Braindance : new discoveries about human origins and brain evolution / Dean Falk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Falk, Dean.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Australopithecines.

Fossil hominids.

Brain--Evolution.

Brain.

Human evolution.

Physical Description:

x, 252 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

Revised and expanded edition.

Other Title:

Brain dance

Place of Publication:

Gainesville : University Press of Florida, [2004]

Summary:

When first published in 1992, Braindance presented a revolutionary look at the origins of the human brain. In this revised edition with a new preface and updated information through 2003, biological anthropologist Dean Falk re-examines her groundbreaking research on how the human brain evolved and reveals how this process continues to impact our species. Falk evaluates the conditions and circumstances that allowed a group of apelike individuals to evolve, over a period of 5 to 7 million years, into Homo sapiens and discusses the evolution of visual skills, right-handedness, language ability, right-brain/left-brain and male/female differences -- and the uniquely human ability to dance. The specifics of how we tapped, toed, and twisted through the prehistoric "brain dance" form the story line of this book. Falk explains how the act of walking upright permitted brain size to begin increasing dramatically in our early ancestors. Her "radiator theory" demonstrates that once they developed the ability to cool cranial blood through vascular changes associated with bipedalism, the constraint that limited brain size disappeared. And what did 2 million years of bigger brains produce? The last chapter summarizes Falk's ideas on human cognitive and conscious capacities for the future.

Contents:

1 Foraging in the Red Cave 10

2 Taung Goes to St. Louis

and Beyond 36

3 Chimp Brain, Human Brain 52

4 Of Family Trees, Darwin's Theory, and the Origins of Bipedalism 79

5 Boy Brain, Girl Brain 103

6 Lucy's Child: Mix-up at the Hospital 126

7 Cranial Radiators and Evolutionary Cacti 152

8 Braindance 179

9 Brainwar 200.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [223]-241) and index.

ISBN:

0813027381

OCLC:

54543310