Review by Choice Review
Tattersall traces scientific research on human evolution from the first descriptions of the great apes in the 17th century through all the fossil discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a historical review, the book weaves together descriptions of the fossils themselves with the excitement, tedium, and accident of the search. Tattersall is at his best in breathing life into the evolving interpretations of the fossil record and the historical contexts in which they occurred. His chatty style, with considerable personal detail about the scientists involved, will capture the attention of the general reader or lower-division undergraduate. However, the book's general bibliography will discourage the student from delving further into many of the specifics. The large number of high-quality drawings of fossils and artifacts would be more appropriate to a textbook; missing are the interpretive drawings that accompanied many of the earlier studies Tattersall describes. S. A. Quandt; Wake Forest University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Tattersall is curator of human evolution exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, which coincidentally sponsors the stunning Illustrated History of Humankind, the fourth volume of which is New World and Pacific Civilizations, edited by Goran Burenhult [BKL D 15 94]. Tattersall's independent volume cuts back on the visual spectaculars in favor of more detail about paleoanthropology. As much concerned with the dialectic of scientific advancement as with the specific, though fragmentary, fossil evidence, Tattersall courses through the interpretations of excavated discoveries since the days of Darwin. Given the meager evidence, a skull from China, a tooth from Java, most theories about the relics' relationship to modern humans are necessarily provisional, and with consummate objectivity, Tattersall outlines the debates about speciation or classification (the latter his own microspecialty), yet he doesn't shrink from offering his own opinions. Modern dating techniques have begun to sort out viable theories from crackpot notions, but Tattersall reminds us that somewhere in the eroding deposits lining Africa's Great Rift Valley there lurks the next Lucy, Turkana Boy, or Laetoli footprints that could completely revolutionize the field. That sense of ongoing discovery should appeal to the detail-demanding reader for whom even the best-done illustrated book is not enough. ~--Gilbert Taylor
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Head of Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History's anthropology department, Tattersall here weaves a vigorous historical narrative of paleontologists' attempts to reconstruct human origins from the fossil record. Beginning with the unearthing of Neanderthals and ``Java Man,'' he carefully sifts through a remarkable succession of hominid finds from Africa, Eurasia, China, Indonesia and Israel, including Don Johanson's 1973 discovery in Ethiopia of ``Lucy,'' a 3.4-million-year-old female hominid skeleton, and the Leakey team's 1984 find, ``Turkana Boy,'' a 1.6-million-year-old Homo erectus skeleton uncovered in Kenya. Citing disagreements among scientists over interpretations of radiocarbon dating, comparative anatomy and biochemical techniques, Tattersall unreels a catalogue of paleoanthropological misidentifications, dogmas and misperceptions. He draws a hypothetical evolutionary tree that includes three genera of our hominid ancestors-Homo and Australopithecus (accepted by conventional wisdom) plus a new genus, Paranthropus-altogether embracing a dozen species leading to Homo sapiens. Illustrated. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This informative and highly readable introduction to paleoanthropology by the head of the anthropology department at the American Museum of Natural History surveys the major discoveries in hominid evolution (fossils and artifacts) and examines both past and present principal interpretations of this growing empirical evidence for the complex emergence of humankind. Important fossils from Olduvai and other sites are critically discussed in terms of modern hominid taxonomy within the framework of climatic fluctuations, environmental changes, and morphological variety (species diversity). Throughout this detailed story, Tattersall argues against both human orthogenesis and the one-species hypothesis for explaining hominid evolution. He focuses on australopithecine diversity and behavior, those questions still surrounding Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, and the recent appearance of our own unique species in Africa. A fascinating and provocative overview of human paleontology that is highly recommended for all anthropology collections.-H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A refreshing appraisal of the state of the science of human origins. Tattersall heads the anthropology department at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. His review takes off from Darwin and the dawn of modern geology, tracks the major sites and discoverers, and ends with current controversies and his personal reading of the record. The lesson that comes through loud and often is how much personal bias and prevailing paradigms have colored interpretation. Examples: The Victorian notion that evolution is ``directed,'' moving onward and upward, and the more recent idea that humans represent the end product of a single lineage of ancestors and a gradually changing species. Then there were the hoaxes to contend with, and controversies about whether the races evolved independently or derived from a common root. Into this morass came the burst of recent fossil discoveries, the mapping of diversity via DNA, and new dating methods. The conclusion that Tattersall reaches is that we ought to view modern humans as a surviving species with varying degrees of biological closeness with other Homo species. These in turn descended from several different genera, starting about four million years ago with the bipedal Australopithecus afarensis in Africa. As he spins his tale he makes the point that physical changes do not match advances in technological skills, but that in due course there were obvious changes in behavior that mark abstract thought and language. His epilogue carries the grim message that we cannot expect evolution to come riding in to rescue the future: ``We shall have to learn to live with ourselves as we are. Fast.'' Wise words from a highly qualified observer of humanity past and present.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
