The Jesuit and the skull : Teilhard de Chardin, evolution, and the search for Peking Man / Amir D. Aczel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aczel, Amir D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre.

Peking man.

Fossil hominids--China.

Fossil hominids.

China.

Evolution--Religious aspects--Catholic Church.

Evolution.

China--Antiquities.

Antiquities.

Physical Description:

288 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Riverhead Books, [2007]

Summary:

In December 1929, in a cave near Peking, diggers for an international team of scientists that included a French Jesuit priest named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin pulled from the rubble a skull of Homo erectus, still ensconced in its matrix of clay. It was the first discovery of remains of Homo erectus that quickly became known around the world as Peking Man, a key evolutionary link between the erect hunting apes and our Homo sapiens ancestors. And it also became a provocative piece of evidence in the roiling debate between creationism and evolution -- a debate that would reinvigorate decades of controversy between the scientific community and religious authorities. - Jacket flap.

Contents:

Banquet

Prelude to evolution

Darwin's breakthrough

Stone tools and cave art

Java man

Teilhard

Discovery in inner mongolia

Australopithecus and the scopes trial

Exile

Discovery of Peking man

Teilhard meets Lucile Swan

Yellow cruise and the Mongolian Princess

Lucile Swan reconstructs Peking Man

Peking Man vanishes

Rome

Aftermath

Fossil record continues

What really happened to Peking Man?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-276) and index.

ISBN:

9781594489563

OCLC:

152580644