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soben's review against another edition
5.0
Such a great book. If you keep an open mind it brings up many interesting points that are hard to challenge. I would love to see him write a sequel in 4-5 years as new studies and papers come out to challenge the content of his book. He does a great job of showing all potential sides of the story. Captivating!
bupdaddy's review against another edition
5.0
Nicholas Wade has put into one cohesive book - based on compiling hundreds of scientists' work - a flowing, incredibly reconstructed history of humans before history. Through archaeology, genetics (and not always human genetics) and logic, Wade shows persuasive and ingenious arguments for many human milestones: when we became anatomically modern; when we became behaviorally modern; when, where and how agriculture developed; when language evolved and what the first language sounded like; when music evolved; when form-fitting clothing developed; when animals first became domesticated...
It explores why humans are so warlike (it's a pretty rare trait in an animal), but also why we cooperate with non-kin (even more rare in animals). It also addresses some non-PC subjects, but without judgment, and wholly in pursuit of truth.
Anyway, great book.
It explores why humans are so warlike (it's a pretty rare trait in an animal), but also why we cooperate with non-kin (even more rare in animals). It also addresses some non-PC subjects, but without judgment, and wholly in pursuit of truth.
Anyway, great book.
fusskins's review against another edition
3.0
A very interesting easy-to-read book on evolutionary biology.
It almost made me want to go to grad school. Almost.
It almost made me want to go to grad school. Almost.
jackiesam's review against another edition
4.0
As interesting as it was I had to work really hard to keep my attention on it.
residentrunner1_'s review against another edition
4.0
"The work of the Richards and Semino teams lays the basis for what many hope will be a grand synthesis between genetics and archaeology."
The world of early humans is indeed a mysterious one. Written history has only existed for 500 5000 years, and there's not much known beyond that. Only archaeology sites that reveal tantalizing clues reveal anything.
I found this interesting. It started out describing the great apes that eventually started walking on two legs, then went on to describe Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, and how they occupied Asia and Europe respectively.
One thing I found even more baffling and interesting was the fact that somehow Homo Sapiens, us, were able to overcome Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The author, Nicholas Wade, did mention however that Homo Sapiens had more time to evolve than Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis.
Image to give you an idea of what their heads skulls looked like.
Next, in Chapter 2, he goes over how early humans evolved to have bigger brains and less hair. (Unless you're a werewolf, then you must be an ancient human...) And according to the author, there was another sub-species of the human genus discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. The inhabitants they named Homo floresiensis, and researchers theorize that these down-sized people were probably Homo erectus ancestors.
Well, this review is getting a bit long, and I really kind of don't want to spoil anything else.
Just remember though it took 5 million years from the apes climbing down the trees to becoming humans...
The world of early humans is indeed a mysterious one. Written history has only existed for
I found this interesting. It started out describing the great apes that eventually started walking on two legs, then went on to describe Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis, and how they occupied Asia and Europe respectively.
One thing I found even more baffling and interesting was the fact that somehow Homo Sapiens, us, were able to overcome Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis. The author, Nicholas Wade, did mention however that Homo Sapiens had more time to evolve than Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis.
Image to give you an idea of what their
Next, in Chapter 2, he goes over how early humans evolved to have bigger brains and less hair. (Unless you're a werewolf, then you must be an ancient human...) And according to the author, there was another sub-species of the human genus discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. The inhabitants they named Homo floresiensis, and researchers theorize that these down-sized people were probably Homo erectus ancestors.
Well, this review is getting a bit long, and I
Just remember though it took 5 million years from the apes climbing down the trees to becoming humans...
jasonfurman's review against another edition
4.0
The best, most up-to-date volume I've read on what recent genetic analysis tells us about human origins, pre-history, language, evolution over the last 10,000 years, and several other important questions. It begins with the story of how the origins of human clothing were dated -- by figuring out when hair lice and body lice diverged from each other. An excellent synthesis and well written.
kp_12's review against another edition
2.0
Yes, and yet....so many things to pick a bone with.*
*but mostly, a lack of well-documented evidence
*but mostly, a lack of well-documented evidence
lupefiasco7's review against another edition
3.0
At times boring as hell. Three stars because its insights are staggering and really shaped my worldview. Also good research to back up claims.
dewey_the_composer's review against another edition
5.0
FASCINATING book. It's a bit old (not its fault), so some of the science is a bit out of date. But I feel like so much light was shed on early human history and human behavior. It was written very clearly and all the evidence for proposed ideas was supported well. Importantly, every proposal that was more heavily conjecture than evidence-based was acknowledged.