I read this book in preparation for teaching a course on the relationship between human cultures and the non-human environment. We begin the semester with a section on human evolution where I establish the evidence for a naturalistic explanation of culture. I have had problems finding a book for this portion of the class, mainly because the books written for a general audience (as opposed to anthro or bio majors) are dominated by bad science writing filled with just-so stories, libertarian fantasies, and Evolutionary Psychology's most egregious sins. I am happy to report that this book does a fantastic job of not only walking the reader through the current understanding of human evolution, including major debates, gaps in the evidence, and clear explanations of the scientific process. The book presents a fascinating synthesis and repudiates some of the more common myths floating around the popular consciousness about human evolution, beginning with the argument that the Ardipithecus walked upright and dwelt in trees, that bipedality did not evolve afterwards but was an exaptation. The author does trip in the last two chapters as his desire to avoid inappropriate reductionistic explanations of human behavior leads him first to deny the importance of behavioral traits in the selective process and to overestimate the power of culture, and then to make nonsensical proclamations about society and culture in the Coda. This critique does not detract frothe usefulness of the book to introduce newcomers to the fun and captivating field of human evolution. The author traces the evolution of the human species focusing on what characterizes us as human in contrast to our predecessor species as well as other hominid lineages that died out such as the Neanderthals. One thing we learn is that, contrary to current popular belief, the earliest examples of our ancestors were primarily vegetarians where meat was merely a dietary supplement. The evidence for this can be found in our teeth and digestive tracts which do not resemble those of strict carnivores. In fact, we were more prey than hunter originally which is reflected in our behavior up to this day such as our intolerance of competitor species or, more positively, our highly social nature. It is also important to point out that we share large portions of out genes with other species, even simple ones like the housefly, which points to our evolutionary being. As we consider this today, the complexity of our society actually leads the human species to greater fragility in the face of adverse events such as climate change and the need for a social order to balance out the extremes found in subsets of individuals.
What do You think about Masters Of The Planet (2012)?
Very interesting account of hominid evolution, starting with autralopiths onward.
—jollybi
A little dense in archaeological details but otherwise quite informative.
—Tanner
Ancient hominids - almost as good as ancient aliens.
—polkie74
