 |
|
Books Featured in the Latest Issue of RNCSE more categories at right
| From Lucy to Language, revised edition |
| Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar |
| Donald Johanson and Blake Edgar discuss human prehistory -- from the appearance of bipedal walking to the origin of language -- in a volume lavishly illustrated with original (and often life-size) photographs of fossils and artifacts. The first part of the book concentrates on the interpretation of the paleoanthropological evidence, considering such topics as migration, diversity, anatomy, society, bipedalism, tools, customs, and "imponderables" (such as clothing and the problem of consciousness). The second part comprehensively summarizes the evidence on which our knowledge of human prehistory is based. A revised, updated, and expanded edition, which Scientific American's reviewer described as "even more awe-inspiring than the earlier version." |
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| The Human Career, second edition |
| Richard G. Klein |
| Simply the single best reference and advanced introduction to paleoanthropology -- the subject of human biological and cultural evolution, the area where physical anthropology and prehistoric archeology overlap. Writing in Evolution, Henry McHenry describes it as "by far the best book of its kind"; writing in Antiquity, R. A. Foley describes it as "the best introduction to the problems and data of modern palaeoanthropology yet published." And no wonder: unmatched for breadth, range, and reliability, with more than 2500 references cited in 800 pages, The Human Career is indispensable for any serious student of human evolution.
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction, fifth edition |
| Roger Lewin |
| As Kenneth Kennedy writes, Roger Lewin is "one of the very few scientific journalists I know who has been successful in relating, with accuracy and an exciting writing style, the principles of paleoanthropology to a broad reading audience of scholars and laymen." Unsurprisingly, then, his Human Evolution is a good introduction to its subject. Containing brief but accurate accounts of contemporary research and results, as well as copious references and illustrations, it is eminently useful both as a general source of information and as a supplementary textbook. Lewin's other books include Bones of Contention and (with Richard Leakey) Origins Reconsidered.
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| The Last Human |
| created by G. J. Sawyer and Istvan Deak |
| From the publisher: "This book tells the story of human evolution, the epic of Homo sapiens and its colorful precursors and relatives. The story begins in Africa, six to seven million years ago, and encompasses twenty known human species, of which Homo sapiens is the sole survivor. Illustrated with spectacular, three-dimensional scientific reconstructions portrayed in their natural habitat developed by a team of physical anthropologists at the American Museum of Natural History and in concert with experts from around the world, the book is both a guide to extinct human species and an astonishing hominid family photo album."
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| The Great Human Diasporas |
| Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza |
| The lifework of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza has been to investigate the history of humanity through its genetic makeup; The Great Human Diasporas, written in collaboration with his filmmaker son and translated from the Italian, distills his prodigious scientific knowledge into a form accessible to the general reader. A central chapter explains how Cavalli-Sforza used archaeological and genetic data to reconstruct the human population movements of the last ten thousand years (especially in Europe). The Great Human Diasporas also touches on the fundamentals of evolutionary theory as well as issues of eugenics, linguistics, racism, and genetic engineering.
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| Mapping Human History |
| Steve Olson |
| From the publisher: "In this sweeping narrative of the past 150,000 years of human history, Steve Olson draws on new understandings in genetics to reveal how the people of the world came to be. ... He shows how groups of people differ and yet are the same, exploding the myth that human races are a biological reality while demonstrating how the accidents of history have resulted in the rich diversity of people today. Celebrating both our commonality and our variety, Mapping Human History is a masterful synthesis of the human past and present that will forever change how we think about ourselves and our relations with others."
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| The Seven Daughters of Eve |
| Brian Sykes |
| From the publisher: "The Seven Daughters of Eve reveals the remarkable story behind a groundbreaking scientific discovery. After being summoned in 1997 to an archaeological site to examine the remains of a five-thousand-year-old man, Bryan Sykes ultimately was able to prove not only that the man was a European but also that he has living relatives in England today. In this lucid, absorbing account, Sykes reveals how the identification of a particular strand of DNA that passes unbroken through the maternal line allows scientists to trace our genetic makeup all the way back to prehistoric times, to seven primeval women, the Seven Daughters of Eve."
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project |
| Spencer Wells |
| In Deep Ancestry, Spencer Wells, the director of the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project, clearly explains the science behind the project -- which is collecting DNA from a wide sample of the world's population in order to understand the evolution of the human genome -- and also engagingly relates the stories of five of its volunteers. Describing the book as "concise and well-written," the reviewer for Publishers Weekly writes, "It is a remarkable journey that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds interested in exploring the science and research behind human evolution." Wells's first book was The Journey of Man.
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| Our Inner Ape |
| Frans de Waal |
| In Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal -- a leading primatologist -- entertainingly and thoughtfully ponders what we can learn about ourselves from the behavior of our closest relatives: chimpanzees and bonobos. NCSE's Anne D. Holden writes (in RNCSE 2007 Sep–Dec; 27 [5–6]: 45–6), "de Waal's argument that humans exhibit important qualities of both chimpanzees and bonobos is well-developed, organized, and is complemented by excellent examples from his years in close contact with these animals. As a result, the reader is left with a solid understanding of what it means to be human, as well as what it means to be an ape."
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| Tree of Origin |
| edited by Frans de Waal |
| Nine primatologists -- Richard W. Byrne, Robin I. M. Dunbar, William C. McGrew, Anne E. Pusey, Charles T. Snowdon, Craig B. Stanford, Karen B. Strier, and Richard W. Wrangham -- consider the implications of primate behavior for understanding human evolution. Topics of the individual essays include reproduction, food and diet, tool use, intelligence, communication and language, and culture. "If you want a source that cogently discusses human intelligence in the context of the behavior of other primates," writes Ian Tattersall, "Tree of Origin is the place to turn."
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| What It Means to Be 98 Percent Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and Their Genes |
| Jonathan Marks |
| Matt Cartmill writes, "In this clever, entertaining, and thoughtful book, Marks lays out some important limitations of science in general and genetics in particular. Using terms that everybody can understand, he demolishes the pretensions of scientists who try to use genetics to answer questions about the kinship of nations, the rights of animals, the racial identity of Kennewick Man, the hereditary Jewish priesthood, and the existence of God. Marks has a lot of fun with all this -- and so will his readers." A member of NCSE, Marks teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
| Significant Others |
| Craig Stanford |
| Stanford, a veteran field primatologist, argues "that the gap between apes and humans is very narrow indeed, and the insistence on seeing it as vast and unbridgeable is more a product of fashion and prejudice than of clear thinking." Divided into three sections, dealing with “the forces that drive the societies of great apes and other primates," "contentious questions about the connection of great ape behavior to our understanding of what people do," and "the fate of the apes." The author is professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California and codirector of the Jane Goodall Research Center.
|
| |
| Buy Book |
|
| |
|
|
|
