1 option
Homo sapiens rediscovered : the scientific revolution rewriting our origins / Paul Pettitt.
Van Pelt - New Book Display GN281 .P446 2022
Available
Log in to request item- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Pettitt, Paul, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Human beings--Origin.
- Human beings.
- Human evolution.
- Excavations (Archaeology).
- Physical Description:
- 304 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 24 cm
- Other Title:
- Scientific revolution rewriting our origins
- Place of Publication:
- London ; New York : Thames & Hudson, 2022.
- Summary:
- Who are we? How do scientists define Homo sapiens, and how does our species differ from the extinct hominins that came before us? This illuminating book explores how the latest scientific advances, especially in genetics, are revolutionizing our understanding of human evolution. Paul Pettitt reveals the extraordinary story of how our ancestors adapted to unforgiving and relentlessly changing climates, leading to remarkable innovations in art, technology and society that we are only now beginning to comprehend.0Drawing on twenty-five years of experience in the field, Paul Pettitt immerses readers in the caves and rockshelters that provide evidence of our African origins, dispersals to the far reaches of Eurasia, Australasia and ultimately the Americas. Popular accounts of the evolution of Homo sapiens emphasize biomolecular research, notably genetics, but this book also draws from the wealth of information from specific excavations and artefacts, including the author's own investigations into the origins of art and how it evolved over its first 25,000 years. He focuses in particular on behaviour, using archaeological evidence to bring an intimate perspective on lives as they were lived in the almost unimaginably distant past.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Skin and Bones
- ch. 2 The Molecular Frontier
- ch. 3 Climate Change and Environment
- ch. 4 Dispersal: from Africa to Asia
- ch. 5 Contact: Neanderthals and Denisovans
- ch. 6 Diversity
- ch. 7 Catastrophe: the Coming of Homo sapiens in Europe
- ch. 8 Stress, Disease and Inbreeding
- ch. 9 In Mammoth Country
- ch. 10 Cold
- ch. 11 Refuge
- ch. 12 Hearth and Home
- ch. 13 The Sightless World of Palaeolithic Cave Art
- ch. 14 Portable Landscapes
- ch. 15 The Mind
- ch. 16 The World of the Dead
- ch. 17 Into the Americas
- ch. 18 Domestication.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-294) and index.
- Other Format:
- ebook version :
- ISBN:
- 0500252637
- 9780500252635
- OCLC:
- 1295242005
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.