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"Extraordinary . . . This inspirational autobiography stands among the finest scientist memoirs." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice Meave Leakey's thrilling, high-stakes memoir--written with her daughter Samira--encapsulates her distinguished life and career on the front lines of the hunt for our human origins, a quest made all the more notable by her stature as a woman in a highly competitive, male-dominated field. In The Sediments of Time, preeminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey brings us along on her remarkable journey to reveal the diversity of our early pre-human ancestors and how past climate change drove their evolution. She offers a fresh account of our past, as recen...
"Extraordinary . . . This inspirational autobiography stands among the finest scientist memoirs." —New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice Meave Leakey’s thrilling, high-stakes memoir—written with her daughter Samira—encapsulates her distinguished life and career on the front lines of the hunt for our human origins, a quest made all the more notable by her stature as a woman in a highly competitive, male-dominated field. In The Sediments of Time, preeminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey brings us along on her remarkable journey to reveal the diversity of our early pre-human ancestors and how past climate change drove their evolution. She offers a fresh account of our past, as ...
Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.
Located at the southwest corner of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, Lothagam represents one of the most important intervals in African prehistory. Early human remains are restricted in distribution to Africa and the acquisition of an upright bipedal striding gait, the hallmark of humanity, appears to be at least circumstantially linked to the reduction of equatorial forests and the spread of grasslands on that continent. The diverse Lothagam fauna documents the end-Miocene transition from forested to more open habitats that were exploited by grazing horses and antelopes, hippos, giant pigs, and true elephants. It also includes spectacularly complete fossil carnivore skeletons and some of the oldest human remains. Enlisting a team of highly qualified specialists, this book provides the geologic context and dating framework for the Lothagam fossiliferous sequences, describes the immense diversity of vertebrate fossils recovered from the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene sediments, and synthesizes the results to interpret the changing paleoenvironments that prevailed at this site. The book will interest anthropologists, paleontologists, geologists, and anyone interested in human origins.
Presents a comprehensive look at primates, detailing their morphology, natural history, distribution, the different types of primates, and the evolution of humans.
Creates three-dimensional scientific reconstructions for twenty-two species of extinct humans, providing information for each one on its emergence, chronology, geographic range, classification, physiology, environment, habitat, cultural achievements, coex
A meticulously clear account of how early ape-men of the African savanna developed into fully human beings. Leakey has always been interested in far more than the mere physical features presented by fossils, and here he is particularly concerned with non-tangible human attributes, such as art, language and consciousness itself. Leakey's personal involvement in many of the key discoveries of hominid fossils, and his friendships and rivalries with his fellow fossil hunters, add more than a dash of spice to his narrative. "An outstanding account of our current understanding of human evolution" Sunday Times "An elegant summary of what is currently known about human evolution" Observer
How did humanity evolve? And what does our evolutionary history tell us about what it means to be human? These questions are fundamental to our identity as individuals and as a species and to our relationship with the world. But there are almost as many answers to them as there are scientists who study these topics. This book brings together more than one hundred top experts, who share their insights on the study of human evolution and what it means for understanding our past, present, and future. Sergio Almécija asks leading figures across paleontology, primatology, archaeology, genetics, and many other disciplines about their lives, their work, and the philosophical significance of human ...
Spatial analysis reaches across all the subdisciplines of anthropology. A cultural anthropologist, for example, can use such analysis to trace the extent of distinctive cultural practices; an archaeologist can use it to understand the organization of ancient irrigation systems; a primatologist to quantify the density of primate nesting sites; a paleoanthropologist to explore vast fossil-bearing landscapes. Arguing that geospatial analysis holds great promise for much anthropological inquiry, the contributors have designed this volume to show how the powerful tools of GIScience can be used to benefit a variety of research programs. This volume brings together scholars who are currently applying state-of-the-art tools, techniques, and methods of geographical information sciences (GIScience) to diverse data sets of anthropological interest. Their questions crosscut the typical “silos” that so often limit scholarly communication among anthropologists and instead recognize a deep structural similarity between the kinds of questions anthropologists ask, the data they collect, and the analytical models and paradigms they each use.
Winner of the James Mooney Award of the Southern Anthropological Society In this bracingly original anthropological study, Miles Richardson draws on forty years of empirical research to explore the paradox that while humans must die like all evolving life forms, they have adapted a unique symbolic communication that makes them aware of their naturally occurring fate; and through word and artifact, they dwell upon that discovery. Using the concepts of culture and place, he illuminates how two groups, Catholics in Spanish America and Baptists in the American South, create “being-in-Christ” and thereby “put death in its place.” The book combines biological, cultural, archaeological, and linguistic anthropology; a rigorous evolutionary framework; and a postmodern dialogic stance to view humanity as inescapably a product of nature without sacrificing the interpretative social constructions that “turn a primate into a poem.” Hard-won ethnographic detail and moving religious insight make this an enthralling work.