Review by Choice Review
The story of human evolution has been told innumerable times; here, Spanish paleoanthropologist Arsuaga offers an updating of the tale, concentrating on the European actors. It is more lyrical than data oriented, and the translation may have lost some of the original Castilian flair. The illustrations are numerous, but they too seem to have suffered in translation and are fuzzy rather than sharp. Two chapters review the evolutionary history of humans, from African australopiths and early members of our own genus Homo through the spread of toolmakers into Eurasia. Chapter 3 introduces Arsuaga's favorites, the Neanderthals and their immediate predecessors in Europe. Arsuaga is codirector of excavations at the Atapuerca group of sites, where two different populations of Neanderthal antecedents have been recovered, and he expertly describes this work and the lifeways of Neanderthals. Following three chapters on the environments and plant and animal life of the Pleistocene ice ages (since 1 million years ago) in Europe, Arsuaga returns to Atapuerca for more detail on the humans who lived there about 300,000 years ago and their life-and-death patterns. After discussion of the origin of human language capacity, the final chapter analyzes contact between Neanderthals and early modern humans and the Neanderthals' eventual disappearance. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. E. Delson CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this meandering story, Spanish paleoanthropologist Arsuaga examines a plethora of scientific data in order to establish the place of the Neanderthals in our developmental lineage. Based on discoveries of skeletal remains on the Iberian peninsula, he argues that the Neanderthals possessed a larger skull-and hence a larger brain-than previous hominids of the apelike Australopithecines. In the author's view, the Neanderthals might well have used their cerebral capacities to solve problems, make tools and interact socially in their community; archeological evidence shows Neanderthals were very likely the first hominids to make two-sided tools for hunting and building. In addition, cave art indicates that Neanderthals understood, tentatively at least, the value of giving meaning to their world through symbols and stories. Eventually, the Cro-Magnons, with more highly developed brains and social systems, moved into Europe, competing with the Neanderthals for food and shelter. The latter disappeared from the earth, and today we think of the Cro-Magnons as our direct hominid ancestors. Although Arsuaga's thesis is clear enough, his narrative rambles erratically . For example, he spends three chapters on the fauna and flora of the Ice Age without clearly connecting them to his main ideas. In addition, his account requires familiarity with scientific jargon ("Mode I technology," "cladistics," "biogeography"), that Arsuaga does not explain adequately. What could have been a fascinating story instead devolves into a hodgepodge of paleontological and anthropological theories. (Dec. 2) FYI: A related exhibit, based on Arsuaga's work, opens at New York's American Museum of Natural History in January 2003. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The work of noted Spanish paleoanthropologist Arsuaga at excavations at Sierra de Atapuerca (where he is codirector) has influenced our understanding of human evolution. This ambitious work not only tracks the twisted course of human evolution but puts it in the context of ecosystems, colonization, and glaciations. According to the author, Neanderthals evolved independently in Europe; science knows when they disappeared but not why or how. Arsuaga speculates as to how Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons (our direct ancestors) interacted with one another and why the latter were able to survive while the former became extinct after hundreds of thousands of years of successful existence. Arsuaga contends that Neanderthals never developed the capacity for symbolic language, either oral or visual, favoring a natural type of intelligence instead. Conversely, Cro-Magnons developed symbolic language and thought, which led them to invent and develop new tool technology and thus quickly outdistance the Neanderthals. A provocative book for scholars and people with an interest in human origins; recommended for larger academic anthropology collections. [A major exhibit based on the author's work will open at New York's American Museum of Natural History in January 2003.-Ed.]-Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll. Lib., Kansas City, MO (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
Whatever happened to that nice Neanderthal family that lived down the lane? Bad things, this lively prehistory tells us-courtesy, perhaps, of our Cro-Magnon ancestors. As Spanish paleoanthropologist Arsuaga writes, prehistorians have long suspected that the Neanderthals, a northerly branch of the human family, were done in by the early modern humans who arrived in Europe from Africa about 40,000 years ago. The process may have taken thousands of years, he adds, and other factors may have had more to do with the demise of the Neanderthal line than Cro-Magnon nastiness, including the sad fact that Neanderthals didn't live very long to begin with. (Life expectancy at birth was "well under thirty years.") The competition was one-sided in any event. Neanderthals and modern humans, "alternative human models, each representing a different but effective evolutionary response to the identical challenges they faced," had very different skills, and the brute strength of the former was in the end no match for the cunning of the latter. Writing of a climatologically confused time when tigers and wooly mammoths lived side by side, Arsuaga offers an engaging tour of prehistoric Europe and especially of ancient Spain and southern France, from which the bulk of the archaeological evidence comes. He explores some of the critical differences that obtained between Neanderthals and modern humans: physically compact, the first were better suited to life in a cold climate than the newcomers, but the second had the crucial tool of language and symbolic thought at their disposal. The Cro-Magnons were thus able to scheme up traps and fibs, but, more importantly, also to plan ahead, save for a rainy day, and "reap the maximum benefit from what nature had to offer at any given time of the year." On such differences does extinction or survival hinge, and Arsuaga does a good job of detailing the particulars of evolution's logic. A satisfying, up-to-date outing for students of ancient humankind and its less fortunate cousins.
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Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
