Climbing Man's Family Tree

Climbing Man's Family Tree PDF Author: Theodore Doney McCown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
"This fascinating book traces man's changing conception of his species from the early Platonic belief in ideal Forms to the current search for fossil links to fill the gaps in the recorded history of evolution. In their study of 'fossil man,' paleoanthropologists have frequently made use of a biological device called the 'phylogenetic tree,' a diagrammatic representation of living and extinct forms which are arranged on trunks and branches to define their degrees of genealogical affinity and lines of descent. The articles selected for this book tell the story of how the phylogenetic tree for man has been conceived over the past three centuries of scientific inquiry. Each of the selections deals with some facet of the problem of the biological relationships of modern man to his prehistoric progenitors as these affinities are documented by the fossil record. The selections are significant as out-standing examples of the beliefs current at the time they were written, or because they represent major breakthroughs that altered subsequent research by providing radical but practical ways of viewing alterations in the chain of human development."--Page 4 of cover.

Climbing Man's Family Tree

Climbing Man's Family Tree PDF Author: Theodore Doney McCown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 510

Get Book Here

Book Description
"This fascinating book traces man's changing conception of his species from the early Platonic belief in ideal Forms to the current search for fossil links to fill the gaps in the recorded history of evolution. In their study of 'fossil man,' paleoanthropologists have frequently made use of a biological device called the 'phylogenetic tree,' a diagrammatic representation of living and extinct forms which are arranged on trunks and branches to define their degrees of genealogical affinity and lines of descent. The articles selected for this book tell the story of how the phylogenetic tree for man has been conceived over the past three centuries of scientific inquiry. Each of the selections deals with some facet of the problem of the biological relationships of modern man to his prehistoric progenitors as these affinities are documented by the fossil record. The selections are significant as out-standing examples of the beliefs current at the time they were written, or because they represent major breakthroughs that altered subsequent research by providing radical but practical ways of viewing alterations in the chain of human development."--Page 4 of cover.

Ancestors and Relatives

Ancestors and Relatives PDF Author: Eviatar Zerubavel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199912319
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Genealogy has long been one of humanity's greatest obsessions. But with the rise of genetics, and increasing media attention to it through programs like Who Do You Think You Are? and Faces of America, we are now told that genetic markers can definitively tell us who we are and where we came from. The problem, writes Eviatar Zerubavel, is that biology does not provide us with the full picture. After all, he asks, why do we consider Barack Obama black even though his mother was white? Why did the Nazis believe that unions of Germans and Jews would produce Jews rather than Germans? In this provocative book, he offers a fresh understanding of relatedness, showing that its social logic sometimes overrides the biological reality it supposedly reflects. In fact, rather than just biological facts, social traditions of remembering and classifying shape the way we trace our ancestors, identify our relatives, and delineate families, ethnic groups, nations, and species. Furthermore, genealogies are more than mere records of history. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Zerubavel introduces such concepts as braiding, clipping, pasting, lumping, splitting, stretching, and pruning to shed light on how we manipulate genealogies to accommodate personal and collective agendas of inclusion and exclusion. Rather than simply find out who our ancestors were and identify our relatives, we actually construct the genealogical narratives that make them our ancestors and relatives. An eye-opening re-examination of our very notion of relatedness, Ancestors and Relatives offers a new way of understanding family, ethnicity, nationhood, race, and humanity. "An erudite treatise about how culture drives human cognition about near and remote relatives, Ancestors and Relatives offers lay and academic audiences alike a great read."-Science "The author examines how genealogical structures have been used to organize not only kinship, but also other domains ranging from Supreme Court justices to religions. Genealogy is 'first and foremost a way of thinking' and not simply a way to represent biological ancestor-descendant relations."-CHOICE "In Ancestors and Relatives: Genealogy, Identity, and Community, Eviatar Zerubavel, a sociologist at Rutgers, pulls back the curtain on the genealogical obsession. Genealogies, he argues, aren't the straightforward, objective accounts of our ancestries we often presume them to be. Instead, they're heavily curated social constructions, and are as much about our values as they are about the facts of who gave birth to whom."-The Boston Globe "Making the world seem strange is the first step to understanding it anew. Eviatar Zerubavel is a genius at doing this. Here he takes on kinship and shows us the profound, politically fraught, sometimes frightening, and often funny ways in which we take the biological fact that life creates life and fashion genealogy from it. This is a brilliant, witty, effortlessly well-informed book that anyone with ancestors or anyone who worries about ethnicity, race, and nationalism will read with pleasure and surprise."-Thomas Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley "While ancestors and relatives are genetically given, the genetics give us no clue how we should measure their relative importance to us. In this lively and well-written book, Eviatar Zerubavel avoids the aridity of technical kinship analysis and uses a personal perspective to show how humans fabricate, in the literal sense, their relatives, by a creative process of elimination and selection in the generation of rules. It is easily the most engaging introduction to kinship for the general reader that I have read, and a contribution in its own right to a wider understanding of our place in evolution."-Robin Fox, author of Kinship and Marriage and The Tribal Imagination "Kinship is a perennial staple-necessary but ordinarily dry as dust-of anthropology, sociology, and demography. In Ancestors and Relatives, Eviatar Zerubavel makes the topic new, bringing to it an encyclopedic knowledge and a powerful sociological imagination that brings to life the deeply social and cultural ways in which we talk about, imagine, and understand our ancestors and relations. Never has kinship been more interesting and never has it been as much fun."-Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University

Encyclopedia of Anthropology

Encyclopedia of Anthropology PDF Author: H. James Birx
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 0761930299
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 3138

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Book Description
Focuses on physical, social and applied athropology, archaeology, linguistics and symbolic communication. Topics include hominid evolution, primate behaviour, genetics, ancient civilizations, cross-cultural studies and social theories.

MORPHOLOGY OF THE PRIMATES AND HUMAN EVOLUTION

MORPHOLOGY OF THE PRIMATES AND HUMAN EVOLUTION PDF Author: R. P. SRIVASTAVA
Publisher: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN: 8120336569
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
This book presents a detailed account of the morphological features of the primates and, in the process, it provides a clear exposition of the story of human evolution. It discusses the theories of biological evolution, the origin of the primates, the morphology of the living primates, the social behaviour of the nonhuman primates, and the phylogenetic relationship between the large apes and man on the basis of immunological and molecular analyses. The text focuses on the Miocene hominoids and their role in the subsequent developments of the hominids. It discusses three theories—the Single Lineage Theory, the Double Lineage Theory, and the Triple Lineage Theory—developed through the study of the anatomical features of the australopithecine fossils found mainly in South and East Africa. The text also gives up-to-date information on the recent discoveries of several hominid species. The emergence of Homo erectus from one of the australopithecines, its cultural attainments, and the gradual transition to modern man are described in the text. The doubts about the phylogenetic lineage of the Neanderthals and the emergence of the early Homo sapiens in the context of human evolution form the basis of various theories regarding the evolution of modern man. These theories are thoroughly examined in the text. KEY FEATURES  Discusses immunological and molecular approaches to primate phylogeny, and various dating techniques.  Includes a number of figures, flow charts and phylogenetic trees to help readers understand the concepts clearly.  Provides a Glossary of technical terms and contributions of some eminent persons to the subject. This book is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Anthropology and Archaeology. Besides, students appearing in competitive examinations will also find the book beneficial.

The Evolution of Culture

The Evolution of Culture PDF Author: Stefan Linquist
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135189014X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 659

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Book Description
Recent years have seen a transformation in thinking about the nature of culture. Rather than viewing culture in opposition to biology, a growing number of researchers now regard culture as subject to evolutionary processes. Recent developments in this field have shifted some of the traditional academic fault lines. Alliances are forming between researchers trained in anthropology, evolutionary biology, psychology and philosophy. Meanwhile, several distinct schools of thought have appeared which differ in their vision of what an evolutionary approach to culture should look like. This volume contains some of the most influential publications on these subjects from the past few decades. A theoretical background chapter and critical introduction identify the core issues at stake in the new study of cultural evolution. These chapters are followed by sections on each of the four dominant approaches: the phylogenetic approach, memetics, dual inheritance theory and niche construction. Following these are two chapters on closely related topics: the psychological mechanisms of culture and the existence of culture in non-human animals. Overall, this volume provides an up to date overview of some of the most exciting trends in contemporary evolutionary thought.

National Library of Medicine Current Catalog

National Library of Medicine Current Catalog PDF Author: National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medicine
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

Human Biological Diversity

Human Biological Diversity PDF Author: Daniel E. Brown
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351711660
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
Human Biological Diversity is an introductory textbook designed to cover the key contemporary topics in the study of human variation and human biology within the field of physical anthropology. Easily accessible for students with no background in anthropology or biology, this second edition includes two new chapters, one on human variation in the skeleton and dentition and the other on tracing human population affinities. All other chapters have been fully updated to reflect advances in the field and now include pedagogical features to aid readers in their understanding. Written for an introductory level but still containing valuable information that will be of interest to students on upper-level courses, Brown’s textbook should be essential reading for all students taking courses on human variation, human biology, human evolution, race, anthropology of race, and general introductions to biological/physical anthropology.

The Tree Climbing Cure

The Tree Climbing Cure PDF Author: Andy Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 135032731X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Our relationship with trees is a lengthy, complex one. Since we first walked the earth we have, at various times, worshiped them, felled them and even talked to them. For many of us, though, our first memories of interacting with trees will be of climbing them. Exploring how tree climbers have been represented in literature and art in Europe and North America over the ages, The Tree Climbing Cure unpacks the curative value of tree climbing, examining when and why tree climbers climb, and what tree climbing can do for (and say about) the climber's mental health and wellbeing. Bringing together research into poetry, novels, and paintings with the science of wellbeing and mental health and engaging with myth, folklore, psychology and storytelling, Tree Climber also examines the close relationship between tree climbing and imagination, and questions some longstanding, problematic gendered injunctions about women climbing trees. Discussing, among others, the literary works of Margaret Atwood; Charlotte Bronte; Geoffrey Chaucer; Angela Carter; Kiran Desai; and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as work by artists such as Peter Doig; Paula Rego; and Goya, this book stands out as an almost encyclopedic examination of cultural representations of this quirky and ultimately restorative pastime.

The Anthropology of Complex Economic Systems

The Anthropology of Complex Economic Systems PDF Author: Niccolo Leo Caldararo
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739169726
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Today we live in what Ulrich Beck has aptly characterized as a “risk society” shaped by intensifying crises outside of our control and seemingly outside of our comprehension. The master narrative that was supposed to lead us to secular salvation—economics—has proved to be a large part of the problem rather than the much anticipated solution. In The Anthropology of Complex Economic Systems, Niccolo Caldararo offers a much more radical and challenging answer: that the fundamental assumptions on which the modern “science” of economics has been erected are false, and that it is through the medium of anthropology, particularly the relatively neglected field of economic anthropology, that an alternative and sound basis for both the understanding of economic behavior and for the shaping of economic futures can be constructed. Caldararo not only challenges the foundational assumptions of conventional economic theory, but situates economic behavior (something quite different and universal amongst human beings) in both a historical and an ecological context. Contemporary discussions of “sustainability,” especially in the field of development studies, have oddly neglected to look to anthropology. Economic anthropology, is the repository of a vast store of wisdom both about actual alternative and workable economic systems and about their evolution. By drawing on this source, Caldararo builds a model of the evolution of human economies which stir up substantial debate, shows how economic anthropology provides a tool for the interrogation of economic theory, and ties economics to ecology. It has been the rupture of this fundamental relationship that lies at the basis of much of our present crisis and the unsustainable economic patterns that humans have created. By bringing together in a new configuration economic anthropology, ecology, and culture history, Caldararo not only proposes a new model of human social evolution, but equally importantly creates a methodology for speaking to, and against, our present economic and environmental situation.

The New Chimpanzee

The New Chimpanzee PDF Author: Craig Stanford
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674977114
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
The history of research into the lives of wild chimpanzees now spans more than a half-century since Jane Goodall began it all. The past 20 years have seen tremendous advances in our understanding of our closest kin. These include revelations about our very similar genomes, but also many new discoveries about social behavior and ecology. New cultural traditions and forms of tool use, new evidence for the causes of violence, new evidence of patterns of hunting and meat-eating, and much more. Chimpanzees are new and different apes than they were at the close of the last century. The New Chimpanzee synthesizes the findings of the past 20 years and offers new insights and interpretations of what researchers have learned. The New Chimpanzee draws from results of the 7 longest term (25-55 years) research projects from which we've learned the most about the species, augmented by other shorter field projects conducted in recent years, including my own.--