Science, Narrative: The Story of the Hominids

Science has a truly ambivalent relationship with mythology. In many ways, science depends on mythology--in part because we quite simply cannot get away from the narrative impulse that lies at the center of all out attempts to make "sense" of things.

This ambivalence is something we've discussed at length on this site, and in the books we've put together such as The Immanence of Myth and Apocalyptic Imaginary. I'd like to share a NOVA video about a possible branch on the homonid genetic tree that we've only recently discovered: the 'hobbit.'

While watching this, consider how the need for a a linear narrative drives us to make certain assumptions, and how the mythic impulse relates to (sometimes complicating, sometimes supporting) the scientific enterprise.

Watch Alien From Earth on PBS. See more from NOVA.

[Where is the fucking counterculture? Mythos Media.]