Book Talk with Chip Colwell, "So Much Stuff"

“So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything”
How humans became so dependent on things and how this need has grown dangerously out of control.
Archaeologist and author Chip Colwell in conversation with Michael F. Brown (SAR President) and Paul Ryer (Scholar Programs Director)
Over three million years ago, our ancient ancestors realized that rocks could be broken into sharp-edged objects for slicing meat, making the first knives. This discovery resulted in a good meal, and eventually changed the fate of our species and our planet.
With So Much Stuff (University of Chicago Press, 2023), archaeologist Chip Colwell sets out to investigate why humankind went from self-sufficient primates to nonstop shoppers, from needing nothing to needing everything. Along the way, he uncovers spectacular and strange points around the world-an Italian cave with the world’s first known painted art, a Hong Kong skyscraper where a priestess channels the gods, and a mountain of trash that rivals the Statue of Liberty. Through these examples, Colwell shows how humanity took three leaps that led to stuff becoming inseparable from our lives, inspiring a love affair with things that may lead to our downfall. Now, as landfills brim and oceans drown in trash, Colwell issues a timely call to reevaluate our relationship with the things that both created and threaten to undo our overstuffed planet.
Chip Colwell is an archaeologist, former museum curator, and editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, a digital magazine about anthropological thinking and discoveries. He is the author and editor of 13 books including Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture, which received six major book awards. His most recent is So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything.