The Origin Of Humankind (Science Masters Series)

The Origin Of Humankind (Science Masters Series)
by Richard Leakey

The Origin Of Humankind (Science Masters Series)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Richard Leakey
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-08-23
ISBN: 0465053130
Number of pages: 190
Publisher: Basic Books
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780465053131
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of The Origin Of Humankind (Science Masters Series)

Book Review: We are Heirs to a most curious methodology
Summary: 5 Stars

This is Richard Leakey's Contribution to the "Science Masters Series." It is the rather incredible story of his finding of an intact almost four million year old skeletal fossil, in the Turkana region of Kenya. The details of which are like a juicy detective story: as full of twists and turns, dead-ends and reversals, as a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

What is most curious about this story, however, is the analytical mystery that lies exposed in its subtext. Reading between (and above) the lines, it is easy enough for the reader to see the utter poverty of the Archaeologist's inductive methodology, which even in this magnificent instance seems to have been severely tested and exposed as being analytically impoverished.

Respectfully, as much as I wish to avoid doing so, one nevertheless has to pose some embarrassingly obvious questions about the modern Archaeologist's methodology. For instance: Is weaving a theory of discovery based solely on areas where fossils are found, not unlike searching for the lost origins of man under the nearest lamppost? Are we to assume that since no fossils are found in regions less hospitable to fossil preservation, that none ever existed there? And in this same vein, is it not entirely possible that the oldest and more impressive finds are yet to be found, or indeed may never be found?

Even though I realize that the Archaeologist's quest always amounts to trying to prove a negative, and that they are almost always accompanied by a suite of elaborately constructed collateral checks and balances, this is not the only question the Leakey methodology raises: What, for instance, are we to do about the long time gaps that exist between archaeological finds, some of which are long enough for undetected species to have evolved, lived, and then become extinct and traces of them to have disappeared, several times over? Are we to assume in such instances, that since we have discovered no empirical evidence of the existence of these unknown species that they in fact never existed?

The larger point is of course that this lack of closure in the finds of the Archaeologist's empirical but nevertheless inductive method, points directly to the logical hole that lies embarrassingly at the center of this method. And while indirect evidence of the existence of a species is useful, and indeed unfortunately is all we have, it is hardly ever the full story. The fact that in the end, we know "that we do not know the full story," is more reason for modesty than for making lavish claims about finds, which, however impressive, we all know in the end, are profoundly meager.

While we must be eternally grateful to the Leakey family for it's many important finds over several generations, the utter meagerness of these finds must always remain at the forefront of our minds. To use an inept and perhaps an inappropriate metaphor: we have not yet even scratched the surface of uncovering the origins of mankind.

Five stars

Summary of The Origin Of Humankind (Science Masters Series)

“The name Leakey is synonymous with the study of human origins,? wrote The New York Times. The renowned family of paleontologists—Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey, and their son Richard Leakey—has vastly expanded our understanding of human evolution. The Origin of Humankind is Richard Leakey?s personal view of the development of Homo Sapiens. At the heart of his new picture of evolution is the introduction of a heretical notion: once the first apes walked upright, the evolution of modern humans became possible and perhaps inevitable. From this one evolutionary step comes all the other evolutionary refinements and distinctions that set the human race apart from the apes. In fascinating sections on how and why modern humans developed a social organization, culture, and personal behavior, Leakey has much of interest to say about the development of art, language, and human consciousness.

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