The Neandertals: Changing the Image of Mankind [Neanderthals].

Trinkaus, Erik; Shipman, Pat.

ISBN 10: 0224036483 / ISBN 13: 9780224036481

Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 1993

About this Item

Hardback octavo, dustjacket, very good condition (in very good dustjacket), pages faintly toned as common, minor edgewear jacket. Heavy, and extra postage may be requested to destinations outside Australia. . 439 pp. A first-hand narrative of the search for man's beginnings. A highly original contribution to our understanding of the way subjective wishes and irrelevant moral assumptions can distort serious scientific endeavours. The authors tell the whole Neandertal (Neanderthal) story with authority and anecdotal richness, from the days of Georges Cuvier to the latest researchers whose work with mtDNA has raised the possibility that we are all descended from a single African woman.

Seller Inventory # 27319

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Neandertals: Changing the Image of Mankind [Neanderthals].
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape, London
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224036483
• ISBN 13: 9780224036481
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • ANTHROPOLOGY

About this title

Synopsis

To most 19th-century scholars, the Neandertals' fierce, ridged brows were evidence of a "moral darkness" that set them apart from humans. Yet by the 1970s, the Neandertals were being praised for their apparent compassion. This work reveals how different scientists came to such wildly divergent conclusions. Photos and illustrations.

From the Inside Flap

To one nineteenth-century scholar, their fierce, ridged brows were evidence of a "moral darkness" that set them irrevocably apart from human beings. Some commentators accused them of cannibalism. Yet by the 1970s the Neandertals were being hailed as "the first flower people" and praised for their apparent compassion and religious piety.
The story of how scientists could come to such divergent conclusions about a set of bones unearthed in Germany in 1856 unfolds with irresistible detail in this enthralling book. Even as The Neandertals assesses the identity, kinship, and character of our possible ancestors, it casts a wry eye on the modern Homo sapiens who have embraced or disavowed them and illuminates the peculiar way in which even science is shaped by human needs and biases.