Human beings depend more on technology than any other animal--the use of tools and weapons is vital to the survival of our species. What processes of biocultural evolution led to this unique dependence? Steven Kuhn turns to the Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) and to artifacts associated with Neanderthals, the most recent human predecessors. His study examines the ecological, economic, and strategic factors that shaped the behavior of Mousterian tool makers, revealing how these hominids brought technological knowledge to bear on the basic problems of survival. Kuhn's main database consists of assemblages of stone artifacts from four caves and a series of open-air localities situated on the western coast of the Italian peninsula. Variations in the ways stone tools were produced, maintained, and discarded demonstrate how Mousterian hominids coped with the problems of keeping mobile groups supplied with the artifacts and raw materials they used on a daily basis. Changes through time in lithic technology were closely tied to shifting strategies for hunting and collecting food. Some of the most provocative findings of this study stem from observations about the behavioral flexibility of Mousterian populations and the role of planning in foraging and technology. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"Jonathan Kingdon's work is one of the things that make the present day such an exciting time for anyone with the slightest intellectual curiosity. His subject matter is our profound and thrilling human origins, and his stance toward it makes his work unique and priceless. Not only is Kingdon a scientist of commanding authority, he is an artist whose hand transmits his knowledge through drawings so swift and graceful that revelation and admiration arrive together. His wonderful new book takes a characteristically original look at one of the things that makes us human: our walking on two legs. There is no one alive who could do it better."--Philip Pullman, author of "The Amber Spyglass"

"Jonathan Kingdon is a Living World Treasure. One of Africa's greatest zoological artists, he is also one of zoology's leading authorities on Africa's mammals. A world class zoologist, ecologist, and writer, he also thinks deeply about human prehistory and evolution. Bipedality is humanity's founding peculiarity. "Lowly Origin" is Kingdon's highly original take on how it came about, and he manages to broaden his canvas to accommodate all of human evolution. An artist with words and a poet with images, only Jonathan Kingdon could have written this book."--Richard Dawkins, University of Oxford, Fellow of the Royal Society

"This well-written book offers new insights into the biogeographic and ecological influences on human evolution and helps us make sense of the fossil record."--Colin P. Groves, Australian National University

"Kingdon has made a unique contribution to the field of mammalian evolution and African ecology, both in his writing and in his art. His approach to human evolution, with itsfocus on the natural history of people and animals, is very special and important."--Robert A. Foley, University of Cambridge

Human beings depend more on technology than any other animal--the use of tools and weapons is vital to the survival of our species. What processes of biocultural evolution led to this unique dependence? Steven Kuhn turns to the Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) and to artifacts associated with Neanderthals, the most recent human predecessors. His study examines the ecological, economic, and strategic factors that shaped the behavior of Mousterian tool makers, revealing how these hominids brought technological knowledge to bear on the basic problems of survival.

Kuhn's main database consists of assemblages of stone artifacts from four caves and a series of open-air localities situated on the western coast of the Italian peninsula. Variations in the ways stone tools were produced, maintained, and discarded demonstrate how Mousterian hominids coped with the problems of keeping mobile groups supplied with the artifacts and raw materials they used on a daily basis. Changes through time in lithic technology were closely tied to shifting strategies for hunting and collecting food. Some of the most provocative findings of this study stem from observations about the behavioral flexibility of Mousterian populations and the role of planning in foraging and technology.

Originally published in 1995.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This collection of essays and tributes to Glynn Isaac marks the 26th anniversary of Glynns premature death on October 5th, 1985. These contributions document the work of many of Glynn's colleagues students and collaborators, and reflect their continuing respect for a great scholar.

Tracing mankind's evolution from the birth of life on Earth three billion years ago to the emergence of modern human beings, this volume explains how the field of evolutionary study has been aided by research in comparative anatomy and molecular biology.

Award-winning science writer Steven Mithen explores how an understanding of our ancestors and their development can illuminate our brains and behaviour today How do our minds work? When did language and religious beliefs first emerge? Why was there a cultural explosion of art and creativity with the arrival of modern humans? This ground-breaking book brings the insight of archaeology to our understanding of the development and history of the human mind, combining them with ideas from evolutionary psychology in a brilliant and provocative synthesis.

Did Neanderthals have language, and if so, what was it like? Scientists agree overall that the behaviour and cognition of Neanderthals resemble that of early modern humans in important ways. However, the existence and nature of Neanderthal language remains a controversial topic. The first in-depth treatment of this intriguing subject, this book comes to the unique conclusion that, collective hunting is a better window on Neanderthal language than other behaviours. It argues that Neanderthal hunters employed linguistic signs akin to those of modern language, but lacked complex grammar. Rudolf Botha unpacks and appraises important inferences drawn by researchers working in relevant branches of archaeology and other prehistorical fields, and uses a large range of multidisciplinary literature to bolster his arguments. An important contribution to this lively field, this book will become a landmark book for students and scholars alike, in essence, illuminating Neanderthals' linguistic powers.

The book describes a 21st century journey following the direction taken by anatomically modern humans who left the African nursery around 80000 years ago and reached Australia 20000 years later. Along the way, they laid the genetic foundations for humanity's oldest civilizations - and ultimately inhabited every corner of the globe. The result of these travels is not a scientific treatise. Although the science is not ignored, the centre lies elsewhere. The author undertakes this west-to-east endeavor in the imagined company of his autistic grandson, who serves both as confidant and as a human archetype. This allows the book to verge upon a unique blend of factual travel writing and an almost magical internalised interpretation. What the two travellers find together is a tangle of new experiences and responses, from which the linkages between primeval past and complex present gradually emerge. Here is a work of literary travel writing that describes an enchanted journey through some of the ancient places of the world and into the currently deeply troubled heart of the human adventure. The evidence encountered on the journey suggests that a fundamental universality of humanity's place in the cosmos lies beneath all regional differences and is characterised as much by humility and co-operation as it is by the imperative to survive and/or the will to power. The book does not set out to prove a point, however, but to celebrate the complexity of human responses. It is more a creative work than it is a dissertation with an unambiguous conclusion. Nevertheless, the bibliography gives an indication of some of the sources used, which includes the work of historians, archaeologists, political scientists, biographers and psychologists, as well as authors writing on the various religions of the world.

Anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, and ecologists report the latest thinking on human evolution at a level suitable for undergraduates. The six papers are from a March 1992 symposium in Los Angeles. Includes a glossary without pronunciation. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, O

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Preface List of Figures List of Tables 1. Fossilisation Patterns of Social Organisation; Taphonomy; Dating Fossils; Methods; Direct Methods; Indirect Methods; Chronometric dating; Half-life; Relative Dating Procedures; Stratigraphy; Fluorine dating; Nitrogen dating; Uranium dating; Absolute Dating Techniques; Radiocarbon dating; Obsidian dating; Fission-track technique; Potassium-Argon dating: Material Used; Period; Thermoluminescence (TI); Palaeomagnetism Technique; Electron Spin Resonance Technique; Faunal Correlation Technique (Biostratigraphy); Dendrochronology; Amino Acid Racemization Technique. 2. Primate Radiation Primate Development; Early Tertiary Period; Miocene Epoch; Parapithecus; Propliopithecus; Limnopithecus; Pliopithecus; Prohylobates; Dryopithecinae; Dryopithecus; Ramapithecus; Rudapithecus hungaricus; Sugrivapithecus; Sivapithecus -- Sivapithecus sivalensis; Sivapithecus himalayensis; Gigantopithecus. 3. Australopithecines Australopithecus - East Africa; Early species; The Robust Australopithecines - The Gracile Australopithecines; Paranthropus. 4. Homo habilis Sites; Tool making capabilities; Social organisation. 5. Homo erectus Bodily Structure of Homo erectus; Origin of Homo erectus; Variations in Homo erectus; Transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens; Other Homo erectus Finds; Narmada Man Heidelberg Man (Homo Heidelbergensis); Asian Fossils; African Fossils; European Fossils; Behavioural Inferences; Evolutionary Implications; Gradualistic Views of the Transition to Homo sapiens; Alternative Modes of Species Change. 6. Neanderthal Man The Extinction of Neanderthal Man; Burials; Archaic and Modern Peoples; Physical Characteristics; PreNeanderthal Man (Early Homo sapiens) - Relationship between Neanderthal man and modern man. 7. Modern Men Cro-Magnon; Hunting Techniques; Place in Human Evolution; Culture; Eyziea-de-Tayac Caves; The Tautavel Man; Swanscombe Man; Steinheim Man. 8. Human Evolution The Antiquity of Homo sapiens; Structure of Homo sapiens; Evolution of the Human Skull. 9. Human Origins Dating; African Eve Hypothesis; Ancient Africans, Whose Ancestors?; Early Dispersal and Homo sapiens; Genetic Evidence for Modern Human Origins; The Story of how we became man; Split from the Apes; The Earliest Humans; Modern Humans; The End of Evolution?; Man; But were the CroMagnon Africans?; Cultural Evidence for Modern Human Origins; Rethinking? 10. Molecular Clock Chromosomal Evolution; Chromosomal Homology; DNA; Gene Mapping. 11. Palaeodemography Methodology; Sexing; Ageing; Parity and Weaning Age; Population Size Estimates; Mortality Patterns; Growth; Disease, Diet and Demography; Australopithecus; Homo Habilis; Neanderthals. 12. Palaeopathology Neanderthal Man; Bone Tumour; General. Literature Cited Index

The theme of this book is the appropriate methodology for the study of the history of life on earth. In particular, it focuses on the interplay between form and structure: the things that we might predict and model and the things we cannot predict -- the arbitrary and the contingent -- which may be as important, or even more important, than the way in which life on earth has evolved.

The contributors are drawn from palaeontology, archaeology, anthropology and human evolution; the timescales covered are from the development of life on earth, through human evolution to later prehistory and historic archaeology. Underpinning the theme of the book is the work of Stephen Jay Gould, who has developed a distinctive philosophy of history concerning the nature of long-term and short-term evolutionary processes, particularly stressing the interplay between structure and contingency.

Humans are rather weak when compared with many other animals. We are not particularly fast and have no natural weapons. Yet Homo sapiens currently number nearly 7.5 billion and are set to rise to nearly 10 billion by the middle of this century. We have influenced almost every part of the Earth system and as a consequence are changing the global environmental and evolutionary trajectory of the Earth. So how did we become the worlds apex predator and take over the planet? Fundamental to our success is our intelligence, not only individually but more importantly collectively. But why did evolution favour the brainy ape? Given the calorific cost of running our large brains, not to mention the difficulties posed for childbirth, this bizarre adaptation must have given our ancestors a considerable advantage. In this book Mark Maslin brings together the latest insights from hominin fossils and combines them with evidence of the changing landscape of the East African Rift Valley to show how all these factors led to selection pressures that favoured our ultrasocial brains. Astronomy, geology, climate, and landscape all had a part to play in making East Africa the cradle of humanity and allowing us to dominate the planet.

The partial skeleton of Homo erectus found in Kenya by Alan Walker, Richard Leakey, and others is truly one of the great discoveries in paleoanthropology, after the world's best paleoanthropologists have diligently searched for traces of Homo erectus in Africa and Asia for a century. In this book, the authors present descriptions and photographs of all parts of the skeleton and accompany these with a thorough analysis. It consists of three parts. The first part covers the geology, dating, paleoenvironments, and the taphonomy of the site. The second part is a description of the specimen and a review of other Homo erectus specimens from the Lake Turkana region. The last part is composed of analytical papers on certain aspects of the boy's biology as they apply to other Homo erectus specimens. "What impresses me most about the volume is that apart from the basic description of the fossil, which itself is of great importance, the editors have sought out leading experts to tackle problems relating to specific issues in the evolutionary biology of Homo erectus. Many of these chapters would stand alone as major contributions. Together, they make a remarkable volume that will become a standard reference." (Robert A. Foley, Professor of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge)