Recent human history, especially the last few hundred years, has seen tremendous technological advancements and sweeping changes to our ecologies and cultures. In most cases, we are not adapted to these radically new conditions because our cultural advancement has entirely outpaced our biological evolution. As nutrition scientist and physician Brandon Hidaka explains, “In effect, humans have dragged a body with a long hominid history into an overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, competitive, inequitable, and socially isolating environment with dire consequences.”1
Our physical health, mental health, social health, and vitality are compromised because present-day humans are physiologically mismatched to our modern environment, and we are no longer living in accord with our evolved natures. This is a critical barrier between us and a good life. But we can learn to close the gap between our modern and our evolved existence by understanding how our evolutionary journey prepared us to live. If we reintegrate some of these evolved ways of being into our hectic, modern lives, we may find the way to eudaemonia.
1 Hidaka, B.H. 2012. “Depression as a Disease of Modernity: explanations for increasing prevalence.” J Affect Disord 140 (3): 205-214.