Human Evolution

Basics in Human Evolution offers a broad view of evolutionary biology and medicine. The book is written for a non-expert audience, providing accessible and convenient content that will appeal to numerous readers across the interdisciplinary field. From evolutionary theory, to cultural evolution, this book fills gaps in the readers’ knowledge from various backgrounds and introduces them to thought leaders in human evolution research. Offers comprehensive coverage of the wide ranging field of human evolution Written for a non-expert audience, providing accessible and convenient content that will appeal to numerous readers across the interdisciplinary field Provides expertise from leading minds in the field Allows the reader the ability to gain exposure to various topics in one publication

Russell Tuttle synthesizes a vast literature in primate evolution and behavior to explain how apes and humans evolved in relation to one another and why humans became a bipedal, tool-making, culture-inventing species distinct from other hominoids. He refutes the theory that we are sophisticated, instinctively aggressive and destructive killer apes.

Contributors from a range of disciplines consider the disconnect between human evolutionary studies and the rest of evolutionary biology. The study of human evolution often seems to rely on scenarios and received wisdom rather than theory and methodology, with each new fossil or molecular analysis interpreted as supporting evidence for the presumed lineage of human ancestry. We might wonder why we should pursue new inquiries if we already know the story. Is paleoanthropology an evolutionary science? Are analyses of human evolution biological? In this volume, contributors from disciplines that range from paleoanthropology to philosophy of science consider the disconnect between human evolutionary studies and the rest of evolutionary biology. All of the contributors reflect on their own research and its disciplinary context, considering how their fields of inquiry can move forward in new ways. The goal is to encourage a more multifaceted intellectual environment for the understanding of human evolution. Topics discussed include paleoanthropology's history of procedural idiosyncrasies; the role of mind and society in our evolutionary past; humans as large mammals rather than a special case; genomic analyses; computational approaches to phylogenetic reconstruction; descriptive morphology versus morphometrics; and integrating insights from archaeology into the interpretation of human fossils. Contributors Markus Bastir, Fred L. Bookstein, Claudine Cohen, Richard G. Delisle, Robin Dennell, Rob DeSalle, John de Vos, Emma M. Finestone, Huw S. Groucutt, Gabriele A. Macho, Fabrizzio Mc Manus, Apurva Narechania, Michael D. Petraglia, Thomas W. Plummer, J.W. F. Reumer, Jeff Rosenfeld, Jeffrey H. Schwartz, Dietrich Stout, Ian Tattersall, Alan R. Templeton, Michael Tessler, Peter J. Waddell, Martine Zilversmit

Aims to uncover a hidden level of agreement among theories of human evolution. Analyzing classic texts on evolution by Darwin and Keith as well as relatively recent accounts by Dart, Robinson and Tobias, the book reveals that they have a common narrative form based on the universal hero tale.

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Principles of Human Evolution presents an in-depthintroduction to paleoanthropology and the study of human evolution.Focusing on the fundamentals of evolutionary theory and how theseapply to ecological, molecular genetic, paleontological andarcheological approaches to important questions in the field, thistimely textbook will help students gain a perspective on humanevolution in the context of modern biological thinking. The second edition of this successful text features the additionof Robert Foley, a leading researcher in Human EvolutionaryStudies, to the writing team. Strong emphasis on evolutionarytheory, ecology and behavior and scores of new examples reflect thelatest evolutionary theories and recent archaeological finds. Morethan a simple update, the new edition is organized by issue ratherthan chronology, integrating behavior, adaptation and anatomy. Anew design and new figure references make this edition moreaccessible for students and instructors. New author, Robert Foley – leading figure in HumanEvolutionary Studies – joins the writing team. Dedicated website – www.blackwellpublishing.com/lewin– provides study resources and artwork downloadable forPowerpoint presentations. Beyond the Facts boxes – explore key scientific debatesin greater depth. Margin Comments – indicate the key points in eachsection. Key Questions – review and test students’ knowledgeof central chapter concepts and help focus the way a studentapproaches reading the text. New emphasis on ecological and behavioral evolution – inkeeping with modern research. Fully up to date with recent fossil finds and interpretations;integration of genetic and paleoanthropological approaches.

This ambitious book probes our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have imagined were worth living. Bellah’s theory goes deep into cultural and genetic evolution to identify a range of capacities (communal dancing, storytelling, theorizing) whose emergence made religious development possible in the first millennium BCE.

What makes us human? How did we develop language, thought and culture? Why did we survive, and other human species fail? The past 12,000 years represent the only time in the sweep of human history when there has been only one human species. How did this extraordinary proliferation of species come about - and then go extinct? And why did we emerge such intellectual giants? The tale of our origins has inevitably been told through the 'stones and bones' of the archaeological record, yet Robin Dunbar shows it was our social and cognitive changes rather than our physical development which truly made us distinct from other species.