How Do We Know The Nature Of Human Origins

Discusses the scientific research which led to the theories of human origian, including the contributions of Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, and Louis Leakey.

Describes how mapping the human genome has aided paleoanthropologists in their study of ancient bones used to explore human origins, from the earliest humans--bipedal apes--up to Martin Pickford's Millennium Man.

Ancestral DNA, Human Origins, and Migrations describes the genesis of humans in Africa and the subsequent story of how our species migrated to every corner of the globe. Different phases of this journey are presented in an integrative format with information from a number of disciplines, including population genetics, evolution, anthropology, archaeology, climatology, linguistics, art, music, folklore and history. This unique approach weaves a story that has synergistic impact in the clarity and level of understanding that will appeal to those researching, studying, and interested in population genetics, evolutionary biology, human migrations, and the beginnings of our species. Integrates research and information from the fields of genetics, evolution, anthropology, archaeology, climatology, linguistics, art, music, folklore and history, among others Presents the content in an entertaining and synergistic style to facilitate a deep understanding of human population genetics Informs on the origins and recent evolution of our species in an approachable manner

In his new book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of "human exceptionalism" in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career—from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman—Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus. The book's title refers to the 1856 discovery of a clearly very old skull cap in Germany's Neander Valley. The possessor had a brain as large as a modern human, but a heavy low braincase with a prominent brow ridge. Scientists tried hard to explain away the inconvenient possibility that this was not actually our direct relative. One extreme interpretation suggested that the preserved leg bones were curved by both rickets, and by a life on horseback. The pain of the unfortunate individual's affliction had caused him to chronically furrow his brow in agony, leading to the excessive development of bone above the eye sockets. The subsequent history of human evolutionary studies is full of similarly fanciful interpretations. With tact and humor, Tattersall concludes that we are not the perfected products of natural processes, but instead the result of substantial doses of random happenstance.

This history of human origin studies covers a wide range of disciplines. This important new study analyses a number of key episodes from palaeolithic archaeology, palaeoanthropology, primatology and evolutionary theory in terms of various ideas on how one should go about such reconstructions and what, if any, the uses of such historiographical exercises can be for current research in these disciplines. Their carefully argued point is that studying the history of palaeoanthropological thinking about the past can enhance the quality of current research on human origins. The main issues in the present volume are the uses of disciplinary history in terms of present-day research concerns, the relative weight of cultural and other 'external' contexts, and continuity and change in theoretical perspectives. The book's overall approach is an epistemological one. It does not, in other words, primarily address anthropological data as such, but our ways of handling such data in terms of our most fundamental, but usually quite implicit theoretical presuppositions.

There is more to the human origins, development, intelligence, and civilization than the continuous debate Creationism versus Evolution, simply because there is more to the human condition than what authorities and ideologies determine you to acknowledge and accept today. Therefore, when you study the human origins, you have to expand your research beyond the very moment in time when the first humans detached from the firmament or previous species, since there are by far more significant moments in Humanity's lifespan and achievements to define its origins. You have to study it all, otherwise you risk understanding these significant events from simplistic empirical or ideological perspectives only, and so you end up following the crowd throughout endless debates. What you want to learn is the truth, since you are already familiar with all theories, beliefs, and debates regarding the human origins. This book studies the human origins, along with the origins of life, human intelligence, human species, human civilization, human Society, human development, and various past civilizations to have span the Earth, integrating humans, their origins, and their original conditions in an elaborate comprehensive model. ...Because if you want to understand the human origins, you must also understand the origins of life, the origins of the world in general, the nature and origins of this world we call Reality, the nature of the human higher self and intelligence, the origins and debut of human consciousness and intelligent thinking, along with all details relating to the Creator of this world, to Life, and to Humankind. Yet even more important is for you to know how all these affect you personally, how they affect your family, your bloodline, and your nation, how your family and bloodline originate, where and how it happened, under what circumstances, and with what status and privileges for you, for your family, for your nation, and for the humankind. ...And this is exactly what we cover throughout this book, in all details and from all perspectives.

The Primate Origins of Human Nature (Volume 3 in The Foundations of Human Biology series) blends several elements from evolutionary biology as applied to primate behavioral ecology and primate psychology, classical physical anthropology and evolutionary psychology of humans. However, unlike similar books, it strives to define the human species relative to our living and extinct relatives, and thus highlights uniquely derived human features. The book features a truly multi-disciplinary, multi-theory, and comparative species approach to subjects not usually presented in textbooks focused on humans, such as the evolution of culture, life history, parenting, and social organization.

Describes how mapping the human genome has aided paleoanthropologists in their study of ancient bones used to explore human origins, from the earliest humans--bipedal apes--up to Martin Pickford's Millennium Man.