Francisco J. Ayala

Camilo J. Cela-Conde

Human Evolution provides a comprehensive overview of hominid evolution, synthesising data and approaches from fields as diverse as physical anthropology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, genetics, archaeology, psychology and philosophy. The book starts with chapters on evolution, population genetics, systematics, and the methods for constructing evolutionary trees. These are followed by a comprehensive review of the fossil history of human evolution since our divergence from the apes. Subsequent chapters cover more recent data, both fossil and molecular, relating to the evolution of modern humans. A final section describes the evolution of culture, language, art, and morality. The authors are leading experts in two complementary fields of scholarship, physical anthropology and molecular evolution. Throughout the book they successfully integrate their expertise in evolutionary theory, phylogenetics, genomics, cultural evolution, language, aesthetics and morality to produce a cutting edge textbook, copiously illustrated and with an extensive and up-to-date bibliography. It will be suitable for both senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking courses on human evolution within departments of biology, anthropology, psychology and philosophy. The book will also appeal to a more general audience seeking a readable, up-to-date and inclusive treatment of human origins and evolution.

Trails from the Past

Human Evolution

The discoveries of the last decade have brought about a completely revised understanding of human evolution due to the recent advances in genetics, palaeontology, ecology, archaeology, geography, and climate science. Written by two leading authorities in the fields of physical anthropology and molecular evolution, Processes in Human Evolution presents a reconsidered overview of hominid evolution, synthesising data and approaches from a range of inter-disciplinary fields. The authors pay particular attention to population migrations - since these are crucial in understanding the origin and dispersion of the different genera and species in each continent - and to the emergence of the lithic cultures and their impact on the evolution of cognitive capacities. Processes in Human Evolution is intended as a primary textbook for university courses on human evolution, and may also be used as supplementary reading in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. It is also suitable for a more general audience seeking a readable but up-to-date and inclusive treatment of human origins and evolution.

The journey from early hominins to Neanderthals and modern humans

Processes in Human Evolution

Penelope Lock

Our future was with the collective, but our survival was with the individual, and the paradox was killing us everyday. John Le Carre Smiley's People (1979) Since the time of Ancient Greek lyrical poetry, it has been one of man's dreams to explain his own conduct. This is the background to all his activities, from literature to speculative philosophy, including those odds and ends which, for want of a better name and more precise boundaries are called "human science". Over the past nine or ten years a new member has been added to this inquisitive family, one which, moreover, claims to be scientific to an extremely high degree: biology. This is in fact a recurrent event, since theses designed to introduce causal biological expla nations into the general field of human action had already been formulated on at least two occasions (in original Darwinism and the Neo-Darwinist synthesis). Ethologists and sociobiologists are today taking over and as suring us that they have the necessary tools to provide an answer to what perhaps seemed the most slippery subject in the hands of science: the social being. As might be expected, philosophers have reacted with some scepticism. Though human conduct is undoubtedly subject to determinants, the lion's share of responsi bility lies with society itself. At the time when biology was beginning to develop the theories necessary to overcome cre ationism, Karl Marx had already managed to construct highly sophisticated interpretive models of human social behaviour.

The Biological Causation of Morality

On Genes, Gods and Tyrants

Updated and rewritten version of first edition, published under title: Human evolution: trails from the past (Oxford biology) / Camilo J. Cela-Conde and Francisco J. Ayala. 2007.

Camilo J. Cela-Conde

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