Java Man : How Two Geologists' Dramatic Discoveries Changed Our Understanding of the Evolutionary Path to Modern Humans - Hardcover

Lewin, Roger; Curtis, Garniss H.; Swisher, Carl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684800004 ISBN 13: 9780684800004

Publisher: Scribner, 2000

Synopsis

Two geologists provide a jaunty account of their controversial discoveries on the island of Java: that human ancestors left Africa and migrated east almost two million years ago, much earlier than most anthropologists had believed; and that Homo erectus might have survived until as late as 27,000 years ago, which would mean it coexisted with Homo sapiens rather than being an evolutionary precursor. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

Review:

If you think nature is red in tooth and claw, you've never seen paleoanthropologists. Never has so much fuss been made by so many over so little actual evidence. Unlike most scientific controversies, however, those in paleoanthropology involve seriously emotional issues: nothing less than the origin and nature of humanity.

One of the most fervent controversies in human origins has been over whether human evolution occurred only in Africa (the "Out of Africa" hypothesis), or whether humans evolved on different continents concurrently (the "Multiregional" hypothesis). The bones known as "Java Man" are key for deciding between these theories, and the most important unknowns about them are their dates. Geochronologists Carl Swisher and Garniss Curtis produced the first good dates for fossil humans from Java and set the paleoanthropological community on its collective ear--some of the fossils are much older than anyone thought, others are much younger. In this book they tell their story with the aid of Roger Lewin, a widely respected science journalist and the author of Bones of Contention.

Historians of academic infighting will find Java Man a treasure trove. Rarely has the mask of science been peeled back so completely, to reveal a seething mass of egos, mistakes, lawsuits, and crude hand gestures, boiling around some real, basic questions in human evolution. It's not yet particularly conclusive, but it is certainly not dull. --Mary Ellen Curtin

From the Inside Flap:

"'Garniss, lend me your knife for a second, will you,' I whispered." So begins Java Man, the inside story of how one discovery—a human skull found on the island of Java—by two geologists shook the foundations of science. By uncovering new evidence about the hominid known as Java man, Carl C. Swisher and Garniss H. Curtis were able to date his fossil remains at 1.7 million years, an age that stunned the scientific community because it pushed back the time when humans migrating out of Africa first reached Eurasia by nearly one million years. Cowritten by the popular science writer Roger Lewin, this is a gripping and informative account of the discovery that breathed new life into the human origins debate.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0684800004
• ISBN 13: 9780684800004
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256