Book Review: Dawn of Man: The Story of Human Evolution
April 4th, 2010 | by Digvijay Lamba |
Human evolution is an interesting and intriguing story. However, I have never really been able to keep my Australopithecus and my Neanderthal straight.
The “Dawn of Man”, which accompanies a BBC Documentary, has managed to present the evolution of man from Ape to Human as a cohesive well told story. On top of that the book contains many many interesting images that say far more than the written word itself.
The key success of the book is how it ties in the drama of the big discoveries -Lucy, Laetoli footprints, Nariokotome Boy, etc. – to the big evolution story itself. The author, Robin McKie has also done an excellent job presenting all interpretations of any evidence and in linking it to the story.
The other interesting aspect of the book is how every piece of the story is presented along with the evidence that helped make that judgement. For example, how the changing skeletons of the Australopithecus tell us about ape’s learning to stand erect. How the Nariokotome Boy’s larger brain size, tool making, and anatomical features tell us that they had not yet developed speech but were good hunters. How the burial customs, advanced tools and paintings of the Neanderthals tell us that they were an equal to the Homo Sapiens at one time. How we can judge the evolving social constructs of human society from burial gifts, their trade in tools, and evidence for care of their sick.
The most fascinating thing that this book brought forward is how its only in the last 30,000 years of our history, that humans have been the single dominant species. Before that, at every point in our history, we have shared this planet with another version of ourselves. From the various species that make up Homo Erectus and Homo Habilus, to the co-existence of Homo Sapiens (Modern Humans) and the Neanderthals who were an equally capable species that finally lost out.
Buy it here: Dawn of Man: The Story of Human Evolution by Robin McKie
Tags: Evolution, History, Human Evolution, Human History
3 Responses to “Book Review: Dawn of Man: The Story of Human Evolution”
By Ridhima on Apr 5, 2010 | Reply
Interesting post and very fascinating.
I like picture books and looks like this is a keeper. Another point, though not entirely related to your post is that genocide may have its roots to the ‘dawn of humans’..the entire species of Neanderthals being wiped off the face of the planet by Homo Sapiens (humans) is a testament to this..
Thanks for the post!
By Digvijay Lamba on Apr 5, 2010 | Reply
It probably cannot be categorized as Genocide. Very likely it wasn’t an intentional wipe out.
An example from the book illustrates this. what The Neanderthals simply ran out of resources and failed to adapt as well as Homo Sapiens.
By kapil Shukla on Apr 7, 2010 | Reply
Boss, Amazing blog ! it goes to my bookmark