The unstoppable human species : the emergence of homo sapiens in prehistory /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Shea, John J. (John Joseph), author.
Imprint:	Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023. ©2023
Description:	xviii, 345 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Human beings -- Origin. Human evolution. Prehistoric peoples. Survival. Human beings -- Origin. Human evolution. Prehistoric peoples. Survival.
Format:	E-Resource Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/13143036

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9781108429085 1108429084 9781108452984 1108452981 9781108554060
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 320-336) and index.
Summary:	"The Unstoppable Human Species In The Unstoppable Species John J. Shea explains how the earliest humans achieved mastery over all but the most severe, biosphere-level, extinction threats. He explores how and why we humans owe our survival skills to our global geographic range, a diaspora that was achieved during prehistoric times. By developing and integrating a suite of Ancestral Survival Skills, humans overcame survival challenges better than other hominins, and settled in previously unoccupied habitats. But how did they do it? How did early humans endure long enough to become our ancestors? Shea places "how did they survive?" questions front and center in prehistory. Using an explicitly scientific, comparative, and hypothesis-testing approach, The Unstoppable Human Species critically examines much "archaeological mythology" about prehistoric humans. Written in clear and engaging language, Shea's volume offers an original and thought-provoking perspective on human evolution. Moving beyond unproductive archaeological debates about prehistoric population movements, The Unstoppable Human Species generates new and interesting questions about human evolution. John J. Shea is Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York. He is the author of Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Stone Tools in Human Evolution: Behavioral Differences Among Technological Primates (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and Prehistoric Stone Tools of Eastern Africa: A Guide (Cambridge University Press, 2020). A paleoanthropologist, archaeologist, and an experienced practitioner of ancestral survival skills, Shea's demonstrations of stoneworking appear in numerous television documentaries and in the United States National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC"--
Other form:	Online version: Shea, John J. (John Joseph) Unstoppable human species Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023 9781108554060

Review by Choice Review

In The Unstoppable Human Species, paleoanthropologist Shea (Stony Brook Univ., SUNY) presents a new, comprehensive, and engaging critique of current understandings of how the human species evolved and spread throughout the earth. He stresses how Homo sapiens used a suite of survival techniques, which he details, that set them apart from all other species and enabled them to overcome the difficulties involved in spreading widely into different habitats. This gave the human species an unstoppable momentum shared with no other species, a momentum that continues to shape life in general today. Shea also reviews questions that have arisen in relation to understandings of that spread and suggests ways to further explore the why and how with testable hypotheses. In doing so, he focuses on and reframes traditional issues and questions. The volume is well illustrated and includes an extensive, current bibliography. All told, this is a stimulating volume aimed at college-level students studying archaeology, anthropology, and history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates and graduate students. --R. Berle Clay, emeritus, University of Kentucky

Review by Choice Review

The unstoppable human species : the emergence of homo sapiens in prehistory /

Similar Items