Origins - What New Discoveries Reveal About the Rmergence of Our Species and Its Possilble Future

Leakey, Richard; Lewin, Roger

ISBN 10: 0525171940 / ISBN 13: 9780525171942

Published by E.P.Dutton, A Division of Sequoia-Elsevier Publishing Company Inc., New York, 1977

About this Item

264 Pages Indexed. Ex Libris label with previous owner's name K. A. Blake filled in and also date "sep 22 1982" is stamped on front endpaper. No other marks noted. This is the April 1978 Fourth Printing. Drawing on the legacy of knowledge gathered by his parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, Richard Leakey's excavations at Lake Turkana in northern Kenya suggest that perhaps three or even more species of primitive hominids existed simultaneously in the same geographic region millions of years ago. Why "our" line-Homo - survived while others vanished is the central question of this pioneering and exciting study of human evolution. Equally important is what this new information tells us about humankind's future as well as our early history. This book disputes popular writers who argue that human conflict has always existed, because, they say, aggression is deeply rooted in our genes. Such a view has little to do with scientific facts, and Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin show that the key to the transformation of an ape-like creature into a human being was the ability to share in a complex social context. This quality of cooperation demonstrated by early man's long history of peaceful hunting and gathering - not unbridled human aggression - is the basic feature of humanity.

Seller Inventory # 22236

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Origins - What New Discoveries Reveal About the Rmergence of Our Species and Its Possilble Future
• Publisher: E.P.Dutton, A Division of Sequoia-Elsevier Publishing Company Inc., New York
• Publication Date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525171940
• ISBN 13: 9780525171942
• Binding: Hard Back
• Illustrator: Prentice, Ruth - Designer
• Edition: Fourth Printing Stated
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Leakey, Richard E. And Roger Lewin, Origins: What New Discoveries Reveal About The Emergence Of Our S

About the Author

Richard Leakey, whom Harvard's David Pilbeam calls the "organizing genius of modern paleoanthropology," is the director of the National Museums of Kenya. The son of Louis and Mary Leakey, Richard has continued his parents' pioneering field work in East Africa.
Roger Lewin is a biochemist, Deputy Editor of the British magazine, New Scientist, and the author of In Defense of the Body, as well as two other highly-praised books on biology.