The TRUTH about the Palaeolithic Myth

How humans lived in the palaeolithic is subject to a lot of conjecture — and outright mythologising. But there are some things we know for sure, and there is perhaps no one better at combining the two (the mythos and logos of the palaeolithic) than the French philosopher Michel Serres. In his newly translated Humanistic Narratives, he begins with a story of departure (from the very first group of humans in east Africa):

Not far from the Isthmus of Suez, a hundred thousand years ago, at uncertain times and places, a tribe of Africans, attentive and lounging around a fire, were camping. Suddenly bringing endless palavers to a halt, a handful of them, exasperated, got up and decided to press on further towards the rising sun: to see, some of them said, for fun, the others didn’t say, to ensure better hunting, the wisest ones claimed, to know, perhaps […] In what language did they say farewell or goodbye to each other, and who, with pounding heart, shed what tears that morning?

Unlike those who present the palaeolithic myth as fact, Serres frequently interrupts his narrative to remind the reader that this is a story, that he is ‘shamelessly recounting’ what he doesn’t know, that ‘four-fifths’ of his narrative is ‘swimming in the naïve imaginary’. He also says something toward the end of the book regarding his interpretation of the Genesis myth: