The People's Peking Man

The People's Peking Man PDF Author: Sigrid Schmalzer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226738612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In the 1920s an international team of scientists and miners unearthed the richest evidence of human evolution the world had ever seen: Peking Man. After the communist revolution of 1949, Peking Man became a prominent figure in the movement to bring science to the people. In a new state with twin goals of crushing “superstition” and establishing a socialist society, the story of human evolution was the first lesson in Marxist philosophy offered to the masses. At the same time, even Mao’s populist commitment to mass participation in science failed to account for the power of popular culture—represented most strikingly in legends about the Bigfoot-like Wild Man—to reshape ideas about human nature. The People’s Peking Man is a skilled social history of twentieth-century Chinese paleoanthropology and a compelling cultural—and at times comparative—history of assumptions and debates about what it means to be human. By focusing on issues that push against the boundaries of science and politics, The People’s Peking Man offers an innovative approach to modern Chinese history and the history of science.

The People's Peking Man

The People's Peking Man PDF Author: Sigrid Schmalzer
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226738612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the 1920s an international team of scientists and miners unearthed the richest evidence of human evolution the world had ever seen: Peking Man. After the communist revolution of 1949, Peking Man became a prominent figure in the movement to bring science to the people. In a new state with twin goals of crushing “superstition” and establishing a socialist society, the story of human evolution was the first lesson in Marxist philosophy offered to the masses. At the same time, even Mao’s populist commitment to mass participation in science failed to account for the power of popular culture—represented most strikingly in legends about the Bigfoot-like Wild Man—to reshape ideas about human nature. The People’s Peking Man is a skilled social history of twentieth-century Chinese paleoanthropology and a compelling cultural—and at times comparative—history of assumptions and debates about what it means to be human. By focusing on issues that push against the boundaries of science and politics, The People’s Peking Man offers an innovative approach to modern Chinese history and the history of science.

Human Evolution in China

Human Evolution in China PDF Author: Xinzhi Wu
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This book is the first comprehensive treatment of all the major human and ape fossils found in China. The book contains original analyses of a number of the fossils, and first-time translations of Chinese-language materials. Metric information is presented, to be used to compare with fossil samples from other parts of the world.

The Early Modern Human from Tianyuan Cave, China

The Early Modern Human from Tianyuan Cave, China PDF Author: Hong Shang
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603441778
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
For more than a century, scientists have returned time and again to the issue of modern human emergence-the when and where of the evolutionary process and the human behavioral and biological dynamics involved. The 2003 discovery of a human partial skeleton at Tianyuandong (Tianyuan Cave) excited worldwide interest. The first human skeleton from the region to be directly radiocarbon-dated (to 40,000 years before present), its geological age places it close to the time period during which modern humans became permanently established across the Old World (between 50,000 and 35,000 years ago). Through detailed description and interpretation of the most complete early modern human skeleton from eastern Asia, The Early Modern Human from Tianyan Cave, China, addresses long-term questions about the ancestry of modern humans in eastern Asia and the nature of the changes in human behavior with the emergence of modern human biology. This book is a detailed, paleontological and paleobiological presentation of this skeleton, its context, and its implications. By providing basic information for this important human fossil, offering inferences concerning the population processes involved in modern human emergence in eastern Eurasia, and by raising questions concerning the adaptations of these early modern human hunter-gatherers, The Early Modern Human from Tianyuan Cave, China will take its place as a core contribution to the study of modern human emergence.

Dragon Bone Hill

Dragon Bone Hill PDF Author: Noel Thomas Boaz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195152913
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Researching the famous fossil site of Dragon Bone Hill in China, scientists Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon retell the story of the cave's unique species of early human, Homo erectus.

Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology in the People's Republic of China

Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic Archaeology in the People's Republic of China PDF Author: Wu Rukang
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 131542312X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
This book represents the first comprehensive attempt to bring to western scholarship the great advances made in Paleolithic archaeology and palaeoanthropology in the People’s Republic of China. The 15 chapters are devoted to a historical overview of past and recent studies, the development of chronological frameworks, the composition and stratigraphy of vertebrate fauna, the pongid and hominid palaeontological records, and Pleistocene prehistoric archaeology. Maps, illustrations and tables illustrate the materials presented here.

Bones of Contention

Bones of Contention PDF Author: Marvin L. Lubenow
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 0801065232
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
While evolutionists point to every new discovery of humanlike fossils as further evidence to support the theory that people evolved from apelike creatures, Marvin L. Lubenow contends that the fossils do more to disprove evolutionary theory than otherwise. In Bones of Contention, Lubenow offers readers of all backgrounds a readable argument for the creationist view of the origins of humankind that addresses all angles of the issue.In this new edition, Lubenow has thoroughly updated and revised his original material to reflect a dozen years of evolutionist theory and modern paleoanthropology. Scholars and laypeople alike will find solid answers, grounded in research, to all of their tough questions.

The Evolution of the Human Head

The Evolution of the Human Head PDF Author: Daniel Lieberman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674046366
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 769

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Book Description
Exhaustively researched and years in the making, this innovative book documents how the many components of the head function, how they evolved since we diverged from the apes, and how they interact in diverse ways both functionally and developmentally, causing them to be highly integrated. This integration not only permits the head's many units to accommodate each other as they grow and work, but also facilitates evolutionary change. Lieberman shows how, when, and why the major transformations evident in the evolution of the human head occurred. The special way the head is integrated, Lieberman argues, made it possible for a few developmental shifts to have had widespread effects on craniofacial growth, yet still permit the head to function exquisitely. --

The Cradle of Humanity

The Cradle of Humanity PDF Author: Mark Maslin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198704526
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
One of the fundamental questions of our existence is why we are so smart. There are lots of drawbacks to having a large brain, including the huge food intake needed to keep the organ running, the frequency with which it goes wrong, and our very high infant and mother mortality rates compared with other mammals, due to the difficulty of giving birth to offspring with very large heads. So why did evolution favour the brainy ape? This question has been widely debated among biological anthropologists, and in recent years, Maslin and his colleagues have pioneered a new theory that might just be the answer. Looking back to a crucial period some 1.9 million years ago, when brain capacity increased by as much as 80%, The Cradle of Humanity explores the implications of two adaptive responses by our hominin ancestors to rapid climatic changes - big jaws, and big brains. Maslin argues that the impact of changing landscapes and fluctuating climates that led to the appearance of intermittent freshwater lakes in East Africa may have played a key role in human evolution. Alongside the physical evidence of fossils and tools, he considers social theories of why a large, complex brain would have provided a major advantage when trying to survive in the constantly changing East African landscape.

Evolution's Bite

Evolution's Bite PDF Author: Peter S. Ungar
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691182833
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Whether we realize it or not, we carry in our mouths the legacy of our evolution. Our teeth are like living fossils that can be studied and compared to those of our ancestors to teach us how we became human. In Evolution’s Bite, noted paleoanthropologist Peter Ungar brings together for the first time cutting-edge advances in understanding human evolution with new approaches to uncovering dietary clues from fossil teeth. The result is a remarkable investigation into the ways that teeth—their shape, chemistry, and wear—reveal how we came to be. Traveling the four corners of the globe and combining scientific breakthroughs with vivid narrative, Evolution’s Bite presents a unique dental perspective on our astonishing human development.

Fire

Fire PDF Author: Frances D. Burton
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826346480
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The association between our ancestors and fire, somewhere around six to four million years ago, had a tremendous impact on human evolution, transforming our earliest human ancestor, a being communicating without speech but with insight, reason, manual dexterity, highly developed social organization, and the capability of experimenting with this new technology. As it first associated with and then began to tame fire, this extraordinary being began to distance itself from its primate relatives, taking a path that would alter its environment, physiology, and self-image. Based on her extensive research with nonhuman primates, anthropologist Frances Burton details the stages of the conquest of fire and the systems it affected. Her study examines the natural occurrence of fire and describes the effects light has on human physiology. She constructs possible variations of our earliest human ancestor and its way of life, utilizing archaeological and anthropological evidence of the earliest human-controlled fires to explore the profound physical and biological impacts fire had on human evolution.