Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
E318052
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a popular science book by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan that explores the evolutionary origins of human behavior by comparing humans with other animals, especially primates.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3009471 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Context triple: [Carl Sagan bibliography, includesNotableWork, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors]
-
A.
Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is a historical novella by Nikolai Gogol that portrays the fierce, tragic lives and battles of Ukrainian Cossacks in the 16th–17th centuries.
-
B.
The Queen of Shemakha
The Queen of Shemakha is a seductive and enigmatic royal figure from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera "The Golden Cockerel," whose allure and manipulation drive the story’s tragic events.
-
C.
Le Villi
Le Villi is Giacomo Puccini’s first staged opera, a one-act work blending Romantic supernatural themes with lyrical Italian melodrama.
-
D.
The Firebird
The Firebird is a landmark early 20th-century ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky, based on Russian fairy tales and renowned for its vivid orchestration and innovative choreography.
-
E.
Mihna
The Mihna was an Islamic inquisition instituted in the 9th century that tested and persecuted scholars over their adherence to the doctrine of the createdness of the Qur’an.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Target entity description: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a popular science book by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan that explores the evolutionary origins of human behavior by comparing humans with other animals, especially primates.
-
A.
Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is a historical novella by Nikolai Gogol that portrays the fierce, tragic lives and battles of Ukrainian Cossacks in the 16th–17th centuries.
-
B.
The Queen of Shemakha
The Queen of Shemakha is a seductive and enigmatic royal figure from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera "The Golden Cockerel," whose allure and manipulation drive the story’s tragic events.
-
C.
Le Villi
Le Villi is Giacomo Puccini’s first staged opera, a one-act work blending Romantic supernatural themes with lyrical Italian melodrama.
-
D.
The Firebird
The Firebird is a landmark early 20th-century ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky, based on Russian fairy tales and renowned for its vivid orchestration and innovative choreography.
-
E.
Mihna
The Mihna was an Islamic inquisition instituted in the 9th century that tested and persecuted scholars over their adherence to the doctrine of the createdness of the Qur’an.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (44)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
popular science book ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
challenge human exceptionalism
ⓘ
place humans within the continuum of life on Earth ⓘ |
| author |
Ann Druyan
ⓘ
Carl Sagan ⓘ |
| compares |
humans
ⓘ
other animals ⓘ primates ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| explores |
biological roots of aggression
ⓘ
biological roots of morality ⓘ biological roots of sexuality ⓘ biological roots of social behavior ⓘ continuities between human and animal behavior ⓘ evolution of culture ⓘ evolution of intelligence ⓘ |
| focusesOn | evolutionary origins of human behavior ⓘ |
| genre |
non-fiction
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| hasContributor |
Ann Druyan
ⓘ
Carl Sagan ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
Darwinian evolution
ⓘ
naturalistic view of humanity ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
continuity between humans and other animals
ⓘ
humans as part of nature ⓘ limits of human self-knowledge ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
comparative psychology
ⓘ
evolution ⓘ human behavior ⓘ human evolution ⓘ primatology ⓘ sociobiology ⓘ |
| notableFor |
accessible explanation of human evolutionary origins
ⓘ
integration of evolutionary biology and anthropology ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Cosmos
ⓘ
The Dragons of Eden ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general audience
ⓘ
readers interested in science ⓘ |
| topic |
animal cognition
ⓘ
evolutionary psychology ⓘ human-animal similarities ⓘ social evolution in primates ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Description of subject: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a popular science book by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan that explores the evolutionary origins of human behavior by comparing humans with other animals, especially primates.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.