Synopsis
A controversial theory contends that all modern humans share a single racial stock and that modern humankind emerged out of Africa less than one hundred thousand years ago and replaced all other human populations that had walked the earth. 12,500 first printing.
Reviews
In sharp contrast to the multiregional interpretation of hominid development offered by Milford Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari in Race and Human Evolution (LJ 12/96), Stringer, director of the Human Origins group at London's Natural History Museum, and McKie, science editor of the Observer, argue for a single-origin theory for the recent emergence and essential unity of our species. The authors maintain that the erectus-sapiens transition happened only once, with Homo sapiens sapiens migrating out of Africa about 100,000 years ago and subsequently spreading worldwide. To make their case, they examine fossils, artifacts, and especially genes (e.g., the Kibish skull from Ethiopia, the Katanda culture of Zaire, and ongoing nuclear DNA findings). Special attention is given to the ape-human split, the so-called Neanderthal problem, and Cro-Magnon sociocultural advancements. The complex issues surrounding hominid evolution are made apparent here. Enhanced by numerous illustrations and extensive notes, this work is recommended for large anthropology collections.?H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Stringer, a pioneer of the out-of-Africa theory of human evolution, directs the Human Origins Group at London's Natural History Museum; McKie is science editor of the Observer in London. Together, they provide a fascinating overview of scientific confluence and controversy about "what it means to be human." Drawing on breakthroughs in paleoanthropological, archaeological, and DNA research, Stringer and McKie describe "the emergence of the human lineage" through various hominid forms; outline changing notions about the relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans; trace possible explanations for Homo sapiens' success in dominating the world (and the troubling consequences of that success); and examine adaptations to local climate and other conditions that define visible racial and ethnic distinctions, though our genetic differences are infinitesimally small. On the fringe of academic respectability just over a dozen years ago, Stringer's theory has been supported by so many diverse scientific studies it is the new orthodoxy (though opponents, in pop science like The Bell Curve as well as conflicting anthropological schools, still counterattack). Given this debate's political and social ramifications, the demanding but accessible African Exodus should generate interest. Mary Carroll
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