Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins - Hardcover

Forget bipedalism. Forget language. Forget pair-bonding and cooperation. What distinguishes Homo sapiens from all other species is the need to explain. And what better explainer than paleoanthropologist Johanson, here joined by his filmmaker/scientist spouse and science writer and editor Edgar (Pacific Discovery magazine) in the text that's to accompany a three-part PBS series celebrating Nova's 25th anniversary. Much of the book reprises earlier accounts by Johanson, Leakey, and other popularizers, absent the acrimony that accompanied Johanson's landmark discovery of Lucy in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Uninformed readers would receive no idea here of the contention that surrounded the naming of Lucy as Australopithecus afarensis. Not that the authors bury the debates. They are forthright and fair in discussing the pros and cons of current theories: out-of-Africa origins vs. the ``Multiregional Model''; man the hunter vs. man the scavenger; Neanderthals as ancestors vs. Neanderthals as an interesting but failed experiment. New to the history are recent findings in Ethiopia and a fascinating account of the 40,000-year history of the aborigines of south-central Australia. The latter sparks a theory that the human ``revolution'' (that's ``evolution'' plus an ``r'') is due to the birth of art: the symbol-making and/or sacred activity that bespeaks a mind that can dream--and explain. The 175 visuals should be splendid. (Color halftones, illustrations, and maps throughout--not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Paleoanthropologist Johanson is the man who discovered the hominid skeleton known as Lucy and, in a highly publicized feud, broke ranks with the prestigious Leakeys. Here he describes his latest expeditions and the new answers to old questions they've inspired. He begins in Africa's fossil-rich Great Rift Valley, where ecological archaeologists have carefully observed the hunting and consumption patterns of lions and leopards, fieldwork that disputes the long-treasured belief that the first bipeds were noble hunters; evidence indicates that they were, instead, wily scavengers. Other stops on Johanson's evolutionary quest include the Dordogne region of France, home of some of the world's most astonishing cave paintings as well as the site of the much mythologized Neanderthals, hominids that Johanson claims became extinct and were therefore not our ancestors. After visiting some exciting digs in Israel, Johanson finally ends up in Australia, where rock paintings once again provide keys to the past in unexpected ways. In a moving conclusion, Johanson explains why he now believes that "art was at the center of the revolution from which fully modern humans emerged." Ancestors is the companion volume to a forthcoming PBS Nova series. Donna Seaman