Spring Bee Hiving Moon
Masters of the Planet. Started reading this book by Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist. A popular narrative about the evolution of the human species, Tattersall covers ground I learned well over 40 years ago when I majored in anthropology. Trouble is, the ground has shifted a lot since I learned about australopithecus and paranthropus robustus and all the other hominids.
(Logo Institute of Human Origins)
When I finished my study, the time line of human evolution ended about 3 million years ago. Now it stretches to more like 7 million. I learned bipedalism was a way to hunt for game and watch out for predators in the grasslands of the open savannah. Hmmm. Problem with that theory is that more recent finds show the first bipedalists hung out at the edge of forests and often went back into the forests. Lots of experiences like that for me.
The book did relight those old flames, the reason I added anthropology to my already in place philosophy major. Something about the human story, that long arc of time when we differentiated from the ancestor we held in common with the great apes. How it happened. What it means for us, now. All the different disciplines necessary to be a good anthropologist: ethnology, linguistics, archaeology, physical anthropology. It was just so much fun.
I’d recommend this book, but I think calling it a popularization is misleading. Tattersall is a good writer, clean prose, very logical, that’s all good, but the subject matter often veers into the apparently esoteric. If this stuff fascinates you, it’s a good way to catch up the last 40 years or so. And they have been amazing years in the project of learning our story.