The field of anthropology covers studies of human evolution and modern human societies. The field of hominid evolution, or how humans evolved from apes, is often referred to specifically as paleoanthropology. That's the area I'm most interested in, so that's what most of my anthropology books are actually about. This page lists some of my books on paleoanthropology.
| The Leakey Clan | Don Johanson |
| The Piltdown Man fraud | General paleoanthropology | Modern-day anthropology |
To start with, it's hard to think of paleoanthro without thinking of the name "Leakey." The Leakey fossil-hunting clan (Louis Leakey, his second wife Mary, their son Richard, and Richard's wife Meave) are among the most famous anthropologists in the world, because between them they've made an enormous number of discoveries in paleoanthropology. Louis Leakey's finds include the hominids Australopithecus boisei and Homo habilis. Mary Leakey's list includes the Laetoli footprints, the oldest known hominid footprints, probably left by A. afarensis, plus the primitive hominid Australopithecus anamensis. Richard and his Hominid Gang found the skull KNM ER-1470 (Homo rudolfensis) and the almost complete Homo erectus skeleton called the Nariokotome Boy, among many others.
Richard Leakey numbered writing among his talents, and has a number of decent books to his credit. I've accumulated a number of books by or about him and the rest of the Leakey clan.
ANCESTRAL PASSIONS: THE LEAKEY FAMILY AND THE QUEST FOR HUMANKIND'S BEGINNINGS
Morell, Virginia
c.1995, Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-684-82470-1
A mass biography of the entire Leakey fossil-hunter clan.
THE HOMINID GANG
Willis, Delta
c.1989, Viking Penguin
ISBN: 0-670-82808-4
The story of the "Hominid Gang," the team of expert local fossil-hunters that Richard Leakey assembled for his work around Lake Turkana in the 1980s. The Hominid Gang included some of the best fossil-hunters alive, and discovered dozens of valuable hominid fossils.
THE MAKING OF MANKIND
Leakey, Richard
c.1981, Abacus
ISBN: 0-349-12169-9
Companion volume to NOVA episode of same name. A look at Richard Leakey's ideas on human evolution as of 1980. This book covers the entirety of human evolution, from the first man-apes to Cro-magnon cavemen and the beginnings of civilization.
THE ORIGIN OF HUMANKIND
Leakey, Richard
c.1994, BasicBooks
ISBN: 0-465-03135-8
A small book that includes Richard Leakey's ideas on human evolution circa 1994.
ORIGINS
Leakey, Richard and Lewin, Roger
c.1977, Rainbird Publishing
ISBN: 0-525-17194-0
Richard Leakey's survey of what was current thought and knowledge on human evolution in 1977, using all information known at that time. This book is fascinating not because it's up-to-date (it isn't) or because Leakey got everything right (he didn't), but because it gives an excellent look at some of the controversies that were going on in paleoanthropology at that time.
ORIGINS RECONSIDERED
Leakey, Richard
c.1992, Doubleday
ISBN: 0-385-46792-3
A revision of Leakey and Lewin's 1977 book ORIGINS, taking into account the findings made by Leakey and others during the 1980s. This book focuses strongly on the revelations from the Turkana Boy, a nearly complete Homo erectus skeleton found by Leakey's team west of Lake Turkana in 1984-6.
PEOPLE OF THE LAKE
Leakey, Richard
c.1978, Avon/Discus
ISBN: 0-380-45575-7
Another book Richard Leakey wrote around 1977, giving some of his ideas on human evolution as of that time.
Almost as well known as the Leakeys is Don Johanson, who was the first paleoanthropologist to explore the badlands of the Afar region of Ethiopia. There he found an array of fossils from the species Australopithecus afarensis, including the 40% complete skeleton called "Lucy." Johanson is also a good writer, and has written several interesting and valuable books.
ANCESTORS: IN SEARCH OF HUMAN ORIGINS
Johanson, Donald
c.1994, Villard Books
ISBN: 0-679-42060-6
General review of anthropology as of 1993 or so. Produced as a companion to the NOVA series ANCESTORS. Somewhat handicapped by its lack of an index, but pretty good nonetheless.
FROM LUCY TO LANGUAGE
Johanson & Edgar
c.1996, Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-684-81023-9
A comprehensive look at every significant human and hominid fossil found by anthropologists up to late 1995. Arranged by age of fossils, not date of discovery. This book contains at least one photograph of every specimen discussed, and since it's a large "coffee-table book," many of the photographs are half-scale or full-scale. If you're looking for a good introduction to paleoanthropology and can only manage one book, this is the one to get.
LUCY'S CHILD: THE DISCOVERY OF A HUMAN ANCESTOR
Don Johanson & James Shreeve
c.1989, Early Man Publishing
ISBN: 0-688-06492-2
A follow-up to Johanson's first book LUCY: THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMANKIND, this is an overview of paleoanthropology as of 1985, mixed with an account of the recovery of hominid fossil OH-62, classified as "Homo habilis," at Olduvai Gorge in 1986. As with LUCY, this book is well written and absorbing, and presents a personal, inside look at the controversies in paleoanthropology. OH-62 was not a particularly well-preserved fossil, and the story of how Johanson's team methodically recovered it bit by bit is absorbing.
LUCY: THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMANKIND
Don Johanson & Maitland Edey
c.1981, Touchstone
ISBN: 0-671-72499-1
This is a detailed account of Don Johanson's hominid discoveries in the Afar region of Ethiopia in 1973-76, plus a review of the state of knowledge in paleoanthropology both before and after he made his finds. I don't know who actually wrote most of the book, Johanson or Edey, but whichever it was, he did a good job. The material really comes alive: the fossils themselves, the competing interpretations, the controversies, and the feel of fieldwork.
Among other things, paleoanthropology is notorious for the only major paleontological hoax of the twentieth century: the Piltdown Man case. A number of books have been written on Piltdown. I have two of them:
THE PILTDOWN FORGERY
Weiner, J. S.
c.1980, Dover Books
ISBN: 0-486-24075-4
This is a 1980 update of a book first published in 1953, the year the Piltdown hoax was exposed. Paleoanthropologist Joseph Weiner of Oxford University played a critical role in that exposure. After the Museum had published a formal pamphlet about the hoax, Weiner wrote his own book, this book, about the fraud and how it was exposed.
UNRAVELING PILTDOWN
Walsh, John Evangelist
c.1996, Random House
ISBN: 0-679-44444-0
The most recent revisit of the Piltdown case. In writing his book, Walsh was determined to cut through all the speculation and accumulated confusion, and present a detailed, factual account of the fraud, its exposure, the suspects for whodunit, who probably didn't do it, and who most likely did do it. Very thorough, very well written, very convincing.
Other books about paleoanthropology
The rest of my paleoanthro books are a rather miscellaneous collection of older books which show how our knowledge of human evolution developed over time, and recent books that show where paleoanthro is right now.:
AFRICAN EXODUS: The Origins of Modern Humanity
Stringer & McKie
c.1996, John MacRae
ISBN: 0-8050-2759-9
ATLAS OF PRIMITIVE MAN IN CHINA
Various
c.1980, Van Nostrand Reinhold
ISBN: 0-442-20013-7
A survey of paleoanthropological discoveries and sites in China
CHILDREN OF THE ICE AGE: How a Global Catastrophe Allowed Humans to Evolve
Stanley, Steven M.
c.1998, W. H. Freeman
ISBN: 0-7167-3198-3
THE FOSSIL EVIDENCE FOR HUMAN EVOLUTION
W. E. Le Gros Clark
c.1955, Univ. of Chicago
ISBN:
A detailed look at the evidence for human evolution as of the early 1950s. I found this of interest mainly for historical value, a look at the state of paleoanthropology as of the early 1950s. So much has been discovered since then that many of Le Gros Clark's ideas and conclusions are long since obsolete.
THE FOSSIL TRAIL
Tattersall, Ian
c.1995, Oxford Univ. Press
ISBN: 0-19-506101-2
An overview of all finds made in anthropology since the first Neanderthal man, arranged in order by discovery date. Ian Tattersall is the head of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History, and knows this material as well as anyone. His writing style is somewhat dry, and not nearly as good as either Richard Leakey or Don Johanson. I wouldn't recommend this for someone who isn't seriously interested in the subject.
HUMAN ANCESTORS: Readings from Scientific American
Various
c.1979, W.H. Freeman
ISBN: 0-7167-1101-X
A collection of papers from Scientific American on hominids found prior to 1979.
HUMAN EVOLUTION: An Illustrated Introduction
Lewin, Roger
c.1993, Blackwell Scientific Pub.
ISBN: 0-86542-262-1
HUMAN VARIATION AND ORIGINS
Laughlin & Osborne
c.1967, WH Freeman & Co.
ISBN: 0-7167-0968-6
A collection of articles from SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN dealing with evolution and variation in Homo sapiens.
MAN-APES OR APE-MEN: THE STORY OF DISCOVERIES IN AFRICA
Le Gros Clark, Sir Wilfred
c.1967, Holt, Rinehart, & Winston
ISBN:
MANKIND IN THE MAKING: THE STORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
Howells, William
c.1967, Doubleday
ISBN:
An examination of what was known, suspected, and hypothesized about human evolution as of 1967.
MISSING LINKS: THE HUNT FOR EARLIEST MAN
Reader, John
c.1981, Little, Brown
ISBN: 0-316-73590-6
NAMING OUR ANCESTORS: An Anthology of Hominid Taxonomy
W. Eric Meikle & Sue Taylor Parker
c.1994, Waveland Press
ISBN: 0-88133-799-4
THE NEANDERTAL ENIGMA
Shreeve, James
c.1995, Avon
ISBN: 0-380-72881-8
An in-depth look at the evolution of modern Homo sapiens from Homo erectus, and how Neandertal Man fits into the picture. The "enigma" of the title is twofold: one, how Neandertal Man can look like an ancestor and not an ancestor at the same time; two, how different scientists disagree over how modern man evolved and from what older hominid species. This book does for recent hominids what Johanson's books do for older hominids.
THE NEANDERTALS: Changing the Image of Mankind
Eric Trinkaus & Pat Shipman
c.1992, Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0-394-58900-9
OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS
Kurten, Bjorn
c.1993, Columbia Univ. Press
ISBN: 0-231-08061-1
Bjorn Kurten was a Swedish paleontologist who wrote a number of books in his native language which were later translated to English. This one is a review of Kurten's ideas on human evolution. Though the English translation is copyrighted 1993, the original material was written around 1985 or 1986, and contains nothing newer than that.
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN EVOLUTION
Lewin, Roger
c.1998, Blackwell Science
ISBN: 0-86542-542-6
QUARRY: CLOSING IN ON THE MISSING LINK
Boaz, Noel T.
c.1993, Free Press
ISBN: 0-02-904501-0
SEARCH FOR PEKING MAN
Christopher Janus
c.1975, MacMillan Publishing
ISBN: 0-02-558990-3
SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE, THE
Sykes, Bryan
c.2001, W. W. Norton
ISBN: 0-393-32314-5
STONE AGE PRESENT, THE
Allman, William
c.1994, Touchstone Books
ISBN: 0-684-80455-7
WISDOM OF THE BONES, THE: In Search of Human Origins
Alan Walker & Pat Shipman
c.1996, Borzoi Books
ISBN: 0-679-42624-8
A very detailed and thorough examination of the critically important hominid fossil known as the Nariokotome Boy or the Turkana Boy: a juvenile Homo erectus male found west of Lake Turkana in Africa in the late 1980s.
Books about modern anthropology
Modern anthropology is the study of modern humans and modern human societies. The study of individual humans can be useful in many ways, not least of which is forensics. The study of modern human societies can also be very useful, both in learning how we got where we are and reminding ourselves that "primitive" does not equate to "stupid."
THE CASEBOOK OF FORENSIC DETECTION
Evans, Colin
c.1996, John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-471-28369-X
Colin Evans is an experienced forensic anthropologist who has put his expertise to good use on dozens of police cases. This is a collection of some of his more memorable cases. Not recommended for the squeamish.
GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: THE FATES OF HUMAN SOCIETIES
Diamond, Jared
c.1997, W. W. Norton
ISBN: 0-393-03891-2
An award-winning look at the development of human civilization, and why the European peoples became world-conquerors while no others did. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Diamond writes with extreme skill and care, and leaves few holes in his arguments.
THE MISMEASURE OF MAN
Gould, Stephen Jay
c.1981, W. W. Norton
ISBN: 0-393-31067-1
Stephen Jay Gould was one of the better "science for the layman" writers of the last fifty years. In this book he looks at the history of racism in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the many flawed attempts to use science to support that racism.
THE MISMEASURE OF MAN (Revised Ed.)
Gould, Stephen Jay
c.1996, W. W. Norton
ISBN: 0-393-31425-1
A revised and updated version of Gould's study on science-based racism. The revisions include a chapter specifically written as a counter to the very controversial book THE BELL CURVE.
ROAD BELONG CARGO
Lawrence, Peter
c.1971, Waveland Press
ISBN: 0-88133-458-8
A professional, thorough, journal-quality study of the strange phenomenon of "cargo cults" in Papua New Guinea. Cargo cults are one of several attempts by Papuans to obtain for themselves some of the manufactured goods and materials that Europeans possess. Cargo cultists attempted to obtain these manufactured goods ("cargo") for themselves by imitating what they thought were Europeans' magic rituals.
