History versus bio-ecology: from human exemptionalism to deep evolutionary time

Autor analizira koncept “historije” unutar socijalnih disciplina s posebnim osvrtom na historiografsku literaturu. “Historija” nije neutralan pojam, jer je vezana uz dominantni sustav vrijednosti moderne civilizacije, posebno uz mit o napretku i vjeri u egzempcionalističku paradigmu (čovjek odvojen od Prirode) i biološki diskontinuitet ili jaz između čovjeka i drugih vrsta. Koncept historije dio je standardnog modela humanističkihih disciplina, koji smatra da su ekološka i biološka perspektiva irelevantne za proučavanje ljudskog društva, jer ljudsko društvo postoji samo u zasebnom svijetu Povijesti i Kulture. Autor analizira djela tri teoretičara – ekologa Paula Sheparda, biologa Edwarda Wilsona, i antropologa Robina Foxa - koji su kritizirali konvencionalno shvaćanje “historije” i standardnog modela općenito, ističući važnost naše drevne evolucijske prošlosti. Polazeći od njihovih analiza autor se zalaže za uvažavanje ekologije, koja priznaje pripadnost čovjeka Prirodi, i evolucijske biologije, koja priznaje postojanje ljudske biogramatike i značaj milijuna godina evolucije naših ljudskih i hominidnih predaka.The author analyses the notion of history within the framework of social sciences and humanities. He pays particular attention to historiography. History is no neutral term but a notion deeply bound up with the system of values dominant in the modern civilization, especially with the myth of progress and the belief in the exemptionalist paradigm (human separation from nature) as well as biological discontinuity between humans and other species. The concept of history is part of the standard model of humanities that considers the biological and ecological perspectives as irrelevant to the study of human society. Human society, within this paradigm, exists in a separate world of History and Culture. The author analyzes the work of three scholars—the ecologist Paul Shepard, biologist Edward Wilson and the anthropologist Robin Fox—who criticized the conventional understanding of history and the standard model more generally. They emphasized the importance of our ancient evolutionary past. The author starts from this scholarship to argue for a stronger position of ecology and evolutionary biology. Ecology recognizes human ties to the Nature, and evolutionary biology accepts the existence of human biogrammatics and the importance of the millions of years of evolution of our human and hominid ancestors