Principles of Human Evolution

Reviews / Votes

Review from Times Higher Education Supplement, February2004 -Alan Bilsborough, University of Durham Human evolutionary studies now encompasses such wide-rangingsubject matter that accounts confined to simple narrations of thefossil record no longer suffice, while the pace of discoverycreates a continuing demand for clear, balanced introductions tothe subject. This book's authors - an expert science communicatorand a researcher who has had a major influence in broadeningtheoretical perspectives on human evolution - form a dream team toguide us through the subject's complexities. This much-expanded second edition of an established text differsfrom its predecessor and virtually every other treatment in itsrange and its emphasis on principles, whether of evolutionarytheory, phylogenetics, behaviour, ecology or comparativeframeworks. Whereas most accounts condense such fundamentals intoan abbreviated introduction before homing in on the hominid fossilrecord, this book dedicates some 200 pages, or about 40 per cent ofthe text, to the subject. The approach is to view human evolutionas exemplifying general evolutionary forces and processes thatimpact on hominids as on other species, not to treat humanevolution as a one-off case for which issues of evolutionarydynamics, adaptation, ecology and so on have little, if any,relevance. The book is impressively broad in scope, well organised andclearly written. Key issues are flagged up, with questionsalongside the text to serve as prompts. Alternative interpretationsare accurately summarised, with a balanced commentary andsufficient facts to indicate each argument's basics withoutoverloading detail. Each chapter ends with a "Beyond the facts" boxsummarising a current issue and its underlying concepts tostimulate further thought. There are reasonable illustrations of important fossil specimensand excellent diagrams that greatly clarify issues of theory andinterpretation. An associated website promises furtherresources. I would have welcomed rather more coverage of the fossilevidence; on the other hand, there is a very clear pr?cis ofgenetic data bearing on modern human origins, and an excellentaccount of cognitive and behavioural aspects of humanevolution. The book is aimed at the US market but will find many takersthis side of the Atlantic among anthropology, archaeology andevolutionary biology students. Inevitably, some aspects willquickly be overtaken by new discoveries. The website, if developed,will help here, but minor obsolescences matter little compared withthe book's great strength, which is to provide readers with anaccessible, secure and comprehensive conceptual framework for humanevolution, within which they can make sense of newdevelopments. Alan Bilsborough, University of Durham, Times HigherEducation Supplement, February 2004