The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins

by Pat Shipman and Alan C. Walker

Book Overview

"Fascinating. . . . As engaging an explanation of how scientists study fossil bones as any I have ever read." --John R. Alden, Philadelphia Inquirer In 1984 a team of paleoanthropologists on a dig in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679426248
• ISBN13: 9780679426240
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating!!!

Pat Shipman and Alan Walker are not only brilliant scientists, but also superb authors. Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. Excellent for aspiring anthropologists, like myself, and ANYONE interested in human origins. Fantastic writing, excellent research. In fact, every book this husband and wife team has written is fantastic. TAKING WING by Pat Shipman, about Archaeopterix and the origin of flight is another highly addictive book!

Very creative ideas and easy to digest for novice

Although this is obviously a book grounded in science, it's important to note that this isn't chemistry or quantum physics, where if you don't have specialized knowledge it will be a waste of your time. The authors here do a great job of presenting their findings and then explaining how and why they made the assumptions they did based on those findings. Anybody can follow their logic and come to their own conclusions based on the evidence. It is also very well written and even the story of the researchers travelling to Africa is quite interesting. I saw another reviewer bashing the authors for making wild conclusions based on minimal evidence. But that is the creative genius of these people. They're not making wild conclusions, but rather the most logical findings they can working with tiny pieces of bone millions of years old. For instance, at one point the authors discuss finding evidence of a specific type of disease in a pre homo-sapiens fossil. We know that the person (or hominid!) would have been partially crippled for some extended period of time, and certainly unable to gather food and defend against predators. Much like reading tree rings, the next layers of bone show that the infection or disease healed, and the being likely recovered and went on with life. The fact of the recovery leads to the author's conclusion that at this point in pre-history, the (person) had someone else as a caregiver, helping gather water and food and offering shelter, etc. This is important and offers glimpses into the mental and emotional development at that point in time. It seems a rather simple idea, but it's just one of numbers of brilliant ideas the authors proffer that don't seem like wild conclusions at all. The entire book is fascinating and quite honestly makes me wish I could go back in time and change professions.

One of a few excellent books about human origins.

This book is an example of excellent science writing. The picture of Homo Erectus ' everyday life immerges through the fascinating story of hard work done by a group of paleoanthropologists and other scientists. The book begins with the author's observation of how much different he is from a Turkana woman that he casually observes. The author then reflects back on the past investigations of the creature (Eugene Dubois, "Peking Man", etc.). The most interesting part of the book includes the description of the investigative processes that dig into the life of a creature that lived around 1.5 million years ago. I really liked the author's reasoning for the hypothesis that Homo Erectus possessed such human attributed quality as caring for the old and infirm. At the end of the book Mr. Walker returns to his original observation from another angle. This time he makes a reader feel that no matter how different other cultures in the world may be, we are still the same species, whereas Homo Erectus was a creature from a different world. It was a transitory creature of the process that made man from man-ape. This book really leaves the impression of a well thought up and very readable science writing, which will appeal to any reader interested in the origins of our species.

Recommended intro reading for those wanting to learn more...

Considering that it's a scientific book, it's VERY reader friendly. Even if you're not a technical non-fiction kind of person you'll find it captivating. It's a very good intro book to the the discipline, and I've read a few. The steps used to solve the puzzle of the Nariokitome Boy were so fascinating and the information is presented so clearly that anybody interested in learning more about evolution would have no trouble getting into this book.I took a class just recently with Milford Wolpoff at the University of Michigan, who's discussed in this book b/c of his controversial opinions. In terms of the information in this book and the information in the class, the book was up to date and very accurate.

Excelent

Although I'm not a specialist in this field and it is not written in my mother tongue the book took all my interest. It is absolutly faczinating. Nevertheless more technical information and less "old time" stories would be appreciated by me. I want to have more of these kind of books. Sorry for my poor English. Congrats Dr. G. Staengl