Eventually, labor unions and environmental laws forced the factories to move to more business friendly, and poorer, countries overseas. The book also looks at more modern creations like gasoline and electric cars.

There is much to be learned within this book and definitely much to think about. Be warned, it reads like a textbook, which I’m sure it is destined to be. The author has never met a term that he hasn’t stopped to define—even relatively common ones such as “thing”. If you are fine with that, I think you will enjoy Where are we Heading? but for most readers, I will give it 3 stars.

Thanks to the publisher, Yale University Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

[Venky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the years, evolutionary theories have taken the shape and structure of two dominant strains. The first theory has its advocates emphasizing society’s progression towards an advances industrial systems. The proponents of this theory view societies are moving towards a tangible end or a determined goal. The competing theory, pioneered by Charles Darwin postulates that complicated systems get selected over their simpler counterparts, on account of the former accommodating better adaptations to the environment.

Radically departing from the accepted wisdom, constituting the bedrock of the two hitherto acknowledged theories of evolution, Ian Hodder an archaeologist and professor of anthropology at Stanford University, introduces a new flavour, colour, content and context to the theory of evolution. Postulating a novel and compelling philosophy of human evolution that has at its crux and core the notion of “entanglement,” Hodder dwells on the exponentially increasing mutual dependency between humans and things. Choosing a few examples such as the invention of the wheel, growth of the cultivation of cotton etc. Hodder demonstrates how this mutual entanglement has weaved webs of dependency that both bestows benefits as well as brings bewilderment.
By using the entanglement approach, Hodder encourages the readers to be as ‘inclusive’ as possible and to comprehend the ‘artificiality’ of any boundaries that we may wont to be drawing, especially between humans and things. Explaining the inextricable interconnection between things themselves and their employ, Hodder turns to the wheel – an invention that influenced the contours of human evolution in more ways than one – to espouse his theory of entanglement.

A wheel may be subject to a fundamentally simplistic definition, ‘a thin circular object with a hole in the middle’. However, resorting to such a simplistic definition lands us in hot water. What about those wheels that do not have a hole in the middle and are not exactly circular? Also viewing the wheel in isolation would not serve any utilitarian end. Since a wheel cannot function without an axle, which in turn needs a frame or a vehicle to keep it in place, this cascading linkage exhibits the tenuous boundary between the wheel and the wagon. As Hodder says, “’wheelness’ is distributed, displaced. Deferred and dispersed. Thingness is a dispersal and a making of connections.” This entanglement between humans and things is illustrated by Hodder with the help of the following four acronyms:

• HH – Human dependent on Human;
• HT – Human dependent on Thing;
• TH – Thing dependent on Human; and
• TT – Thing dependent on Thing

Hodder argues that “human dependence on things (HT) leads to thing dependence on other things (TT) and things dependence on humans (TH), producing greater human dependence on things (HT).”

This unique iteration leads to what Hodder terms as an ‘expanding outer core of conditions and consequences.’ For example, the outer cone in the case of cotton spinning involves, ‘people, material things, institutions and ideas, including sugar, tobacco, trains, clocks, the telegraph, wool, flax, guns, spices, iron, pollutants, ships, tribute, clothing, unions, slaves, children, Native Americans, trading companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, debt, machines, wage labour, the movement into towns and the emergence of a proletariat, industrial capitalism, enclosure, the nation-state, governments, colonialism, and much more.’

This dependency between human beings and things forming an inevitable lock step may also involve a double bind. This mutual reciprocity and dependency which has the capability to both further as well as fell the prospects of humanity finds its full impact in the story of opium. As Hodder strives to explain, “the web of positive dependence and negative dependency around opium has brought addiction, wars, imprisonment, crime and terrorism”. While the Sumerians cultivated poppy seeds as early as in the seventh century BC its main purpose was a cure for various ailments. The Greeks also employed opium as a sleeping potion and a cure. From purposes as variegated as serving as an anesthetic for surgery and being mixed with wine/alcohol to produce laudanum, opium has traversed a meandering path from pure to pernicious!

Hodder also highlights in perfect detail, the contradictions and conflicts that stem from the mutual dependency between Humans and things. For example, the dependence on cotton set in motion a virtual and virulent chain of contrasts: “slavery and free labour, states and markets, colonialism and free trade, industrialization and de-industrialization, plantation and factory, colonizers and colonized.”

The famous German philosopher, Immanuel Kant even more famously remarked, “and we indeed, rightly considering objects of sense as mere appearances, confess thereby that they are based upon a thing in itself, though we know not this thing as it is in itself, but only know its appearances, viz., the way in which our senses are affected by this unknown something.” “Where We Are Heading” spurs us to never examine or evaluate a thing in isolation for doing so would expose us to dependencies the unraveling of which may shock as well as awe us!

[Arm Patsawut · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Entangled theory" is "5 Star Frog Splash!! TOTALLY MIND BLOW!!
"Entangled" the best way to understanding the Relationships between Humans and Things (so far)
Ian Argues that the interrelationship of humans and things is a defining characteristic of human history and culture -> by this mode of dependency->H-T ,T-T, T-H, H-H.
..In Sum..
Entangle Theory = Actor Network Theory + Complexity theory + Archaeological Data + Evolutionary Theory.

[عدنان عوض · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب مهم من الأنثروبولوجي البريطاني إيان هودر عن علاقة الانسان بالأشياء.

ينطلق الكتاب من عدة مسلمات منها:
كما أن الانسان (كائن عاقل)، فإنه كذلك كائن (صانع للأشياء).
صناعة الأشياء هي صفة مميزة للانسان عن غير كل الكائنات الحية، وإن اشتركت معه بعض الحيوانات فيها، فهو يتجاوزها بتتبعه نتيجة ومالات هذه الصناعة. مما يولّد استمرار علاقة بينه وبين الأشياء، تخلق أشياء جديدة وعلاقات أخرى. وهكذا تستمر الدورة في عملية تطورية / اختيارية / وقد تكون حتمية.

لا يمكن النظر إلى التاريخ الانساني وتطور الحياة وما وصلنا إليه بمعزل عن تاريخ الأشياء، كذلك لا يمكن تتبع تاريخ صناعة الأشياء وتطورها بمعزل عن التاريخ الانساني. فمن خلال عشرات الأمثلة يعرض هودر كيف أن اختراع شيء له تأثير متتالي وتراكمي في حياة البشر، والذي بدوره يحدث تغيير في دور الشيء وعلاقته بأشياء أخرى. فمن اختراع العجلة، إلى القطن إلى شجرة الميلاد والسيارة وغيرها يستمر تاريخ الانسان-الأشياء بلا انفصال.

يؤسس هودر في هذا الكتاب إلى نظرة كلية مقابل النظرة الاختزالية لتاريخ الانسان والأشيا. فبعد أن ينفي النظرة التجزيئية للانسان والأشياء، ينتقل لمستوى أخرى، فهو لا يؤكد على وجود (علاقة) بين الاثنين فقط. ولكن يؤسس لمستوى آخ يسميه (التشابك). والتشابك مستوى أعقد من العلائقية. فالتشابك تقاعل تمثل (الاعتمادية) فيه الانسان لقيامه، وهذه الاعتمادية إما أن تكون إيجابية-سلبية / اتجاه الصحيح-الخاطئ / بناءة-هادمة وغيرها. والاعتمادية تولد اعتماديات أخرى بين البشر والأشياء لتظهر في شكل:
البشر-البشر
البشر-الأشياء
الأشياء-البشر
الأشياء-الأشياء
هذه التعقد في الاعتمادية يجعل من الصعب أو المستحيل الانفكاك من حالة مادية حالية بأي حل جزئي لا يرى كل ذلك.
وهنا يسرد أمثلة على الحلول الاختزالية التي لا تراعي النظرة الكلية والتشابكية مثل الحلول الحالية لمشكلة التغيير المناخي وغيرها.

مما يجعل هذا التفاعل تشابكي-اعتمادي هو ما يترتب عليه من نتائج تتجاوز المجال الذي تعمل فيه. فاختار أداءة في الزراعة مثلاً قد يؤدي إلى تغيير في الطبيعة الجغزافية للمكان وفي فيزيولوجيا جسم الانسان وفي الاقتصاد والعلاقات الاجتماعية. ويتولد من كل مستوى حدث فيه تغيير علاقات جديدة وصناعة لأشياء بدورها تؤدي لتغيير أكبر وهكذا. وكما يسرد هودر وغيره: ما حدث لا يمكن إلغاؤه / لا يمكن العودة للوراء لنفس الحالة السابقة.

هذا الكتاب مهم جداً لكل مهتم بتطور الانسان، وبعلاقته بعالم الأشياء... لكل انسان تقليلي/تقشفي/ضد المادية/داعم للتحديث-مضاد له//ناشط بيئي/سياسي وغيرهم، فالفهم أول الخطوات... وعاماءم الأنثروبولوجي من أفضل من يطرقوا هذه الأبواب.

بالرغم من حجم الكتاب إلا أنه تطرق لموضوعات كثيرة لم أغطيها بهذه المراجعة المختصرة جداً

[Emmanouil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Στο συναρπαστικό αυτό βιβλίο ο συγγραφέας προσπαθεί με κριτική διάθεση να διερευνήσει την εξέλιξη-πρόοδο του ανθρώπου και την άνοδο του υλισμού. Μέσα από απλά, κατανοητά παραδείγματα (τροχός, αμάξι, φωτιά, όποιο)προσπαθεί να υφάνει την θεωρία της συνύφανσης.
Κανένα πράγμα δεν είναι πράγμα αυτό καθεαυτό και τα πράγματα δεν μπορούν να διαχωριστούν από την ιδέα των πραγμάτων και αντίστροφα. Άνθρωποι και πράγματα αλληλεπιδρούν στο εσωτερικό ολοτήτων δημιουργώντας δίκτυα και ροές που αλυσοδένουν και περιβάλλουν όλες τις οντότητες (ανθρώπους, ζώα, πράγματα, ιδέες, κοινωνικούς θεσμούς). Η συνύφανση αυτή είναι ετερογενής και απεριόριστη (αντιαναγωγική). Εξαρτάται από την σωρευτική φύση της ανάπτυξης και από την αύξηση στον όγκο των ανθρωπογενών υλικών πραγμάτων και στην κλίμακα των συνυφάνσεων. Όσο περισσότερο εξαρτώνται οι άνθρωποι από τα πράγματα και τις αλυσίδες των αλληλοεξαρτήσεων τους τόσο περισσότερο θα αυξάνονται οι ανισότητες. Ο συγγραφέας θεωρεί ότι η ανθρώπινη εκτύλιξη (εξέλιξη) είναι συνδυασμός ενδεχομενικότητας και αιτιοκρατίας. Αυτό μας δίνει την επιλογή, αν και δύσκολα να αλλάξουμε πορεία κολυμπώντας ενάντια στο ρεύμα και να αναζητήσουμε εναλλακτικούς τρόπους να επιβραδύνουμε τα πράγματα,
παρακολουθώντας ταυτόχρονα με κρίση και σοφία τις αλυσίδες των συνεπειών τους.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I think that I have come upon a big idea, but then when I sit with it a little bit I realize that what I initially thought was deep is unfortunately trivial or sometimes even tautological. I go from seeing myself briefly as a world changing genius to the realization that I'm just an ordinary person with another dumb idea. That was my experience in reading this book. Mr. Hodder is an articulate and persuasive writer. I was instantly pulled into his exposition of his thesis. He seemed smart. But then... As I read further it all just seemed obvious to me. Of course people and things are entangled. Duh. He has put a new name on it, but there is no insight here that adds in a meaningful way to our understanding of human development.

[Ailith Twinning · Rating 3 out of 5]

In brief - the frame it offers is interesting. But I didn't particularly care for the book.

[Emmanouil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Στο συναρπαστικό αυτό βιβλίο ο συγγραφέας προσπαθεί με κριτική διάθεση να διερευνήσει την εξέλιξη-πρόοδο του ανθρώπου και την άνοδο του υλισμού. Μέσα από απλά, κατανοητά παραδείγματα (τροχός, αμάξι, φωτιά, όποιο)προσπαθεί να υφάνει την θεωρία της συνύφανσης.
Κανένα πράγμα δεν είναι πράγμα αυτό καθεαυτό και τα πράγματα δεν μπορούν να διαχωριστούν από την ιδέα των πραγμάτων και αντίστροφα. Άνθρωποι και πράγματα αλληλεπιδρούν στο εσωτερικό ολοτήτων δημιουργώντας δίκτυα και ροές που αλυσοδένουν και περιβάλλουν όλες τις οντότητες (ανθρώπους, ζώα, πράγματα, ιδέες, κοινωνικούς θεσμούς). Η συνύφανση αυτή είναι ετερογενής και απεριόριστη (αντιαναγωγική). Εξαρτάται από την σωρευτική φύση της ανάπτυξης και από την αύξηση στον όγκο των ανθρωπογενών υλικών πραγμάτων και στην κλίμακα των συνυφάνσεων. Όσο περισσότερο εξαρτώνται οι άνθρωποι από τα πράγματα και τις αλυσίδες των αλληλοεξαρτήσεων τους τόσο περισσότερο θα αυξάνονται οι ανισότητες. Ο συγγραφέας θεωρεί ότι η ανθρώπινη εκτύλιξη (εξέλιξη) είναι συνδυασμός ενδεχομενικότητας και αιτιοκρατίας. Αυτό μας δίνει την επιλογή, αν και δύσκολα να αλλάξουμε πορεία κολυμπώντας ενάντια στο ρεύμα και να αναζητήσουμε εναλλακτικούς τρόπους να επιβραδύνουμε τα πράγματα,
παρακολουθώντας ταυτόχρονα με κρίση και σοφία τις αλυσίδες των συνεπειών τους.

[สฤณี อาชวานันทกุล · Rating 3 out of 5]

(ฟังหนังสือเสียงภาษาอังกฤษ)

น่าสนใจดี คนเขียนเป็นนักโบราณคดีและนักมานุษยวิทยา คิดค้นทฤษฏี "entanglement" (ความพัวพัน) มาอธิบายวิวัฒนาการของสังคมมนุษย์ ซึ่งอาจเรียกได้ว่าพยายามเป็น "ทางสายกลาง" ระหว่างทฤษฎีที่เชื่อว่าสังคมมนุษย์วิวัฒนาการอย่างมีทิศทางตามอุดมคติหรืออุดมการณ์อะไรบางอย่าง กับทฤษฎีเชิง Darwinism หรือการคัดสรรโดยธรรมชาติ ที่มองว่าสังคมมนุษย์วิวัฒนาการอย่างไร้ทิศทาง เป็นการปรับตัวไปเรื่อยๆ ตามสภาพแวดล้อม���ี่เปลี่ยนแปลงไป แต่ Ian Hodder ผู้เขียนเล่มนี้เสนอว่าสังคมมนุษย์วิวัฒนาการไปตามระดับ "ความพัวพัน" ซึ่งกันและกันระหว่างมนุษย์กับสิ่งของต่างๆ ที่มนุษย์สร้าง ตัวอย่างที่เขายกหลายอันสนุกดี เช่น การคิดค้นล้อและเทคโนโลยีการเก็บเกี่ยวและทอฝ้าย

เขายกตัวอย่างเช่น เราอาจมอง "ล้อ" ง่ายๆ ว่าเป็นแค่วัตถุทรงกลมที่มีรูตรงกลาง แต่ลำพังแค่มองเป็นวัตถุโดดๆ แบบนั้นทำให้ล้อใช้การไม่ได้ ไม่มีประโยชน์ มันจะใช้การได้ก็ต่อเมื่อมีแกนล้อเสียบผ่านรู ซึ่งแกนนั้นก็ต้องอาศัยโครงหรือพาหนะให้มันอยู่ได้ ในแง่นี้ความสัมพันธ์ที่โยงไปเป็นทอดๆ ชี้ให้เราเห็นว่า "พรมแดน" ระหว่างล้อกับพาหนะนั้นไม่อาจแบ่งแยกเป็นเอกเทศหรือขีดเส้นชัดเจน "ความเป็นล้อ" เป็นคุณสมบัติที่กระจายตัวและอาศัยองค์ประกอบอื่นๆ นอกเหนือจากวัตถุทรงกลมมีรู ไม่อย่างนั้นมันจะไร้ประโยชน์(สำหรับมนุษย์) ดังนั้นเราจึงควรมองว่า "ความเป็นสิ่งของ" คือการกระจายและการสร้างความสัมพันธ์แบบนี้ ในแง่นี้ "ความพัวพัน" ระหว่างสิ่งของกับมนุษย์ควรเป็นจุดที่เราศึกษา ซึ่ง Hodder ก็แยกว่าความพัวพันเหล่านี้มีสี่รูปแบบใหญ่ๆ คือ มนุษย์พึ่งพามนุษย์, มนุษย์พึ่งพาสิ่งของ, สิ่งของพึ่งพามนุษย์, และ สิ่งของพึ่งพาสิ่งของ และทฤษฎีของเขาก็คือ การที่มนุษย์พึ่งพาสิ่งของ นำไปสู่การที่สิ่งของพึ่งพาสิ่งของอื่นๆ และสิ่งของพึ่งพามนุษย์ สุดท้ายก็ทำให้มนุษย์พึ่งพาสิ่งของมากกว่าเดิมอีก ฯลฯ ซึ่งแน่นอน การพึ่งพาจะสร้างผลพวงที่เป็นบวกก็ได้ เป็นลบก็ได้

ชอบช่วงที่เขาอธิบายเรื่อง path dependence โดยยกตัวอย่างกรณีต่างๆ แต่ไม่ชอบช่วงที่ออกแนว "สั่งสอน" เชิงศีลธรรม ถ้าเนื้อหาเน้นเฉพาะทฤษฎีและแนวคิดเชิงวิทยาศาสตร์โดยไม่ "ตัดสิน" น่าจะดีกว่านี้มาก และทฤษฎี "ความพัวพัน" ในตัวมันเองก็น่าสนใจ น่าติดตามต่อ

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book and theory (which seems to fit with facts, is predictive, etc) but tedious/academic presentation (and with lots of details not essential to presenting the argument, but rather just normal anthropology arguments).

Covers a bunch of things: societies with fewer material goods, path dependence on what things are developed and how they influence societies, agricultural and industrial revolutions, etc.

Would prefer this as a series of lectures rather than a book or audiobook.

The biggest argument presented seems to be that "modern materialist culture" tends toward increasing complexity and specialization, and that we're doomed if we continue. I don't agree with that part -- as we scale (more people, more access to resources, better science and technology), it makes more sense to have a bunch of specialized tools rather than less-efficient tools. Industrial society really is more efficient (for a given quality of life) than pre-industrial. If the argument is that our quality of life is unsustainably high, I don't you'll find people willing to accept substantially lower standards if given any choice. A lot of academics and primitivists do seem to want to make that argument from their comfortable places in current society, but I think the only real solution is scientific and technical progress, rather than a "return to nature" or whatever.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing take on human social evolution that facilitates the main drive of human interdependence.

[Matthew Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of this book is okay. It has a very simple thesis, “people are defined by our relationship with things and the interaction / reliance’s that develop there in”where “people” are defined as the genus homo, more specifically homo sapiens, and “things” are literally everything else.

The examples and justification for this idea in concept fine. Opium, the wheel, agriculture etc. However, the writing is steeped in such unnecessarily academic language that at times it was almost comical. It took extremely approachable ideas and obfuscated them behind layers of double talk and SAT words that I constantly felt lost as to what point was actually being made.

I am not against the use of academic language when applicable or necessary, but in this book it felt like a smoke screen to do one of the following

A. Make the content unapproachable for the common reader / make the acceding readers feel superior / make people think the book was very intellectual

B. Mask the fact that the book is presenting VERY simple ideas at time equivalent to “when I am hungry I crave food, and so I rely on food to survive”.

The author even addressed the fact that the ideas appear very simple at the end of the book but tries to state that maybe the reader will have realized how much more “complicated” they are after reading. It may well be the case that the ideas are more profound than they appear on the surface but the language choice here did not convince me so.

[Kent Winward · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Evolution is tied up into our materialism as a species" feels like an important idea that is not given enough attention. I disliked the use of the term entanglement for the connection between humans and things, primarily because it is a much different concept that entanglement in quantum physics and a better, more precise term needs to be formulated. Also, the "things" definition covers a broad scope of material and nonmaterial things and that differentiation also probably needs to be made.

Just one final quick thought, if in fact we incorporate our tools as part of our individual identity as neuroscience has shown, then in fact we are setting up the species to evolve according to our tools. Are you reading this on your cell phone?

I don't even know what that means in terms of evolution, but there was a part where the author pointed out that the underlying infrastructure necessary to run an iPhone is a big contributor to global warming. . .

[Tom Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting journey through a theory.

This work takes off very slowly as he leads us through various theories held by philosophers and anthropologists that may scare off some readers, but if you can stick with it, it can lead to an appreciation of his approach.

Once you get past the tangle of names and competing theories, you are rewarded by his demonstration of the dependencies of humans on things. This “entanglement trap” takes the form of connected dots in agriculture, manufacturing, and our very Social Evolution, resulting in Inequality, contingency and determinism.

Hodder takes on a convoluted tour of the twists and turns of this entangled Reality leading to his conclusion that in order to confront the inevitable consequences of Climate Change we must not just come up with changes to the Things we Humans are dependent on, but rather change our dependence on those very things. Change us not them!

Something to think about, no?! Four stars. ****

[Gregory Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rather than utilise the (fashionable) lens of complexity theory as an explanatory device anthropologist Ian Hodder talks about interdependencies of human “entanglements with things”.

There’s an engaging discussion of directionality of evolution, over Millenia, and he paints a clear picture of human thing dependencies: path dependency. Each human thing entanglement (eg the wheel) creates a pathway.

He says Homo sapiens is also Homo faber (maker of things). Cumulative entanglements explain lock in pathways of things like progress; or how we inevitably will try to address climate change by “fixing things”. His example is replacing fossil fuel cars with electric cars instead of “reducing our dependency on things”. These are profound observations.

If forced to summarise this book in one sentence I would adapt McLuhan ‘we shape our things and our things shape us’.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The approach and thesis of the author has been something I have thought about for years and appreciate the well-rounded and balanced perspective of our lives, its change and the "entanglements" with people, events, processes, and things.

For those who listen to the book, the narrator sounds a bit erudite - which gives a flavor that might have been better extinguished to ensure a bit more common place urgency to the thought for our future.

With that said, I wish the author discussed future challenges of food cultivation, animals, scientific research, unknown crises (viruses, climate change, shortage of fish, impact of changes in warfare and religion and economic alliances). Nonetheless, a thoughtful book.

[Declan MacGinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst at times I feel Hodder fails to differentiate himself from other framings of network and complexity theories His Entanglement theory is attractive and interesting. The book follows the trend in recent years that the only time grand or interesting ideas are published in Archaeology is when one of the giants of the fields writes them, but Hodder is a giant for a reason. Unfortunately, his justifications for the book's conclusions are somewhat absent, including an odd aside about geoengineering that seems to represent more his fear than an extension of any argument put forth in the book. Despite this though, the book is well-written, entertaining and an excellent introduction to Hodder's ideas.

[Curtis Anthony Bozif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book that's write in line with a lot of current scholarship that looks at the development and history of domestication and agriculture as well as thing theory or object oriented philosophies. Hodder breaks down how the lives of humans, since the invention of the stone scraper and domestication of fire, are increasingly "entangled" with things, how things become entangled with other things, and how this ultimately leads to greater human-thing entanglements. Recognizing this pattern can give us a glimpse into the future.

This is a great book to pair with: Against the Grain by Richard Manning and Against the Grain by James C. Scott.

[Pradeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got introduces to human-thing entanglement theory, human depends on things and things depend on human, the more we advance the more things we own. Inequality, classes all are because of things, but can we live without things is a different question.
Enjoyed the book, it is a quick read.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needless moralising in an otherwise fun article stretched into a book.

[Todd Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

A play with a concept that the interaction of people and technology evolves complexity. Evolution emerges through the interactions.

[Jelle Floris Kooij-IJkema · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting ideas but I am still not sure the bigger context of this argument.

[Kadri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Things, things, dependency, things. There were some good points perhaps but not much new for sure.

[ghost. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting human social evolution short audiobook

[Roy Kenagy · Rating 3 out of 5]

RK AUDIBLE

[Birch · Rating 4 out of 5]

:S

[David]

Borrowed from library.
Good enough to purchase my own copy for re-reading and marginalia! Much to be extracted.