**: China Green Times.
Based on the materials used to make tools at the time of Homo erectus and the archaeological evidence that has been available before, the division of human history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, and the idea that wood is reduced to stone tool appendages and historical relics has been respected and accepted for a long time. In his book "Wood and Civilization: A Human History Shaped by Trees" (hereinafter referred to as "Wood and Civilization"), the British scholar Roland Enos proposed that wood has always dominated human society, and human civilization is shaped by wood.
The book consists of four parts: a preface and a main text. The preface briefly recounts the story of the "Road of the Mast" sign on the Pyrenees in France, and analyzes the ways, practices and influences of Britain, France, the United States and other countries in obtaining timber for shipbuilding masts in military contests, which leads to the theme of "Timber and Civilization".
In the first part of the text, the four chapters with the theme of "wood and human evolution" mainly describe the relationship between the evolution of the body and the properties of wood in the process of human transition from arboreal life to semi-arboreal and semi-terrestrial life in prehistoric times. The second part, with the theme of "Wood and the Construction of Civilization", is divided into six chapters, which analyzes the flexible use of wood by human beings in the process of making tools, cultivating land, smelting metal, building villages, and making artworks, as well as the influence of wood use on human ideology. The third part is themed "Wood in the Industrial Age", and devotes three chapters to describe the positive effects of human beings in the development of society after entering the industrial age, using wood as the main fuel and construction material. The fourth part, entitled "Facing the Consequences", summarizes the impact of wood on human civilization in two chapters, and proposes strategies for future restoration and entering a new era of wood.
The authors believe that because of the early existence of forests, human ancestors lived an arboreal life similar to other primates since their birth, and had a certain understanding of the properties and mechanical properties of trees, building nests on branches and feeding on fruits. The abundant food provided by forests contributed to the evolution of human size, siblings, and intelligence, and the emergence of psychological and physical characteristics suitable for life on land. Since then, as the environment has changed, sparse forests and grasslands and natural fires have begun to appear, creating opportunities for primitive humans to leave the trees and go down to the ground.
Secondly, human beings have always been in an era dominated by wood, and it is wood that has shaped human civilization. From the beginning of the Stone Age to modern society, human beings have been inseparable from forests and dependent on wood for food, clothing, shelter and transportation. With the improvement of human intelligence and ability, as well as the advancement of technology, the production of wooden tools has become more elaborate, and the demand for wood has gradually increased. Wood can be seen in everything from the use of wooden tools to reclaim forest land for farming, to the formation of roads, farms, workshops, villages, towns, to the development of industrialization and urbanization. Moreover, wood played an important role in gathering and hunting as an aid to food in the early days of humans. However, with the improvement of technology and the formation of traditional agriculture, human beings gradually abandoned the primitive way of gathering and hunting, and began to engage in agricultural production, thus transforming into early farmers. The production and lifestyle of settled agriculture has made the living standards and creative ability of human beings have been qualitatively improved, the handicraft industry has gradually flourished, the village society has developed rapidly, and the transformation of peasants into citizens has appeared, and the construction technology and art system of churches, cemeteries, cities, landscapes, pavilions, temples, palaces, pagodas, etc., with wood as the carrier, have gradually prospered, and the material and spiritual culture of mankind has innovated and developed. Therefore, wood has always played a fundamental and supporting role in human life, and the diversification of wood use has brought about a series of social changes and shaped a new human civilization.
Third, the return of human beings to the wood age is an important measure to restore the ecological environment and maintain physical and mental health. The decline of forests and civilizations caused by timber harvesting, documented and expressed in historical archives, is not accurate, because while deforestation has an impact on forest cover and biodiversity, humanity has found a way to deal with it. In addition, humans did not have heavy machinery in the past, and the rate of felling was slow, and the damage to forests and soil was not as great as imagined. And deforestation does not mean that forests will disappear forever, but will gradually form forests through natural restoration. The expansion of human desires, the advent of industrialization and the rapid development of social economy have exacerbated the access to natural resources and the destruction of the environment, disrupted the long-term relationship between man and nature, and made the intimate relationship between man and wood no longer exist, and the inheritance of traditional crafts is worrying. The use of science and technology is key to reversing this, and modern ways to transform wood to replace fossil fuels, and to build and decorate the world in which we live, can mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, through landscaping, building forest parks, using wood to build houses and making various tools, in order to reduce pollution and block noise, human body and mind can be more pleasant, and the relationship between man and nature is more harmonious. In addition, through large-scale afforestation, rational management of forest resources, and expansion of the scope of wildlife survival, children can learn about trees and woodlands in the forest, encourage the reduction of the purchase of industrial products, and return to a harmonious, healthy, beautiful and elegant new wood age.
The book has a clear point of view and clear logic. Through a complete narrative structure and rigorous argumentation, the author integrates and reconstructs fragmented information, comprehensively explains the view that human history is the history of trees and human civilization is the civilization of wood utilization, truly presents the essence of human history, and also depicts the social, economic, cultural and ecological systems created by human beings in the process of using wood.
Specifically, the value of "Wood and Civilization" is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
First, the conclusions of the study are universal. The questions raised in the book may seem prosaic and simple, but often the more prosaic and simple the questions, the easier they are to be overlooked. The author starts from the common resource of wood, combines the existing research results and archaeological evidence to fully explain and demonstrate, strictly follows the scientific research norms of induction-deduction-empirical, and analyzes and draws a series of views such as the earliest history of mankind is the wood age and that wood has shaped human civilization, which is basically consistent with the conclusions of some other scholars. For example, Luo Jianju pointed out the existence of the early wood age and the impact of wood on human beings based on the process of human development, the conditions for the production of tools, and relevant historical evidence. Li Li sorted out the situation of human use of wood in the historical period, and put forward the view that forest use and human civilization are changing simultaneously. However, the explanation of "Timber and Civilization" is more comprehensive and in-depth, and the argumentation process is more rigorous. From the perspective of world history, the author gives a panoramic interpretation of the history of all mankind, reinterprets the process of human evolution, evaluates the status of wood, and corrects the inherent traditional concepts. At the same time, combined with the practical problems existing in today's human society, this paper conducts in-depth analysis, crosses the boundaries between countries, and provides a complete framework for solving problems, and the research conclusions are in line with the reality of human life, which is of universal significance for guiding social and economic development and ecological environmental protection.
Second, the analytical process presents a theoretical logic. Analyzing practical problems from the perspective of theory and constructing theories from the perspective of practical problems are two different orientations of academic research. Historical sociologist Huang Zongzhi pointed out that research questions issued from a theoretical perspective always have self-evident presuppositions, so he advocated that theoretical logic should be presented in practice. In recent years, both Chinese and Western scholars have shown similar tendencies, such as American scholar Meng Yiheng's "Fir and Empire" and Ma Libo's "China's Environmental History: From Prehistory to Modern Times". This work is also a typical representative, which takes the realistic case of making ship masts from wood as a microcosm, associates with the relationship between wood and the history of all mankind, analyzes the interaction between wood and its use and human evolution, civilization construction and social construction, puts forward the practical needs of forest protection and return to the wood age, and forms a complete narrative structure, and the narrative process clearly highlights the characteristics of presenting theoretical logic in practice. Moreover, the author incorporates wood into a broader context, integrates it with history, and goes deep into the process of human history formation and civilization construction and remodeling, so that the essence and original appearance of history can be restored, and the relationship between countries in the world is brought closer, presenting a complete picture of human development history.
Third, highlight the cross-integration of multiple disciplines. As a historical work, Wood and Civilization restores the historical scene of wood shaping human civilization through interdisciplinary research in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, and using a variety of research methods such as problem tracing, experimental simulation and comparative analysis. As a biologist, the author analyzes the cell structure of wood, the relationship between human body structure and the properties of wood, the bearing capacity of wood, and the advantages of wood in industry by combining relevant theories of physics, engineering, architecture and other natural sciences. At the same time, it also combines the theories and achievements of anthropology, history, archaeology and other humanities and social sciences to explain the influence of wood on human life, civilization formation, and social development. This way of mutual reference and integration between natural sciences and humanities and social sciences has built a bridge of dialogue between different disciplines, strengthened the advantages of interdisciplinarity, enabled experts and scholars in different disciplines to form a macroscopic understanding and overall perception of the relationship between wood and human history, and also provided an example for the research of interdisciplinary disciplines such as forestry history and environmental history.
Wood and Civilization focuses on the "small trees" that are common in human life, and comprehensively presents the "big history" of the formation and development of human civilization around the world. From the perspective of global historical development, the author analyzes the understanding and utilization of wood in human evolution, civilization construction and social construction, focusing on the relationship and influence between wood and human body, thought, social life and even the construction of human civilization, helping human beings to better explore the mystery of life and the connection with the world, and providing historical experience and solutions for human beings to protect the ecological environment and rationally use resources. Forests are the birthplace of human beings, and human beings have lived in the environment created by trees for a long time since their appearance, and it is wood that has shaped human history and civilization, and it can be said that there would be no human civilization without wood. Therefore, it is of great significance to understand the characteristics of wood, understand human history, reflect on human behavior, improve the root cause of the problem, make good use of forest resources, maintain the ecological environment, and reshape the relationship between man and nature, so as to promote the innovative development of forestry and the process of ecological civilization construction, improve the carbon sink capacity of forests, and realize Chinese modernization as soon as possible.