Join us for an exciting night with author

Meredith Small as she discusses her latest book

FAMILY: How the Human Need for Connection Forms and Shapes Our Lives

in conversation with Miguel Vilar

to be held at Solid State Books on H St. NE

Tickets with, AND without a book are available here!

From the acclaimed author of Our Babies, Ourselves comes an illuminating and thought-provoking look at the nature of family across time and cultures.

Family is the most ubiquitous and persistent human social group. Everyone across the world has a family, even if that family has been lost, broken, or transformed. Acclaimed anthropologist Meredith Small, author of Our Babies, Ourselves, examines the very roots of the family and why this particular type of connection is the bedrock of human interaction in all cultures—and how this understanding can help us navigate our rapidly changing world.

Previous books about family are self-help books designed to start, build, or repair broken families. Family: How the Human Need for Belonging Shapes Our Lives is something different. Why do we form families? Why do people place such importance on their family relationships? And what is the reality of family life—does it live up to our expectations? What do families provide for each of us at all the stages of our lives?

Small takes the reader on a journey from the evolutionary roots and fossil evidence of family three million years ago to its present-day varied expression. Across the globe, various forms of marriage, parenting, and types of family differ from the Western template of a family of Mom+Dad+kids. People have always adapted the notion of family to their own worldview, religious beliefs, and economic necessities.

In a narrative that is both sweeping and intimate in scale, we see how family is not a fixed notion, but something has evolved with us as a species, from our days as hunter-gatherers to the establishment of agriculture, and later, cities. Family is as varied as the human experience itself. Illuminating and thought-provoking, Family shows how our innately human need for belonging can be drawn upon to navigate the uncertainties of today's world.

Meredith F. Small is a professor of anthropology at Cornell University and the author of several books, including Our Babies, Ourselves; What's Love Got to Do with It?; and Here Begins the Dark Sea, also available from Pegasus Books. She has written for Natural History Magazine, Discover, Scientific American, and is a commentator for National Public Radio's All Things Considered. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Miguel Vilar is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland and also has experience writing for the popular press. He was the lead scientist for the Genographic Project, a Program Officer for National Geographic, and has worked all over the world focusing on molecular anthropology. Miguel also has an M.A. from Columbia in Journalism.