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Advances in fossil studies relating to the origin of Homo sapiens have strengthened the hypothesis that our direct ancestors originated on the African continent. Most researchers also agree that the time when prehumans diverged from the last common ancestor was in the early part of the Late Miocene epoch. Focus must now shift from determining the times and places of hominid origins to clarifying hominid evolutionary problems, such as the selective factors and acquisition processes of hominid bipedalism. In March of 2003, researchers from Africa, Europe, Japan and the United States convened in Kyoto for a symposium on Human Origins and Environmental Backgrounds, an interdisciplinary effort to consider these evolutionary puzzles, to report current research and to exchange thoughts towards better understanding the relationship among environmental changes, adaptive mechanisms and human origins. This book is the result of that symposium, and includes a diverse and unique set of papers on topics such as hominid evolution, dispersal and morphology, and the origins of bipedalism.
Primate Craniofacial Function and Biology is an integrative volume with broad coverage of current research on primate craniofacial biology and function. Topic headings include: the mammalian perspective on primate craniofacial form and function, allometric and comparative morphological studies of primate heads, in vivo research on primate mastication, modeling of the primate masticatory apparatus, primate dental form and function, and palaeoanthropologic studies of primate skulls. Additionally, the volume includes introductory chapters discussing how primatologists study adaptations in primates and a discussion of in vivo approaches for studying primate performance. At present, there are no texts with a similar focus on primate craniofacial biology and no sources that approach this topic from such a wide range of research perspectives. This breadth of research covered by leaders in their respective fields make this volume a unique and innovative contribution to biological anthropology.
In prehistoric societies children comprised 40–65% of the population, yet by default, our ancestral landscapes are peopled by adults who hunt, gather, fish, knap tools, and make art. But these adults were also parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles who had to make space physically, emotionally, intellectually, and cognitively for the infants, children, and adolescents around them. Growing Up in the Ice Age is a timely and evidence-based look at the lived lives of Paleolithic children and the communities of which they were a part. By rendering these ‘invisible’ children visible, readers will gain a new understanding of the Paleolithic period as a whole, and in doing so will learn how children have contributed to the biological and cultural entities we are today.
First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
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 evolutio...
The association between our ancestors and fire, somewhere around six to four million years ago, had a tremendous impact on human evolution, transforming our earliest human ancestor, a being communicating without speech but with insight, reason, manual dexterity, highly developed social organization, and the capability of experimenting with this new technology. As it first associated with and then began to tame fire, this extraordinary being began to distance itself from its primate relatives, taking a path that would alter its environment, physiology, and self-image. Based on her extensive research with nonhuman primates, anthropologist Frances Burton details the stages of the conquest of fire and the systems it affected. Her study examines the natural occurrence of fire and describes the effects light has on human physiology. She constructs possible variations of our earliest human ancestor and its way of life, utilizing archaeological and anthropological evidence of the earliest human-controlled fires to explore the profound physical and biological impacts fire had on human evolution.
According to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection man is one species among many. This provokes in a self-evident way comparison of anatomical and physiological characteristics. Less common is the idea that the same approach can be put forward with regard to cognition. On a particular moment in evolution the cognitive abilities of the branch which would eventually result in the human species must have been of the same type as these from other species evolving into different kinds of non human primates. The intriguing question then is what could have caused the development into the type of cognition characterizing man. According to the author the different approach between apes ...
The Anthropology of Extinction offers compelling explorations of issues of widespread concern.
This book reviews key themes and developments in palaeoanthropology, exploring their impact on our understanding of human origins in Africa.
The core subject matter of bioarchaeology is the lives of past peoples, interpreted anthropologically. Human remains, contextualized archaeologically and historically, form the unit of study. Integrative and frequently inter-disciplinary, bioarchaeology draws methods and theoretical perspectives from across the sciences and the humanities. Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Study of Human Remains focuses upon the contemporary practice of bioarchaeology in North American contexts, its accomplishments and challenges. Appendixes, a glossary and 150 page bibliography make the volume extremely useful for research and teaching.