On the Origin of Tepees
Jonnie Hughes
Oneworld Publications (trade)
<span>Throughout history, we humans have prided ourselves on our 
capacity to have ideas, but perhaps this pride is misplaced. Perhaps 
ideas have us. In this book, science writer and documentary filmmaker 
Jonnie Hughes investigates the evolution of ideas, taking a look at how 
they seem to have lives of their own. Adopting the role of a cultural 
Charles Darwin, Hughes travels across the Midwest with his brother to 
observe firsthand the natural history of ideas—the patterns of their 
variation, inheritance, and selection in the cultural landscape. In 
place of Darwin’s oceanic islands, Hughes visits the “mind islands” of 
Native American tribes. Instead of finches, Hughes searches for signs of
 natural selection among the tepees. <br><br>With a knack for finding 
the humor in the quirks of the American cultural landscape, Hughes takes
 us on a tour from the Mall of America in Minneapolis to what he calls 
the “maul” of America—Custer’s last stand—stopping at roadsides and 
discoursing on sandwiches, the shape of cowboy hats, the evolution of 
barn roofs, and more. Original, witty, and engaging, </span><span>On the Origin of Tepees </span><span>offers a fresh way of understanding both our ideas and ourselves.</span>