To add to this, I've been wondering about how self aware people were through the ages. Ancient philosophers, for one, strike me as being very much aware of their surroundings and how they fitted into their society, but what about the rest of the population?
Apologies to the mods if this isn't a suitable question for the subreddit. If not, could I have a suggestion for better wording/ subreddit to post to before this gets deleted?