No previous geological era or epoch includes humans in its definition, and in the scales of geological time, the appearance of homo sapiens on the global stage is a mere blip. The human self-image that unfolds in the modern period has insisted on a separation between homo sapiens and the world, between nature and culture. The concept of the Anthropocene is a challenge to that peculiar form of narcissism. Human societies and their material artifacts are evaluated just like other events in the history of the Earth. The claims to human exceptionalism are set aside. A single geo-history replaces the two accounts of life on earth: natural history and human history.