Origin Stories

The History of Storytelling, from Before We Were Human to the First Written Texts

Storytelling is what makes us human. This bravura work of popular science explains why. 

David Clifford explores our nature as storytelling creatures with imagination and passion. We begin in the distant past, before Homo sapiens: how did our ancestors develop language, become cooperative enough to scavenge for meat safely and efficiently, learn the benefits of co-parenting, and keep their social groups safe from dangerous grifters? The answer to all of these questions is: by telling stories. This was the driving force behind all the progress that followed: without storytelling, there would be no humanity, no society, art, writing, science or technology.

The humans of deepest prehistory must have used narrative to inspire extraordinary migrations to new settlements across the world, especially as their local environments changed. As social groups endured over time, people came to treasure their origin stories, which define who we are, what we overcame together, and why our community matters.  In time, storytelling contributed powerfully to the origins of visual art, both transient and long-lasting, and vast structures such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey.  Eventually, storytelling images enabled the newly wealthy to keep records of their goods, until someone adapted this method of tallying goods and riches to note down a story they wanted to be remembered. So writing was born.

David Clifford draws on his knowledge of evolutionary theory, prehistory, anthropology, primatology, ethology, psychology, linguistics and literature to reveal the most profound aspects of our species. Ranging from the earliest spoken sentences to the moment they were first written down, this is a joyful, informative celebration of our species’ extraordinary powers of storytelling.