Stone age cities: what modern urbanites could learn from paleolith...

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/23/stone-age-cities...

Stone age cities: what modern

urbanites could learn from
paleolithic humans
However civilised we may now consider ourselves to be, biologically we
remain much as we were before we began farming and moved into cities. Can
we create a healthier future by returning to our paleolithic past?
Gustav Milne
Monday 23 May 2016 11.42BST

The city is not our natural habitat. For the last three million years, we
evolved as hunter-gatherers, living in small tribal societies, breathing
fresh air, drinking fresh water and eating fresh foods. But more than
half of us now live in cities. Culturally, our society is transforming, but
anatomically, our genetic evolution is slower: we remain much as we
were even before large-scale farming was adopted 5,00010,000 years
ago.
However civilised we may now consider ourselves to be, biologically
we are much closer to our stone age ancestors. There is a major
mismatch between our modern urbanised world and our paleolithic
genome, the genetic material encoded in our DNA, which supports an
ancient hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Put simply, urbanisation which began with the advent of farming is
bad for us. Studies of skeletal remains in cemetery sites show that
when the Romans introduced town life to Britain 2,000 years ago, they
also introduced us to scurvy, rickets, osteomalacia, Reiters syndrome,
gout, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis,
septic arthritis, tuberculosis, osteitis, poliomyelitis and leprosy. And
today, the most common causes of death in half of our urban
populations are obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes,

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Stone age cities: what modern urbanites could learn from paleolith...

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atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and various cancers. It is a

sobering thought that all these conditions are rare or non-existent in
non-urban societies, such as the tribal communities in Kitava, Papua
New Guinea.
But all is not lost. We can help our society have a healthier future by
returning to our paleolithic past.

Physiology
Paleolithically correct urban living and city planning requires more
than just changing to a proxy ancestral diet (sh, meat, fresh fruit and
vegetables, and avoiding added sugars) as is now fashionable
although that is an excellent start. We also need to adopt a proxy
ancestral activity regime: bending, stretching, carrying and manual
labour. A daily walk is essential, at least part of the way to school or
work. And spend as little time sitting down as practical, particularly by
breaking up desk-bound work with ve minute breaks every hour.
We must also re-engage with nature. Time spent with pets, gardening
or in parks and gardens is crucial not just for psychological uplift but
for interaction with the microbiota that support a healthy immune
system. The pioneering work of microbiologist Graham Rook (pdf) has
shown how fundamental biophilia is to our immune system, especially
for childrens health.

Crime science
If the physiological aspects of our deep past are easy enough to
recognise and adapt to modern life, the socio-psychological elements
such as the inherent violence of the hunter are rather more complex.
According to the Metropolitan police, there are at least 225 gangs in
London, 58 of which account for two-thirds of the gang crime. An
urban street gang is basically a paleolithic hunting group, with
powerful bonding and adherence to a very particular territory.
Sport, however, can be a socially positive proxy for hunting, and
therefore for gang culture. It helps support education, personal
development, discipline, social inclusion and enhanced self-esteem in
those who might otherwise be drawn to petty crime. One of the best
successes is the Midnight Basketball movement, which began in the US
in 1986 and has since spread to Australia. In London, the Kickz
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programme and Arsenal-in-the-Community team do similar work,

aiming to improve social cohesion and reduce crime and drug abuse:
the latters project on the Elthorne Park estate saw a 66% drop in youth
crime in just three years.

City planning for human evolution

Some wider concerns can be best addressed by town planning. To help
people walk more, for example, cities can focus on pedestrianisation
projects, car-free walkways, river walks, canal towpaths, widening and
greening pavements, improving security, cycle lanes, speed limits and
above all, air quality our ancient lungs cannot cope with diesel
particulates.
Parks, playing elds and sports facilities are vital, as are low-fat
buildings and active work practices such as standing desks, cycle
racks and showers. The design of oces should encourage walking,
with a showpiece stairway rather than just doors to the lift. Good
dietary practice at the oce extends to the canteen menu and the
contents of drinks machines.
The design of residential buildings in a high-density city should be
limited to six stories, and have at least some outside space, ample
windows and sunlight. Oces, streets, domestic buildings and the
public realm all need to be greened, externally and internally.
Houseplants, window boxes and roof gardens all have a positive role to
play; as do participatory urban green spaces such as allotments,
community gardens and city farms, especially in inner-city
neighbourhoods lacking a large central park.
Our paleolithic immune systems and psyches desperately need such
support. The town may not be our natural habitat, but we can make it
our optimal one.
Gustav Milne is an honorary senior lecturer at University College
Londons Institute of Archaeology. He presents Urban Wellbeing: How to
Live a Paleolithically-Correct Life in a 21st Century City on 24 May at
12noon, as part of the week-long UCL Festival of Culture in London.
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