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 The Bionarrative
The story of life and hope for the future
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 The Bionarrative
The story of life and hope for the future

Stephen Boyden
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Published by ANU Press
The Australian National University
Acton ACT 2601, Australia
Email: [email protected]
This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Creator: Boyden, Stephen, author.

Title: The bionarrative : the story of life and hope for the future
/ Stephen Boyden.

ISBN: 9781760460501 (paperback) 9781760460518 (ebook)

Subjects: Human ecology.

Human evolution.
Nature--Effect of human beings on.
Human beings--Effect of environment on.

Dewey Number: 304.2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design and layout by ANU Press.

Cover photographs adapted from: ‘LA landscape’ by Doc Searls flic.kr/p/vUvCxY
and ‘Rain drops’ by Alex Block flic.kr/p/a2NgMe.

This edition © 2016 ANU Press

Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Contents

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
1. The bionarrative, biohistory and biounderstanding . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Life before humans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. Humans enter the system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4. The Early Farming and Early Urban phases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5. Ecological Phase 4: The Exponential Phase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6. Religion and warfare in biohistorical perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . 109
7. Healthy people on a healthy planet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Epilogue. Musings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Previous books by the author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the students

and academic colleagues who shared the experience of developing
the discipline and teaching of human ecology and biohistory at
The Australian National University (ANU), and who contributed so
much to my thinking and enjoyment of life. I am also indebted to
my friends in the Nature and Society Forum (now the Frank Fenner
Foundation) who, since my retirement at the end of 1990, have been so
much a part of my life and whose enthusiasm and creativity have been
a constant source of inspiration.
I would also like to mention two individuals who made it all possible:
first, the late Leonard Huxley, vice-chancellor of ANU, whose
unconventional decision in 1965 allowed me to make a radical change
in my field of work at the university; and second, my friend the late
Frank Fenner, director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research
and later of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, whose
unswerving support over many years enabled us to develop human
ecology and biohistory as legitimate areas of study in the university.
I am grateful to the ANU Publication Subsidy Committee for the
provision of funding in support of this book.
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

vii

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 Preface

This volume is an outcome of work carried out at The Australian

National University, after I turned my attention to the biology
of civilisation some 50 years ago. My colleagues and I refer to our
approach as ‘biohistory’, which we define as the study of human
situations, past and present, against the background of the history of
life on Earth.
We see biohistory as much more than just an interesting academic
exercise. It has great practical meaning for society as a whole as well
as for individuals and families.
This book is intended for the general reader who is interested in
the human place in nature and the future of civilisation. It is not an
academic treatise. The central theme is the story of life on Earth, and
of humans and their civilisation as part of that story. I refer to this
story as the ‘bionarrative’. The final chapter discusses options for the
future of humankind.
In telling this story, the challenge is to decide what to put in and what
to leave out. To do the job thoroughly would take up many volumes.
I have selected for inclusion aspects that seem to me either especially
interesting or relevant for understanding the human situation on
Earth today.
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

Although biohistory is not yet recognised as an academic discipline,

a number of authors have emerged over recent decades who could
well be described as biohistorians. They have told this story, or parts
of it, in their own ways, emphasising different facts and principles.
This book is my version of the bionarrative.

ix

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
 The Bionarrative

I must warn readers that I make free use of the prefix ‘bio-’. Some
readers may find this irritating. I find it preferable, however, to
say ‘biounderstanding’, rather than repeating again and again
‘understanding the processes of life and the human place in nature’;
or ‘biosensitive’, rather than ‘sensitive to, in tune with, and respectful
of the processes of life’.
I have kept referencing to a minimum. References are given for all the
quotations and I include a few other references that I feel might be
particularly useful to the reader. The facts and figures presented about
human health, energy and resource use, and environmental change
are readily verifiable on the internet. The literature in environmental
philosophy and environmental history is now so vast that it would not
make sense to try to cover this in the bibliography.
Some passages of the text have already appeared in my previous
publications.
Stephen Boyden
13 July 2016
Copyright © 2016. ANU Press. All rights reserved.

The Bionarrative : The Story of Life and Hope for the Future, ANU Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,
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