If you're interested in man's roots, there are several authors you must read: Birute Galdikas Dian Fosse Donald Johanson GHR Von Koenigsman Glen Isaacs Jared Diamond Ian Tattersell Lev Vygotsky Margaret Meade Noam Chomsky Richard Leakey Shawna Vogel Sue Savage-Rumsbaugh...but the man who started it all with his Margaret Meade-like charisma and down-to-earth writing style was Richard Leakey. His work in Olduvai Gorge caught the publics imagination like nothing before.If you want to meet Richard Leakey, you must read his short little summative book, The Origin of Humankind (Perseus Books 1984). In this manuscript, he explains in plain English so all of us non-doctoral candidates can understand what he has concluded after a lifetime of research it is that differentiates you and I from other animals. Much has been made of the human-ness of our close cousins, the Great Apes. Between chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, even orangutans, we see a lot of ourselves in their actions, decisions, parenting, culture. These blur the line between what really makes us human and them not. Heck, genetically, there is only 1.2% difference in our DNA--how different could we really be?There have been tests to answer that very question. Those tests are what drove Jane Goodall into the field to see how exactly chimps were animals while she was human. Every test she ran them through, they passed. What happened when she returned from the field to show this to her scientific colleagues? They changed the tests--moved the goal posts.At one time, the hurdle was that the animal species must be able to use tools. That fell to Goodall's first fieldwork research in Tanzania. Then it was they must be able to use tools to make tools. That fell, too--I believe again to Goodall's research. Then it was they must be able to identify themselves (Sue Savage-Rumbaugh crushed that one?), problem solve, visual thinking--what about symbolic thinking? I come away shaking my head, trying to clear out the multiplying requirements.If we are all part of the same human bush, I want to know. You should want to know, too.Richard Leakey tackled that complicated problem in this 170-page book. He starts by discussing human evolution, how we differ from other primates in unique ways. He then discusses several areas that anthropologists have a difficult time finding in other species--art, language, ethical judgments, and mental skills. Yes, anthropologists do find them in other species, but not consistently and not the way man uses these. You'll find the discussion fascinating.He does skip one trait I think has never been refuted: Man is the only species I know that chooses to think rather than sleep or eat. Most animals spend their days hunting or resting up to hunt. The great apes throw play into the mix, but are there any species that choose to think about their future, problems, create solutions, explore for the sake of adventure in the way we do?You can read this book in a weekend. It'll change your thinking for a lifetime. Don't miss it.
This book really grabbed me to start, I was totally loving it, but for whatever reason, I started to only take little nibbles of it from time to time. Richard E. Leakey wrote eloquently about our earliest ancestors up to "modern human." This was something that I've studied a bit before, but I don't think I've ever studied it in this kind of depth.This is another book that I picked up in the Acadamy of Classical Oriental Sciences dispensary. I found it a bit unusual to see there, thinking it had relatively little to do with Chinese Medicine, and I'm still not convinced of the importance of it in the study of Chinese Medicine.
What do You think about The Origin Of Humankind (1996)?
This book was so easy to read. Don't confuse the word read with understand...the evolutionary theory and understanding of anthropology is incredible. I could tell my understanding was expanded by reading this book but that i could tell there was stuff that was going over my head in understanding of how the specifics of head size, or brain size or bipedalism may or may not indicatae language development...and ultimately the evolution of homo sapiens as we know them. although i can generally grasp the idea of evolution of humankind....the language evolution or being able to speak to each other from mere nothing is beyond my comprehension. okay. i loved this book.
—Aleisha Z Coleman
a pleasant, short, very high level read about how humans evolved from millions of years ago when we began to separate from apes up to some hundreds thousands years ago when homo sapiens were fully set. the first few million years are especially interesting, if brief. the sections on how humans evolved brain, language and even art were especially interesting.of course, at about 100 pages, its way to short to really cover the subject, but at a very high level, this books provide an interesting and very readable introduction to our history.
—Mark
