The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional

by Agustín Fuentes

Overview

A bold new synthesis of paleontology, archaeology, genetics, and anthropology that overturns misconceptions about race, war and peace, and human nature itself, answering an age-old question: What made humans so exceptional among all the species on Earth?
 
Creativity. It is the secret of what makes humans special, hiding in plain sight. Agustín Fuentes argues that your child's finger painting comes essentially from the same place as creativity in hunting and gathering millions of years ago, and throughout history in making war and peace, in intimate relationships, in shaping the planet, in our communities, and in all of art, religion, and even science. It requires imagination and collaboration. Every poet has her muse; every engineer, an architect; every politician, a constituency. The manner of the collaborations varies widely, but successful collaboration is inseparable from imagination, and it brought us everything from knives and hot meals to iPhones and interstellar spacecraft.

Weaving fascinating stories of our ancient ancestors' creativity, Fuentes finds the patterns that match modern behavior in humans and animals. This key quality has propelled the evolutionary development of our bodies, minds, and cultures, both for good and for bad. It's not the drive to reproduce; nor competition for mates, or resources, or power; nor our propensity for caring for one another that have separated us out from all other creatures.

As Fuentes concludes, to make something lasting and useful today you need to understand the nature of your collaboration with others, what imagination can and can't accomplish, and, finally, just how completely our creativity is responsible for the world we live in. Agustín Fuentes's resounding multimillion-year perspective will inspire readers—and spark all kinds of creativity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101983942
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Agustín Fuentes, during more than two decades of research, has published more than one hundred academic articles and book chapters. He has chased monkeys, apes, and humans in the jungles and cities of Asia, the mountains of Morocco, and the streets of Gibraltar. He’s explored the lives of our evolutionary ancestors and examined people’s daily routines across the globe. He is a professor and the chair of the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Anthropology and a National Geographic Explorer. His perspectives and research have been covered in The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Huffington Post, and on NPR. He lives in Indiana.

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Copyright © 2017 Agustín Fuentes.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE CREATIVE SPARK

“Persuasive, entertaining, informative... Fuentes has done a fine job of summarizing recent research in anthropology and primatology... pointing to numerous examples in which problems such as the finding of food, the avoidance of predators, the transfer of information and the manipulation of the physical environment are solved by way of imaginative collaboration.”
—Wall Street Journal

“The Creative Spark is strong on man’s imaginative accomplishments and offers an important corrective to the skewed debate on human nature. A species that, uniquely, ponders its own exceptionality will surely be fascinated by it.”
—The Economist

“Rather than focusing his explanation of human evolution on an increase in brain size or intelligence, Fuentes turns instead to creativity as a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human.”
—Named one of the Great Anthropology And History Books Of 2017, Forbes

“Fuentes presents his theories in a captivating narrative that feels like an intriguing mystery... To look up from The Creative Spark after finishing the last page is to see the world in new, complex ways. Fuentes's work adds depth to our reality and fosters a deep respect and appreciation for the many forms creativity takes.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Harnessing the latest findings in evolution, biology, and archaeology [Fuentes] creates a new synthesis to show that the great drivers of human progress have been creativity and cooperation, and that many of the things we believe about ourselves, from religion to race, are wrong.”
—NationalGeographic.com, Book Talk

“Condensing a great deal of anthropological research, Fuentes shows how imaginative resourcefulness enabled a vulnerable species lacking fangs and claws to survive in a world of fierce predators… whether facing the current threat of armed conflict or pondering contemporary controversies surrounding gender and religion, Fuentes draws one imperative lesson from humankind’s deep past: we survive as a species only so long as we continue to creatively innovate.”
—Booklist

“The diverse studies in creativity are good ones… encompassing everything from conflict resolution to learning how to use fire to cook—not just red meat, but fish and vegetables as well… an informative, readable introduction to recent scholarship on the anthropology of creativity.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Creativity is an essential reason why Homo sapiens have progressed to the point we have: dominating an entire planet and eagerly searching the universe, argues anthropologist Fuentes… His thesis is an intriguing and insightful one.” 
—Library Journal

“A revolutionary perspective on what it means to be human. Fuentes breathes new life into one of our oldest questions. So much of what we think of as uniquely human has stagnated around a linear version of intelligence. Fuentes introduces imagination as a powerful force that has shaped who we are, and how we have become so successful. Thoughtfully researched and beautifully written, The Creative Spark is destined to become a classic.” 
—Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, authors of New York Times bestseller The Genius of Dogs
 
“In The Creative Spark, everything old and familiar – from livestock and tools, to marriage and war, and everything in between – is made fresh and new in this fascinating retelling of the story of humans’ unique evolutionary journey. Grand in scope, but packed with detailed research and intimate prose, Fuentes once again gives us the precious gift of an accessible demolition of long-held assumptions, and a compelling, important, and revelatory understanding of ourselves.”   
—Cordelia Fine, Prof. of History & Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne, author of Delusions of Gender
 
“A magisterial tour of what makes us human, and how we got that way.  Large and complex controversies are judiciously evaluated in a clearly written, fascinating way, and coherently assembled into a persuasive alternative to the simplistic biologisms that dominate contemporary discourse.  This is the best guide I know on how the human world evolved, and a solid foundation for creative optimism.”
—R. Brian Ferguson, Prof. of Anthropology, Rutgers University-Newark
 
“A perfect example of our humanness.  It combines individual creativity with a synthesis of the works of others to describe how the lives of humans and our ancestors were changed, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, by harnessing and expanding creative abilities.  Anyone who is curious about how we arrived at our present condition will want to read this book.”
—Lynne Isbell, Prof. and Chair of Anthropology, U.C., Davis, author of The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent

From the Publisher

02/15/2017
Creativity is an essential reason why Homo sapiens have progressed to the point we have: dominating an entire planet and eagerly searching the universe, argues anthropologist Fuentes (Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You). The author examines the cultural leavings of early hominins and determines that they succeeded in large part because of their ability to collaborate with one another; whether this was our distant ancestors who hunted and gathered as collective units or when sedentary subsistence was established in the near Middle East by modern humans roughly 10,000 years ago. This assertion is well argued but runs against many of the tenets of Darwinian evolution, which stresses that all life on Earth progresses through the Tennyson maxim of "nature red in tooth and claw." Strife and competition have made us what we are? Not so, according to Fuentes. His thesis is an intriguing and insightful one. VERDICT Fuentes seeks a general audience, covering topics already familiar to experts. This work could serve well as a secondary text in an introductory anthropology course.—Brian Renvall, Mesalands Community Coll., Tucumcari, NM

Library Journal

2016-12-26
An anthropologist ponders the better angels of our nature—the ones armed with paintbrushes, notebooks, cameras, and plowshares.According to Fuentes (Chair, Anthropology/Univ. of Notre Dame), an essential component of human nature is our ability to work the trove of materials made available to us by virtue of our "symbolic inheritance." Our creativity is thereby an essential component of what makes us human; so, too, is our ability to work together in creative ways for creative ends, for what the author calls a "cocktail of creativity and collaboration." The condensed tail of evolution, in that scheme, has a vulnerable gaggle of newly terrestrial simians figuring out how to fend off hunger, predation, illness, and other threats existential and otherwise while filling our lives with meaning and hope, allowing our kind "to reshape their world, thereby reshaping themselves." It's a pleasing vision and one decidedly more optimistic than the naked-ape-with-guns portraits of a past generation of anthropologists. Still, it's one that requires only a few case studies to wrap up, and regrettably, part of the author's creativity turns on saying the same thing in numerous ways, with multiple variations on that trope that working together is a good thing and one that distinguishes us from other animals, which "do some ratcheting and scaffolding, but…lack the human combination of discovery, innovation, cooperation, and information transfer." The diverse studies in creativity are good ones, though, encompassing everything from conflict resolution to learning how to use fire to cook—not just red meat, but fish and vegetables as well. Fuentes frowns on a few predictable things, like racism and war, but also on the paleo diet. Though the science can get a little lite, this offers an informative, readable introduction to recent scholarship on the anthropology of creativity.

Kirkus Reviews

Drawing on a rich understanding of biological and social evolution, this stimulating audiobook shows how collaboration fueled our transformation from ape-like ancestors to the imaginative species we are today. The author’s palpable reverence for the miracle of human creativity makes this audio shine, along with his attractive phrasing, excellent vocal tone, and a narrative style that seems to speak personally to every listener. Engaging stories show how a series of innovations like tool making and cooking led to the more powerful brains necessary for humans to start creating government, commerce, technology, and art. With fascinating anthropological insights always center stage, he shows how collaboration not only fuels today’s creative breakthroughs but is also the critical skill needed to solve the many challenges humankind will face in the future. T.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2017 - AudioFile

Drawing on a rich understanding of biological and social evolution, this stimulating audiobook shows how collaboration fueled our transformation from ape-like ancestors to the imaginative species we are today. The author’s palpable reverence for the miracle of human creativity makes this audio shine, along with his attractive phrasing, excellent vocal tone, and a narrative style that seems to speak personally to every listener. Engaging stories show how a series of innovations like tool making and cooking led to the more powerful brains necessary for humans to start creating government, commerce, technology, and art. With fascinating anthropological insights always center stage, he shows how collaboration not only fuels today’s creative breakthroughs but is also the critical skill needed to solve the many challenges humankind will face in the future. T.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2017 - AudioFile