Human Beginnings in South Africa

Human Beginnings in South Africa PDF Author: H. J. Deacon
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780761990864
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Specialists in Stone Age archaeology in South Africa present the results of nearly 150 years of research that follows the development of humans from their early beginnings to the late 19th century. They offer evidence that the roots of South African society stretch back into the Stone Age. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Human Beginnings in South Africa

Human Beginnings in South Africa PDF Author: H. J. Deacon
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780761990864
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book

Book Description
Specialists in Stone Age archaeology in South Africa present the results of nearly 150 years of research that follows the development of humans from their early beginnings to the late 19th century. They offer evidence that the roots of South African society stretch back into the Stone Age. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

African Paleoecology and Human Evolution

African Paleoecology and Human Evolution PDF Author: Sally C. Reynolds
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107074037
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 597

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Book Description
A comprehensive account of hominin fossil sites across Africa, including the environmental and ecological evidence central to our understanding of human evolution.

African Genesis

African Genesis PDF Author: Sally C. Reynolds
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107019958
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
This book reviews key themes and developments in palaeoanthropology, exploring their impact on our understanding of human origins in Africa.

Darwin's Hunch

Darwin's Hunch PDF Author: Christa Kuljian
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781431424252
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Scientists, and their research, are often shaped by the prevailing social and political context at the time. Kuljian explores this trend in South Africa and provides fresh insight on the search for human origins - in the fields of palaeoanthropology and genetics - over the past century. The book follows the colonial practice in Europe, the US and South Africa of collecting human skeletons and cataloguing them into racial types, in the hope that they would provide clues to human evolution. Kuljian sheds light on how, during apartheid, the concept of racial classification mirrored the way in which many scientists thought about race and human evolution.

Africa, the Cradle of Human Diversity

Africa, the Cradle of Human Diversity PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004500227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
This book explores important chapters of past and recent African history from a multidisciplinary perspective. It covers an extensive time range from the evolution of early humans to the complex cultural and genetic diversity of modern-day populations in Africa. Through a comprehensive list of chapters, the book focuses on different time-periods, geographic regions and cultural and biological aspects of human diversity across the continent. Each chapter summarises current knowledge with perspectives from a varied set of international researchers from diverse areas of expertise. The book provides a valuable resource for scholars interested in evolutionary history and human diversity in Africa. Contributors are Shaun Aron, Ananyo Choudhury, Bernard Clist, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Rosa Fregel, Jackson S. Kimambo, Faye Lander , Marlize Lombard, Fidelis T. Masao, Ezekia Mtetwa, Gilbert Pwiti, Michèle Ramsay, Thembi Russell, Carina Schlebusch, Dhriti Sengupta, Plan Shenjere-Nyabezi, Mário Vicente.

Canis Africanis

Canis Africanis PDF Author: Lance Van Sittert
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004154191
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The role of the dog in human society is the connecting thread that binds the essays in "Canis Africanis," each revealing a different part of the complex social history of southern Africa. The essays range widely from concerns over disease, bestiality, and social degradation through gambling on dogs to anxieties over social status reflected through breed classifications, and social rebellion through resisting the dog tax imposed by colonial authorities. With its focus on dogs in human history, this project is part of what has been termed the 'animal turn' in the social sciences, which investigates the spaces which animals inhabit in human society and the way in which animal and human lives interconnect, demonstrating how different human groups construct a range of identities for themselves (and for others) in terms of animals. So instead of conceiving of animals as merely constituents of ecological or agricultural systems, they can be comprehended through their role in human cultures.

A Search for Origins

A Search for Origins PDF Author: Trefor Jenkins
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1776142306
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
A study of the 'Cradle of Humanity and its history. The 'Cradle of Humankind' (COH), bordering Gauteng and the North-West Province, was declared a World Heritage Site for the wealth of the human and animal fossils found there. Research based on fossils found in the area as well as signs of early human habitation have shed new light on the evolution of humankind and on the significant role that southern Africa played in the development of modern humans. A Search for Origins aims to provide an overview of the history of the COH, and of the important discoveries that have been made there, for a non-specialist audience. A number of general accounts have been written which have concentrated on the palaeontological discoveries made there. No systematic account written by specialists in their disciplines has, however, been published about the wider history of the COH and surrounding areas. In particular, no overview spanning the evolution of early plant and animal life, human development and recent and colonial history as reflected in discoveries linked to the COH, has been attempted. This edited volume frames the scientific advances that have been made in the COH against the intellectual and political background out of which they emerged. The multi-disciplinary approach - from a wide range of specialists -is innovative and ground-breaking.

Born in Africa

Born in Africa PDF Author: Martin Meredith
Publisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 1610391055
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. And yet, though vital clues still remain hidden, scientists have over the last century transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows scientists' trail of discoveries about human origins, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies as well as their feats of skill and endurance. And he limns their momentous accomplishments: Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans. They have revealed how early technology, language ability and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa; and they have shown how small groups of Africans spread out from Africa in an exodus sixty-thousand years ago to populate the rest of the world.

Only in Africa

Only in Africa PDF Author: Norman Owen-Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108832598
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
Demonstrates how Africa's physical features, savannas and abundant grazers enabled frugivorous apes to become savanna-living hunters.

Human Origins

Human Origins PDF Author: New Scientist
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 147367042X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Where did we come from? Where are we going? Homo sapiens is the most successful, the most widespread and the most influential species ever to walk the Earth. In the blink of an evolutionary eye we have spread around the globe, taken control of Earth's biological and mineral resources, transformed the environment, discovered the secrets of the universe and travelled into space. Yet just 7 million years ago, we were just another species of great ape making a quiet living in the forests of East Africa. We do not know exactly what this ancestor was like, but it was no more likely than a chimpanzee or gorilla to sail across the ocean, write a symphony, invent a steam engine or ponder the meaning of existence. How did we get from there to here? The Story of Human Origins recounts the most astonishing evolutionary tale ever told. Discover how our ancestors made the first tentative steps towards becoming human, how we lost our fur but gained language, fire and tools, how we strode out of Africa, invented farming and cities and ultimately created modern civilization - perhaps the only one of its kind in the Universe. Meet your long-lost ancestors, the other humans who once shared the planet with us, and learn where the story might end.