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Author: Peter Bellwood
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691258813
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
"Human beings are incredibly diverse, from appearance and language to culture. How do we understand this diversity as a product of evolution and migration over millions of years? In this book, Peter Bellwood brings together biology, archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology to provide a sweeping look at human evolution from 5 million years ago to the rise of agriculture and civilization, presenting modern human diversity as a product of the shared history of human populations around the world. Bellwood opens the book by explaining what allows us to understand and reconstruct the human past, including the importance of archaeological, biological, and cultural approaches as well as an understanding of climate and chronology on vast time scales. From there he proceeds forward in time from the split with chimpanzees c. 6 million years ago, the emergence of Homo 2.5 million years ago, and the appearance of modern humans c. 300,000 years ago. Each chapter is driven by a set of major questions that we have new answers to, such as when did human first leave Africa?, was Homo a new species?, what was the path of migration for early humans and did early humans have discernible social life and material culture? Moving forward in time, Bellwood describes cultural and then linguistic evolution over the last 20,000 years, again driving each chapter with big questions. He concludes the book by asking how much human behavior has changed based on what we know about the past and whether humans are still evolving genetically and culturally. Ultimately, this book shows that to understand human history and ongoing modern human diversity we must first understand human populations as a the result of millions of years of shared genetic and cultural evolution"--
Author: Peter Bellwood
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691258813
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Get Book Here
Book Description
"Human beings are incredibly diverse, from appearance and language to culture. How do we understand this diversity as a product of evolution and migration over millions of years? In this book, Peter Bellwood brings together biology, archaeology, linguistics, and anthropology to provide a sweeping look at human evolution from 5 million years ago to the rise of agriculture and civilization, presenting modern human diversity as a product of the shared history of human populations around the world. Bellwood opens the book by explaining what allows us to understand and reconstruct the human past, including the importance of archaeological, biological, and cultural approaches as well as an understanding of climate and chronology on vast time scales. From there he proceeds forward in time from the split with chimpanzees c. 6 million years ago, the emergence of Homo 2.5 million years ago, and the appearance of modern humans c. 300,000 years ago. Each chapter is driven by a set of major questions that we have new answers to, such as when did human first leave Africa?, was Homo a new species?, what was the path of migration for early humans and did early humans have discernible social life and material culture? Moving forward in time, Bellwood describes cultural and then linguistic evolution over the last 20,000 years, again driving each chapter with big questions. He concludes the book by asking how much human behavior has changed based on what we know about the past and whether humans are still evolving genetically and culturally. Ultimately, this book shows that to understand human history and ongoing modern human diversity we must first understand human populations as a the result of millions of years of shared genetic and cultural evolution"--
Author: Andrew H. Knoll
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691120294
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300
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Book Description
Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, with the very latest discoveries in paleontology integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science. 100 illustrations.
Author: Jeremy DeSilva
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691242062
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Leading scholars take stock of Darwin's ideas about human evolution in the light of modern science In 1871, Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, a companion to Origin of Species in which he attempted to explain human evolution, a topic he called "the highest and most interesting problem for the naturalist." A Most Interesting Problem brings together twelve world-class scholars and science communicators to investigate what Darwin got right—and what he got wrong—about the origin, history, and biological variation of humans. Edited by Jeremy DeSilva and with an introduction by acclaimed Darwin biographer Janet Browne, A Most Interesting Problem draws on the latest discoveries in fields such as genetics, paleontology, bioarchaeology, anthropology, and primatology. This compelling and accessible book tackles the very subjects Darwin explores in Descent, including the evidence for human evolution, our place in the family tree, the origins of civilization, human races, and sex differences. A Most Interesting Problem is a testament to how scientific ideas are tested and how evidence helps to structure our narratives about human origins, showing how some of Darwin's ideas have withstood more than a century of scrutiny while others have not. A Most Interesting Problem features contributions by Janet Browne, Jeremy DeSilva, Holly Dunsworth, Agustín Fuentes, Ann Gibbons, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Brian Hare, John Hawks, Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Kristina Killgrove, Alice Roberts, and Michael J. Ryan.
Author: David R. Begun
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691182809
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
The astonishing new story of human origins Was Darwin wrong when he traced our origins to Africa? The Real Planet of the Apes makes the explosive claim that it was in Europe, not Africa, where apes evolved the most important hallmarks of our human lineage. In this compelling and accessible book, David Begun, one of the world’s leading paleoanthropologists, transports readers to an epoch in the remote past when the Earth was home to many migratory populations of ape species. Begun draws on the latest astonishing discoveries in the fossil record, as well as his own experiences conducting field expeditions, to offer a sweeping evolutionary history of great apes and humans. He tells the story of how one of the earliest members of our evolutionary group evolved from lemur-like monkeys in the primeval forests of Africa. Begun then vividly describes how, over the next ten million years, these hominoids expanded into Europe and Asia and evolved climbing and hanging adaptations, longer maturation times, and larger brains. As the climate deteriorated in Europe, these apes either died out or migrated south, reinvading the African continent and giving rise to the lineages of African great apes, and, ultimately, humans. Presenting startling new insights, The Real Planet of the Apes fundamentally alters our understanding of human origins.
Author: Peter Bellwood
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118325893
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
The first publication to outline the complex global story of human migration and dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory. Utilizing archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence, Peter Bellwood traces the journeys of the earliest hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist migrants as critical elements in the evolution of human lifeways. The first volume to chart global human migration and population dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory, in all regions of the world An archaeological odyssey that details the initial spread of early humans out of Africa approximately two million years ago, through the Ice Ages, and down to the continental and island migrations of agricultural populations within the past 10,000 years Employs archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence to demonstrate how migration has always been a vital and complex element in explaining the evolution of the human species Outlines how significant migrations have affected population diversity in every region of the world Clarifies the importance of the development of agriculture as a migratory imperative in later prehistory Fully referenced with detailed maps throughout
Author: Stephen Baxter
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 0345457846
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 617
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Book Description
“Magisterial and uplifting . . . A brilliant, grandscale sampling of sixty-five million years of human evolution . . . It shows the sweep and grandeur of life in its unrelenting course.” —The Denver Post Stretching from the distant past into the remote future, from primordial Earth to the stars, Evolution is a soaring symphony of struggle, extinction, and survival; a dazzling epic that combines a dozen scientific disciplines and a cast of unforgettable characters to convey the grand drama of evolution in all its awesome majesty and rigorous beauty. Sixty-five million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, there lived a small mammal, a proto-primate of the species Purgatorius. From this humble beginning, Baxter traces the human lineage forward through time. The adventure that unfolds is a gripping odyssey governed by chance and competition, a perilous journey to an uncertain destination along a route beset by sudden and catastrophic upheavals. It is a route that ends, for most species, in stagnation or extinction. Why should humanity escape this fate? Praise for Evolution “Spectacular.”—The New York Times Book Review “Strong imagination, a capacity for awe, and the ability to think rigorously about vast and final things abound in the work of Stephen Baxter. . . . [Evolution] leaves the reader with a haunting portrayal of the distant future.”—Times Literary Supplement “A breath of fresh air . . . The miracle of Evolution is that it makes the triumph of life, which is its story, sound like the real story.”—The Washington Post Book World
Author: Peter R. Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691263221
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 464
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Book Description
"A new, revised edition of Peter and Rosemary Grant's synthesis of their decades of research on Daphne Island"--
Author: Peter R. Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691149992
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Trace the evolutionary history of fourteen different species of finches on the Galapagos Islands that were studied by Charles Darwin.
Author: L L Cavalli-sforza
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691209359
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science. The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.
Author: Kevin N. Lala
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069118447X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465
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Book Description
Humans possess an extraordinary capacity for culture, from the arts and language to science and technology. But how did the human mind—and the uniquely human ability to devise and transmit culture—evolve from its roots in animal behavior? Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony presents a captivating new theory of human cognitive evolution. This compelling and accessible book reveals how culture is not just the magnificent end product of an evolutionary process that produced a species unlike all others—it is also the key driving force behind that process. Kevin N. Lala tells the story of the painstaking fieldwork, the key experiments, the false leads, and the stunning scientific breakthroughs that led to this new understanding of how culture transformed human evolution. It is the story of how Darwin’s intellectual descendants picked up where he left off and took up the challenge of providing a scientific account of the evolution of the human mind.
