The International Big History Association(IBHA) has just approved Memes, Societies and Human Evolution to be added to their extensive bibliography of the history of the universe.
Conventional history begins with the invention of writing, and is limited to past events relating directly to humans. Big History tries to put the human story in the context of the history of the universe itself. It covers the formation of the universe, stars, and galaxies, and includes the beginning of life as well as the period of several hundred thousand years when humans were hunter-gatherers.
The study of Big History arose from a desire to give a holistic view of the development of life on Earth. It examines long time frames involving numerous disciplines from science and the humanities, looking for common themes across multiple time scales in history.
Memes, Societies and Human Evolution develops the human part of the story from the great apes to the modern day, explaining how memes have made the evolution of Homo sapiens so different from that of other animals.
