Review by Choice Review
The 35 chapters in this tome derive from 40 papers presented during a three-day symposium in Tokyo in 2011. Chapters have individual bibliographies; the book has a joint index. This is a major literature review of articles published in various Asian languages and in journals not easily available in the Western world. The major conclusions that can be drawn from the volume are that modern human behavior is different in Asia than in Africa or Europe, is diverse, and that there were two major migration routes into Asia from Africa. One was south of the Himalayas and was earlier, was probably both coastal and interior, and resulted in the inhabitation of Australia by at least 45 ka (45,000 years ago). The other was north of the Himalayas into Siberia, Mongolia, northern China, Korea, and Japan, and one strand eventually led to the Americas around 15 ka. For professional archaeologists and graduate students interested in the nature and spread of modern human behavior into and through Asia, this will be an invaluable resource, detailing much of what is known about this region as well as what still needs to be discovered. Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students and faculty. --Lucille Lewis Johnson, emerita, Vassar College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
