Ever since Darwin, the world has been struggling with the
mystery of human diversity. As the historian Peter Bowler has
written, an evolutionary interpretation of the history of life on
the earth must inevitably extend itself to include the origins of
the human race. But this has proved to be a difficult and
controversial task. Understanding human origins means accounting
not only for the obvious differences between people and cultures
around the world, but also for the unity of "Homo sapiens" as a
single biological species. As Stephen Jay Gould has said,
flexibility is the hallmark of human evolution. Because so much of
who we are is learned rather than genetically predetermined, a
satisfactory understanding of human evolution--to use old
parlance--must account both for the human body and the human
soul.
At any single moment of time, it is always possible to find
instances where people seem to live in their own world, speak in
their own distinctive ways, and have their own exclusive cultural
traits and practices. Over the course of time, however, it is not
so easy to find places where these dimensions of our diversity stay
together. The essays in this collection show why we must stop
thinking that race, language, and culture go together, and why we
should be wary of the commonsense beliefs that human races exist
and that people who speak different languages come from
fundamentally different biological lineages.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
