Human Origins: A Short History
by Sarah Wild
ISBN 9781789295788
At the beginning of this book, the author states, "The aim of this book is to break the complex human story into bite-sized chunks, to highlight the broad trends and the major disagreements--and there are many disagreements...I have also tried to highlight how much our understanding of human origins has changed--and continues to change--and how, in some ways, palaeoanthropology showcases some of the best features of scientific inquiry..." (p6) Does she succeed at the task she has set for herself? Indeed she does! She skillfully weaves the many threads of the story of human origins into a very readable, informative, fascinating narrative. Along the way, some threads get dropped and new ones picked up as more evidence becomes available. The search for the definitive story of how we--Homo sapiens sapiens--became the last homo species left will probably never be completely understood. The clues are random and necessarily fragmentary. We only have what turns up in the archaeological record. Then there is the interpretation of what is found, which often leads to disagreement between scientists. There is broad agreement that anatomically modern humans have been around for about 300,000 years, but how we got to that point and what happened to the other human species is still being explored. One 'fun fact' in the book was that Homo sapiens is the only hominin species (the lineage of species that diverged from chimpanzees 6 to 7 million years ago and resulted in us) to have a chin, as far as scientists know, and they don't know why. This book is a great overview of the current state of thinking about human origins. It explains things without getting deep into jargon--general readers will find the book fascinating, highly readable, and informative. My one quibble was the explanatory boxes that were placed in the middle of the text. They provided important information, but the placement did interrupt the narrative flow for me, so I ended up just reading each chapter, then going back to read the text within the boxes. That's a minor issue, though, and about organization, not the excellent book itself. This is a small book, but there is much food for thought within it.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.
5 comments:
This really seems like my kind of book. I have read so much about this of late and really find it fascinating. Palaeontology must be a wonderful career.
This book sounds right up my alley. Thanks for sharing it. :) And happy weekend to you!
She did a fine job of making a huge subject and long timeline concise and readable for everyone. It's easy for this kind of thing to get really dry and filled with jargon--I've had to read plenty of those! :-)
I think palaeontology is a great career for the right kind of person--lots of tedious, painstaking fieldwork and hope that you'll get lucky in funding and discovery. I must admit that I was happy to get far enough along into grad school that I could leave that aspect of my degree program behind and focus on the sociocultural/linguistic aspects of the field (in the US, archaeology and what used to be called physical anthropology are in anth departments, but I understand that's different in other places). It's all personal preference--some of my colleagues hated the parts that I loved. :-)
Happy weekend to you both!
This does sound a good book.
Many thanks for highlighting it here.
All the best Jan
It's a good one :-)
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