Ancestral images : the iconography of human origins / Stephanie Moser ; foreword by Clive Gamble.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moser, Stephanie.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prehistoric peoples--Pictorial works--History.

Prehistoric peoples.

History.

Human evolution--Pictorial works--History.

Human evolution.

Genre:

Pictorial works.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 200 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1998.

Summary:

Pictorial reconstructions of ancient human ancestors have twin purposes: to make sense of shared ancestry and to bring prehistory to life. Stephanie Moser analyzes the close relationship between representations of the past and theories about human evolution, showing how this relationship existed even before a scientific understanding of human origins developed. How did mythological, religious, and historically inspired visions of the past, in existence for centuries, shape this understanding? Moser treats images as primary documents, and her book is illustrated with more than eighty engravings, paintings, photographs, and reconstructions.

In surveying the iconography of prehistory, Moser explores visions of human creation that were produced during the Renaissance. She looks closely at the first scientific reconstructions of the nineteenth century, which dramatized and made comprehensible the Darwinian theory of human descent from apes. She considers, as well, the impact of reconstructions on popular literature in Europe and North America, showing that early visualizations of prehistory retained a firm hold on the imagination -- a hold that archaeologists and anthropologists have found difficult to shake.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 190-197) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

0801435498

OCLC:

38288601