Book Reviewed: When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness by David M. Peña-Guzmán

Animal Vision Many animals dream! Scientific studies using brain monitoring during sleep show that mammals and some birds go through sleep stages similar to humans like REM (Rapid Eye Movement). For example, when a dog twitches its paws or whimper in its sleep, it’s likely “dreaming,” probably about chasing or playing. Dreams process memories, learning, and problem-solving. Recent studies also show that invertebrates like octopuses also experience dreaming. It is characterized by two distinct sleep stages: quiet sleep and active sleep. During quiet sleep, they are pale and still. During active sleep, their skin color rapidly changes with arms twitching and eye movements similar to REM sleep of mammals. Some of these are signs of an octopus waking experiences; hunting, exploring, and interacting with their environment. It should be recognized by the fact life does exist, and animals are independent living entities that struggle to survive, look for food (prey), avoid predators, face challenges of life, reproduce, the ability learn, think, and memorize suggest that they all have consciousness. The author overemphasizes the ethical implications of scientific studies discussed in this book. His calls for a reevaluation of our moral responsibilities toward animals oversteps the boundaries, particularly his philosophical musings.

Book Reviewed: The Atharva-Veda Saṁhitā by Maurice Bloomfield (Editor: F. Max Müller)

Atharvaveda This work is a partial English translation of the Atharvaveda (Śaunaka recension) that includes Books 1–7, 11, 12, 19, and part of twenty. This is a blend of magical, healing, and ritual hymns against demons, diseases, and sorcery. About one-sixth of Atharvaveda contains lofty hymns of Rigveda and philosophical hymns like Purusha Sūkta RV 10.90 (AV 19.6). The author makes notes about these hymns from Rigveda, but this work is a literal 19th-century style translation, and the commentary is influenced by the linguistics of Max Müller’s era. The practice of healing and sorcery was not limited to the Vedic times in ancient India, but also practiced widely in the first two centuries of Christianity (30–230 CE). The evidence from early Christian writings, Roman observers, and modern scholarship suggests that healing and curing of diseases were central to why people were drawn to the Christian movement. The Gospels present Jesus as performing acts of healing: restoring sight, curing leprosy, enabling the lame walk, exorcising demons, even raising the dead. These stories gave Christianity a strong appeal among the sick, poor, and marginalized who did not have access to the medical care. The Acts of the Apostles records the healings of Peter, and Paul.

Book Reviewed: The Accidental Homo Sapiens: Genetics, Behavior, and Free Will by Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle

How early Homo Sapiens became the unique modern species This book presents the ancient history of homo sapiens where culture, ideas, technology, and behavior played a significant role in their evolution: Natural Selection was not the major force. The focus is the cognitive emergence of symbolic thought, communication, languages, creating cultural values, scientific, philosophical, and theological enquiry, and making sense of the larger picture of our existence in the cosmos. According to the author, genetic influence is not wholly responsible but the cultural and environmental impact is also significant. The ecological of small and isolated population, later migrations, chance mutations, and unpredictable environmental shifts eventually led to the present hominid species. The path to us was not inevitable, because several traits and evolutionary possibilities never happened. The author has missed some key publications in recent years that are relevant to this book. The origin story of Homo Sapiens contains several partly connected populations across Africa (a metapopulation or “pan-African” model) whose interactions, local adaptations and occasional mixing produced the anatomy and behaviors were from one or more dispersals carried by the descendants from Africa. This largest continent with diverse regional ecologies provided opportunities to independently evolve into several closely related hominid species. There are several closely related “early” Home Sapiens that have not been identified because of lack of fossilized specimens. late Middle Pleistocene Africa (781,000 to 126,000 years ago) hosted several semi-isolated, closely related populations (different regions, sometimes diverged for tens to hundreds of thousands of years) that exchanged genes episodically; modern humans emerged from that structured network rather than from a single isolated population. There is no evidence for a simple “one-place, one-time” origin story for Homo sapiens. A range of behavior and choice like our moral, ethical, and personal behavior lies along a normal distribution statistic. Some sections in this book are dense due to the aspects of population genetics, statistics (Bell curve – normal distribution), and philosophy of “free will” explored in the evolution of homo sapiens. Especially the idea of “free will” which is loaded with neurobiology, physics, and philosophy addressed by several other authors recently is lightly overseen in this book.