There appear to be subtle benefits from the community living humans adopted as a ‘norm’ until recent centuries. The extended family that was a key part of such life provided more than just grandparents to help their offspring cope with new arrivals. There was much greater integration, with a strong focus on educating and empowering children.

But one consequence of such a lifestyle concerned parents who realised that they did not have a good rapport with one or two of their own children. Rather than survive years of claustrophobic tension confined to a single house, the children could and would intermingle with others more often. If they struck up a better rapport with an uncle or even someone beyond their family, this was no cause for alarm. Better for the child to have a healthy upbringing as it relieved the tension between parents and child.

The salient point behind this is that there was presumably less possessiveness as a result – a child was brought into the world by a couple, and was the child of that couple, but was not ‘owned’ in quite the same way as today. Defusing such strict lineages would make for a more relaxed, flexible society.

In the same book, many modern day maladies are deemed to be a direct consequence of the alien nature of life now compared to then. Schizophrenia, for example, is quite strongly correlated city size.