Reviews

Dance of the Tiger: A Novel of the Ice Age by Björn Kurtén, Stephen Jay Gould

joselito3's review against another edition

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5.0

5 stars! I expected it to remind me The Clan of the Cave Bear but for some reason it actually reminded me of The Lord of the Flies!

bahoulie's review against another edition

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3.0

Interesting story that also lays out the idea the author (an evolutionary paleontologist) has of how Neandertal became extinct.

slc54hiwi's review against another edition

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5.0

This is one of the best fictional treatments of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens that I know of. Kurten was a well-respected palaeontologist, and his breadth of knowledge shows in this book. The story, however, is so well & sensitively told (even in translation) that the science "goes down" fairly painlessly. I have had my physical anthropology students read this & I know others who've assigned this to beginning anthropology students; nearly all of them like it and get quite a bit from the book.

BTW, I think that this edition is a more recent one since I'm sure I read this first more than 20 years ago.

slc54hiwi's review

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5.0

Bjorn Kurten was a well-respected Finnish palaeontologist and this novel is a beautifully written & scientifically plausible rendering of archaic human times. He depicts the possible/probable interactions between the so-called Neanderthals and early modern Homo sapiens. This one book is a far, far better introduction to the science, theory & data of human evolution than all of the saggy, baggy volumes of Jean Auel's put together.

nisherwood's review against another edition

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4.0

can't wait until they clone mammoths for real

idicalini's review against another edition

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3.0

First finished book of 2023!

I thought this book had a very interesting premise. I loved reading about the prehistoric world and I really loved the way Neanderthals and Homo sapiens are portrayed, the cultural and physical differences and similarities between both and how they interacted with each other. The fact that this book was written by an actual paleontologist made it all the more believable and realistic. However, the story itself wasn't written in a very engaging way, it is clear that his main focus was not to be the author of a thrilling book, but to write about prehistoric life. Which was completely fine; it made the book enjoyable to read, but it didn't grip me the way that, for example, Clan of the Cave Bear did.

weaselweader's review against another edition

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4.0

A cut above when it comes to pre-historical fiction

DANCE OF THE TIGER
is set in what would ultimately become northern Scandinavia during a warm break in the Ice Age between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago.

Fossils have shown that mammoth and reindeer lived there at that time so it makes sense for Kurtén’s fictional story to be populated with a variety of ice age fauna including the saber-tooth tiger, elk and an abundance of birds. Like many novels in a very crowded field, DANCE OF THE TIGER describes the meeting of the two human species that lived together on the earth at that time – the Neanderthal and the Cro-Magnon. But what lifts DANCE OF THE TIGER above the field and makes it a more challenging, cerebral novel (even compared to such iconic titles as Jean Auel’s THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR) is its scrupulous attention to the best known science concerning the world of that time – glacial geology, ecology and behaviour of Ice Age mammals, the “neotenization” of Cro-Magnon adults compared to Neanderthals (an interesting tidbit for you to look up), the apparent inability of the Neanderthal vocal tract to produce all of the modern vowels, and much, much more.

Björn Kurtén is a teacher at the University of Helsinki with a reputation as the world’s foremost evolutionary paleontologist. Given such lofty academic credentials, a reader might be forgiven for being surprised by the power and eloquence of his prose. Ultimately, DANCE OF THE TIGER is nothing less than a plausible hypothesis as to the reason for the ultimate extinction of the Neanderthal species, leaving the Cro-Magnon behind as the sole representatives of humankind on the face of the earth.

Provocative food for thought wrapped up in a thoroughly enjoyable novel. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

hudsone45's review against another edition

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3.0

I can't say I fell in love with this book, as I found some of the descriptions just didn't have flow. The book talked a bit about how the hybrid children were sterile, but nobody ever really commented on it, driving me slightly mad.

psalmcat's review against another edition

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2.0

Right. I'm less than halfway through this and it's really not doing anything for me. The premise is good, and the science is solid, but the story is ... boring.

ericwelch's review against another edition

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4.0

5/8/10 Update: Some recent evidence found in Europe and genome studies bears on the speculative outcome of this story. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/science/07neanderthal.html?src=me&ref=general

The image of the hunched-over, beetle-browed, dark-skinned, stupid-looking, primitive Neanderthal is familiar to us all. Stephen Jay Gould, in his introduction to Bjorn Kurten's Dance of the Tiger, suggests this effigy is essentially false. The bent posture stemmed from one of the original skeletal remains which was later discovered to belong to a very arthritic individual accounting for the awkward carriage. The Neanderthal's brain was actually larger in size than present day man's, so "stupid" stems from our hubristic tendency to equate primitive with something less valuable than ourselves. And, of course, the portrayal as dark-skinned results from our innate racism assuming that primitive or ancient equals dark.

     There is no question now among paleontologists that Neanderthals were indeed sapiens and that they may have had much in common with our direct ancestor, Cro-Magnon Man, who replaced the Neanderthals about 35,000 years ago. Ralph Solecki in [b:Shanidar The First Flower People|1685384|Shanidar, the first flower people|Ralph Solecki|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|1682013] has shown how human Neanderthals were. They had quite "modern" burial customs (if one could call our current burial customs civilized - frankly they smack of the occult to me) which shows evidence of religious feeling, and advanced concept. They had quite human feelings and intelligence and, with the exception of the skull, even looked very much like modern man. What, then, accounts for the sudden disappearance of Neanderthal and their subsequent replacement exclusively by Cro-Magnon. That's what this novel is about.

     Not only is this a fine story, but according to Gould, for whom I have tremendous respect, it's also good science. Bjorn Kurten is one of the world's foremost paleontologists. Kurten has weaved into his story a model of what might very well have occurred during the first contacts between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon. Along the way, says Gould, we absorb a great deal of accurate science, "insinuating every fact and theory that I know... about human evolution during the Ice Age, glacial geology, ecology, and Ice Age mammals."

     Kurten's story revolves around Tiger, a Cro-Magnon, whose father is killed while on a mammoth hunt. He is injured and found at death's door by the "trolls" as the blacks (Cro-Magnon) refer to them. The trolls are the Neanderthal, white and tall, with prominent brows and a primitive language compared to the blacks from the south. Obviously Kurten is playing with our stereotypes here. We know that our homo sapiens ancestors evolved in Africa and hence were most likely black; and as the Neanderthal had lived in Northern Europe for a long time there is no reason why they might not have adapted to the colder climate with white skin. Anyway, I refuse to give away more of the story. Suffice it to say that Kurten's solution to the disappearance of the Neanderthal is neat, having genetic and anthropological implications, and the book will challenge you in many ways.
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