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Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human
Richard E. Leakey, Roger Lewin · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
Spencer Wells · 224 pages
"Showing how the secrets about our ancestors are hidden in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. We now know not only where our ancestors lived but who they fought, loved, and influenced.". "Informed by this new science, The Journey of Man is replete with
The Singing Neanderthals
Steven Mithen · 384 pages
Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality
Jared Diamond · 176 pages
The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal
Desmond Morris · 219 pages
Dans la même optique et avec le même vocabulaire que celui utilisé pour les animaux, une observation du comportement humain sous l'angle de la sexualité, de l'éducation, de la combativité et de la recherche du confort où le zoologiste démontre avec humour que l'homme est toujours un singe.
The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry
Bryan Sykes · 319 pages
"In 1994 Professor Bryan Sykes, a leading world authority on DNA and human evolution, was called in to examine the frozen remains of a man trapped in glacial ice in northern Italy. News of the discovery of the Ice Man and his age, which was put at over five thousand years, fascinated the world. But what made the story particularly extraordinary was that Professor Sykes was also able to track down
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
Richard W. Wrangham · 309 pages
Ever since Darwin and The Descent of Man, the existence of humans has been attributed to our intelligence and adaptability. But in Catching Fire, renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham presents a startling alternative: our evolutionary success is the result of cooking. In a groundbreaking theory of our origins, Wrangham shows that the shift from raw to cooked foods was the key factor in human evo
Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins
Ian Tattersall · 266 pages
"When homo sapiens made their entrance 100,000 years ago they were confronted by a wide range of other early humans--homo erectus, who walked better and used fire; homo habilis who used tools; and of course the Neanderthals, who were brawny and strong. But shortly after their arrival, something happened that vaulted the species forward and made them the indisputable masters of the planet. This boo
The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
Matt Ridley · 295 pages
If evolution by natural selection relentlessly favors self-interest, why do human beings live in complex societies and show so much cooperative spirit? In The Origins of Virtue, Matt Ridley, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist, shows that recent research in a number of fields has suggested a resolution of the apparent contradiction between self-interest and mutual aid. Brillia
Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence
Richard W. Wrangham, Dale Peterson · 350 pages
Whatever their virtues, men are more violent than women. Why do men kill, rape, and wage war, and what can we do about it? Drawing on the latest discoveries about human evolution and about our closest living relatives, the great apes, Demonic Males offers some startling new answers. Dramatic, vivid, and firmly grounded in meticulous research, this book will change the way you see the world.
The Descent of Woman: The Classic Study of Evolution
Elaine Morgan · 284 pages
'The Descent of Woman' is a pioneering work, the first to argue for the equal role of women in human evolution. On its first publication in 1972 it created an international debate and became a rallying-point for feminism, changing the terminology of anthropologists forever. Starting with her demolition of the Biblical myth that woman was an afterthought to the creation of man, Elaine Morgan rewrit
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
Nicholas Wade · 313 pages
Nicholas Wade's articles are a major reason why the science section has become the most popular, nationwide, in the New York Times. In his groundbreaking Before the Dawn, Wade reveals humanity's origins as never before—a journey made possible only recently by genetic science, whose incredible findings have answered such questions as: What was the first human language like? How large were the first
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · 456 pages
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What hap
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha · 400 pages
"A controversial, idea-driven book that challenges everything you know about sex, marriage, family, and society"--Provided by publisher. Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. But this narrative is collapsing. Here, renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá, while debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, offer a bold alternati
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live
Marlene Zuk · 328 pages
Debunks beliefs based on the assumption that human beings have finished evolving and defends the assertion that modern man is not biologically the same as our caveman ancestors.
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Christopher McDougall · 287 pages
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we tho
Bully for Brontosaurus
Stephen Jay Gould · 540 pages
Essays from the author's column This view of life, published in Natural history.
Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution
Richard Fortey · 302 pages
"With Fortey's expert guidance, we begin to understand how trilobites reveal the pattern and mechanism of evolution through their fossil legacy in the rocks. Through the eyes of trilobites, he allows us glimpses of former worlds as foreign in their geography as in their life forms. Altogether, he provides a unique picture of our geological past, which in turn provides us - scientist and layperson
Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy · 722 pages
"Mother Nature presents a radical new way of understanding how mothers act and why, and how this new understanding is changing the way scientists think about how evolution works."--BOOK JACKET. "Drawing on anthropology, history, literature, developmental psychology, and animal behavior, Sarah Hrdy examines the distinct biological and genetic elements that constitute maternal instinct. She strips
Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
Thor Hanson · 336 pages
Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers,
The Meme Machine
Susan Blackmore · 264 pages
After Richard Dawkins' *The Selfish Gene*, Susan Blackmore drive us deeply into the theory of the meme, social and cultural "replicators", trying to explain the human unique ability to imitate. Altruism, ideas, human behaviours, sex, poetry, music... seems to be simply the result of such as memetic selection... > Even our inner conscious self and our sense of free will are illlusion created by
The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
Frans de Waal · 304 pages
A renowned primatologist argues that ethical behavior witnessed in animals is the evolutionary and biological origin of human fairness and explains that morality has more to do with natural instincts than with religion.
The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor
Colin Tudge, Josh Young · 267 pages
For more than a century, scientists have raced to unravel the human family tree and have grappled with its complications. Now, with an astonishing new discovery, everything we thought we knew about primate origins could change. Lying inside a high-security vault, deep within the heart of one of the world's leading natural history museums, is the scientific find of a lifetime - a perfectly fossiliz