{"product_id":"9780692658697","title":"Forty Thousand Years of Separation: A Novel of Possibilities","description":"Just when did Homo sapiens finally attain its modern mental capabilities?\u003cp\u003eEvidence about mental capacity is rare - scratched prey-bones and simple tools can set only a very low \"lower bound\". Only the most durable materials have survived, and they tell us nothing about what the makers thought or discussed, or how well they did so. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Separation\" speculates on the nature of creativity in early Homo sapiens society and how it might have been used and fostered. In the tale, Mother Nature 40,000 years ago brought together a collection of events in the affairs of a human tribe, each event improbable but certainly possible. The outcome was a multi-generational chain of spectacularly-gifted women who were cave artists and a great deal more, led by Artist Veejr and her mother Chys. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGerard, a modern boy living in the same region, discovers Veejr's main art-cave. In it, he finds a boggling display of her decades of development as a self-taught artist. The collection culminates in a magnificent painting -clearly a self-portrait- set among hundreds of depictions not of mere animals or items, but of people and autobiographical events from Chys' and Veejr's lives. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGerard becomes an archaeologist, forever lured onwards by the evidence he is uncovering about specific, talented, identifiable individuals - nameable, knowable people from so long ago. Across the separation emerges a surprisingly clear and detailed story of the relationship between Chys, Veejr, their descendants, art, and various forms of Tribal knowledge. That story is told by a remarkable and ever-growing suite of findings of materials and of evidence of individuals' thought processes. Ultimately, the Artist, via her descendants, can be traced forward into the present. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSurely there is a reasonable probability that somewhere there may exist just such a record as is imagined here. It may someday be discovered: why not? Nothing in the story is impossible.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shulenberger Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49813493022960,"sku":"9780692658697","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780692658697","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}