62 pages • 2 hours read
Daniel LiebermanThe Story of the Human Body
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural Context: Modernity and Health
The Story of the Human Body addresses common contemporary health concerns and provides suggestions for improving personal and public health. Lieberman covers a number of diseases which are prominent in modern society, some of which are leading causes of death, including heart disease, some cancers, and diabetes. He also incorporates a table of potential mismatch diseases which lists 49 ailments, including acne, anxiety, cavities, depression, myopia, hemorrhoids, flat feet, endometriosis, carpal tunnel, diaper rash, high blood pressure, impacted wisdom teeth, and insomnia. These are all extremely common conditions that arise in modern individuals.
Along with identifying prevalent mismatch diseases, Lieberman proposes potential ways to prevent or mitigate these conditions on personal and societal levels. Health is a culturally trending topic, and most popular advice, including professional advice, focuses on the individual living within the modern environment. Lieberman contributes to health discussions by offering a unique evolutionary perspective. He asserts that understanding humans’ biological and cultural evolutionary past is critical for addressing some of the most pressing health concerns. To understand why the body develops lifestyle-related diseases, he argues, one needs to understand what environments and behaviors the human body is adapted, or maladapted, for.
While he targets modernity as a primary cause of numerous diseases, Lieberman does not advocate for the rejection of modernity or for the return to hunter-gatherer or early agrarian lifestyles. Instead, he suggests humans change their approach to disease mitigation by utilizing cultural evolution to their advantage and implementing intentional changes, mainly through altering policies and practices.
Ideological Context: Long-term Health Considerations
The Story of the Human Body challenges the common individualistic and short-term approaches to health, advocating for a holistic approach that factors in long-term health consequences, including both evolutionary and futuristic perspectives. As an American, Lieberman and his views are influenced by the culture of the United States, which places a high value on individualism. Individualism, which favors the rights of the individual over the collective, tends to prioritize short-term personal benefits and costs. Through his discussions, Lieberman indirectly challenges this approach, advocating instead that long-term perspectives and collective values will benefit individuals; however, many of his propositions cannot be directly applied to individuals and would serve to promote collective health in the future rather than personal health in the present.
Lieberman’s defense of a long-term approach begins with his discussion of human evolution. By focusing on the biological and cultural evolution of humans, Lieberman demonstrates that a long-term approach to health should consider the past. The future long-term health considerations are discussed at the end of the text, where Lieberman notes multiple diseases, their causes, and potential preventative measures. While the discussions suggest that readers could be able to prevent, reverse, or mitigate their own diseases, much of the information is inapplicable to the reader. Instead, Lieberman’s call for social change which would factor in long-term health considerations would benefit future generations.
