Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth

by Chris Stringer

A leading researcher on human evolution proposes a new and controversial theory of how our species came to be

In this groundbreaking and engaging work of science, world-renowned paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer sets out a new theory of humanity's origin, challenging both the multiregionalists (who hold that modern humans developed from ancient ancestors in different parts of the world) and his own "out of Africa" theory, which maintains that humans emerged rapidly in one small part of Africa and then spread to replace all other humans within and outside the continent. Stringer's new theory, based on archeological and genetic evidence, holds that distinct humans coexisted and competed across the African continent―exchanging genes, tools, and behavioral strategies.

Stringer draws on analyses of old and new fossils from around the world, DNA studies of Neanderthals (using the full genome map) and other species, and recent archeological digs to unveil his new theory. He shows how the most sensational recent fossil findings fit with his model, and he questions previous concepts (including his own) of modernity and how it evolved.

Lone Survivors will be the definitive account of who and what we were, and will change perceptions about our origins and about what it means to be human.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, Evolution, Biology, Archaeology

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Professor Christopher Brian Stringer, Fellow of the Royal Society currently works at the National History Museum, London, as research leader in human origins.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It has often and confidently been asserted that man’s origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” ~Charles Darwin

2011 - A paleoanthropological “state of the union” address, encompassing some 7 million years of hominid evolution, but with considerable emphasis on the last 400,000 yrs (give or take a few millennia here and there).

Unfortunately for Darwin, the first major unearthing of an archaic human fossil (in this case, Homo erectus) didn’t occur until 1891, nine years after Darwin’s death. The discovery most certainly would have delighted him, but it could hardly have come as any big surprise. In the last 130+ years anthropologists, paleontologists, and sundry other enthusiasts have amassed a literal mountain of evidence supporting Darwin’s insightful hypothesis.

Dr. Chris Stringer gives a detailed overview of some of history’s most striking anthropological discoveries, starting with Eugène Dubois and his Pithecanthropus erectus, and aptly orders those discoveries into a semblance of logical progression and flow. Stringer’s presentation is, for the most part, methodical and academic, and I would be hesitant to recommend Lone Survivors to anyone with only a passing interest in human evolution. But, if your heroes and heroines have names like Leakey and Goodall and Wallace, and if your heartbeat quickens at the utterance of words like heidelbergensis and mitochondrial, then this is definitely your book.

*I would be remiss if I failed to note Stringer’s inclusion of my favorite WSU professor in his take on the prominence and utility of Neanderthal brow ridges:

“The eccentric anthropologist Grover Krantz even strapped on a replica brow ridge from a Homo erectus skull for six months to investigate its possible benefits, finding that it shaded his eyes from the sun, kept his long hair from his eyes when he was running, and also scared people out of their wits on dark nights.”

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Stringer's Lone Survivors: How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth comes along some seventeen years after his ground-breaking book African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity (Henry Holt, 1996). Stringer is one of the principal architects and proponents of the "Out-of-Africa" (OOA) hypothesis associated with the origin and dispersal of anatomically modern humans, i.e., Homo sapiens. According to Stringer and the OOA hypothesis, anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa nearly 200,000 years ago, and then 'something' happened about 50,000 years ago that resulted in essentially the relatively rapid spread of our species into much of Eurasia, eastern Asia, Indonesia and Australia, and into western Europe over a period of about 10,000 years! What is even more remarkable is that it now appears that there were other populations of archaic Homo species that we coexisted and/or competed with for a time, likely including Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, and the newly discovered little people of Flores, Homo floresiensis.

In just under 280 pages, Chris Stringer takes the reader through the history of our human origins with the fossil evidence. He synthesizes the latest advances in knowledge associated with paleoclimatology, geochronological dating methods, and geology and plate tectonics. Most importantly, Stringer spends much of the book talking about the evolution of human behavior (e.g., developing and utilizing technology, use of symbolism, developing survival and coping strategies, burial of dead, etc.). The evolutionary steps leading to Homo sapiens wasn't a given. It was really a very near run thing, and without the ability to rapidly adapt and respond to changing climate conditions and subsequent changed ecological conditions modern humans could quite likely have become extinct just as our close cousins, the Neanderthals, did about 30,000 years ago. For example, the massive supervolcanic eruption of Toba on the island of Java was very nearly a game-changer for all human species about 73,000 years ago. Finally, over the past decade or so, much of the OOA hypothesis has been validated and bolstered with the results of numerous studies and analyses of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA. In other words, we really and truly are all African.

While all of this discussion of fossils, paleoconditions, and genetics may sound a bit daunting, complicated, or even off-putting, Dr. Stringer does a sterling job of leading the reader--whether layperson or specialist--through the data and evidence with his well-written and entertaining prose. I've kind of come to realize that Stringer and his peers--paleoanthropologists--are really much akin to detectives hot on the trail to better understand when we became who we are, and how we became who we are, and perhaps even be able to answer why. This book will definitely help you get your arms (and brain) around the critical issues and questions associated with what makes us human

In closing, it is my opinion that Chris Stringer's incredibly thought-provoking Chapter 8 of the book, "Making A Modern Human" ought to be required reading by all of us. I don't know that I have underlined more passages or made more marginalia notes in a book since I left college in the mid-1980s. Reading this book, and Chapter 8 in particular, has stimulated a desire in me to chase down a lot of the technical references and journal articles that Dr. Stringer has provided in the book's extensive bibliography. This is a subject that profoundly fascinates me, and I am committed to educate myself and better understand my human origins, and have nothing but admiration and gratitude to Chris Stringer for inspiring me toward this end. All I can say is read Lone Survivors, it really is one of the most comprehensive overviews of the current state-of-knowledge associated with our human origins that I've read.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a little baffled by those who say that this book is for the scientific community, because it so blatantly isn’t — it explains how DNA and various methods of dating work, for example, which definitely wouldn’t be required by someone with even baseline knowledge in the scientific community. (Including me. There was no single technique this book covered which I didn’t comprehend, and only one or two I wasn’t aware of specifically.) I think it can be a little bit dry — especially when it explains things like DNA being in a helix or mtDNA being transmitted only through the female line… And the structure could definitely use some help. While I can see that he’s trying to interrelate his chapters by saying “see chapter x”, it means that sometimes the significance of something isn’t as apparent as he thinks.

Overall, though, I found it pretty readable and unexceptionable: Stringer freely admits that he’s been wrong at times about the course of human development, and that we don’t have all the answers now. He’s respectful of ideas he disagrees with, and covers some of them well, including the evidence which does point in that direction. I’m surprised by how little evidence of hybridisation he sees; I thought hybridisation with Neanderthals and Denisovans was more of a foregone conclusion than it appears from Stringer’s analysis.

It’s slightly more up to date than the Homo Britannicus book by the same author, too. Of course, it covers worldwide human history in general, so it’s less limited, but it also includes stuff I missed in reading that book, like some discussions of the Denisovan caves and the remains discovered there.

All in all, a reasonably good read, though naturally in general drift it supports the author’s hypothesis of a Recent African Origin for H. sapiens.

Originally posted here.

[rmn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly organized, dry, and not as easy as it should be to piece together.....and that was just the fossils (rim shot please).

The book tries to lay out current theories of early man and neanderthal man which should be fascinating material yet I found it painful trying to slog through it. The timelines of prehistoric man were not well structured and the book needed to be more streamlined (perhaps a neanderthal served as the editor).

Often the author would start describing a fossil, stop, and then write "but I'll get to that in later chapter." Umm, if you are going to mention it now and if it is relevant to what you are discussing because you are mentioning it now, then just go ahead and dive in to it, don't wait for several chapters later on when the relevance may not be as meaningful. The book just seems to zig when it should be zagging.

So feel free to save yourself the tedium of reading this and just know that the key takeaway is that current theories of early man and neanderthal man are largely predicated on guess work (as they have to be) and most importantly are still evolving (pun intended). So check back in a few years to read the latest iteration and hope it is better structured and better written than this book.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without polemics, Chris Stringer shows how humans evolved. For those who believe evolution is bunk--although he doesn't mention them ever--he shows how one species, over millions or thousands of years becomes another. There are no missing links. What happens--and is happening-- is that when a fetus is created, it may have mutations in one of its genes. If that mutation allows it to cope with living conditions better than those who don't have it, that gene will be passed onto its offspring, gradually spreading through the species. As the years go on, and mutiple mutations have occurred, the species changes so much, it becomes a new species. Think of how different a Shi Tzu is from a wolf. Dog breeding is accelerated evolution. The same thing happened to homo erectus, who gradually turned into homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and homo sapiens. Homo sapiens wasn't the end game, either. Our brains have shrunk 20% since early homo sapiens. However, for centuries, man made culture has lessened the effect of mutations, favorable or not.

Amidst all the theories being promulgated about the origins of humanity, this book is a relief. Stringer doesn't just cite those findings which support his theory, but presents those that don't. Moreover, he treats them respectfully, not tearing them down with glee. He'll politely say, "I think the data can be analyzed differently." Other times he says more evidence is needed for a definitive conclusion. You aren't presented with just his research, but with what's being done and said by just about everyone doing paleoanthropology today.

Interestingly, Stringer negates his own early belief in the idea that all humans spread out of Africa. He now believes that homo erectus and his descendents migrated out of Africa at different times, taking with them traits that had developed at that time. Most fascinating and convincing, is his use of DNA analyses to show, for instance, which hominids went to China. to The Middle East and Europe.

Stringer also discusses the importance of ritual to the evolution of early humans, as well as the jewelry they made and the pigments they decorated themselves with. The Neanderthals, who got to Europe earlier than other hominids, used black pigments as they were fair skinned and often red-haired. Their DNA tells us this. However, up to 11,000 years ago, hominids, including homo sapiens were dark skinned, so they used bright red pigments for self decoration. Again, DNA tells us that mutations for blue eyes and fair skin are recent, and occured in Europe.

Stringer also has convinced me we have DNA in us from Neanderthals and homo heidelbergensis. All in all a fascinating book

[Emma Sea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hoped from the title of the book this might be more about how H. sapiens came to outcompete other subspecies like H. neanderthalensis but 95% of the book is an argument for the Recent African Origin using the fossil record, and recent developments in DNA and mtDNA analysis, to disprove the multiregional theory. This was good stuff, but not what I was expecting.

Stringer's writing is dry and without the details that make science reading gripping. For example, on page 255 Stringer finally gives an anecdote about the discovery of the Broken Hill skull, and also how Stringer felt seeing it as a child. This is the first time in the book Stringer emotionally connected with me.

I didn't appreciate Stringer's framing of prehistoric gender:

"One possibility is that subsequent bands of men violently replaced the original males and then mated with their females . . . or new men holding a reproductive advantage over the original males - perhaps the development of a . . . powerful new religion with male shamans, who gained privileged sexual access to the women." (pp. 263-264)

It's a very retrogressive framing that presents women as passive recipients of cultural change, and men as the ones doing the changing.

4 for the content, 2 for the delivery.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came on my radar after reading Fossil Men . Whereas that book is a deep dive into one spectacular fossil’s story and the stories of those involved in its finding and analysis, Lone Survivors is more of an overview of human evolution entire. Chris Stringer focuses in particular on the origins of modern humans, i.e., Homo sapiens and our relationship with our cousins the Neanderthals. In so doing, he furnishes us with vital knowledge about human evolution and, perhaps more importantly, how paleoanthropologists discuss these theories of evolution. It’s a little dry and technical at times, but don’t let that dissuade if this is an area of interest.

The title is a good summary. Stringer wants to explore the prehistory that took us from being one of many hominid primate species to being the only members of the genus Homo left standing. He summarizes the various theories paleoanthropologists have explored over the past decades. These tend to fall into two broad schools: multiregionalism and “out of Africa.” The former suggests that modern humans evolved independently throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa from earlier hominid species (e.g., Homo erectus), eventually blending together into the genome we see today. Multiregionalism was the predominant theory for most of the 20th century (unfortunately driven quite often by racist assumptions that Africa represented an evolutionary backwater). The Out of Africa school suggests that modern humans evolved in Africa and then migrated (once or severally) into Europe and Asia to supplant the earlier hominids living there. This school has taken prominence over multiregionalism since the 1970s because of new fossil discoveries, more precise dating techniques, and other evidence. Stringer himself is a proponent of the Recent African Origin theory, which specifically suggests that modern humans arose from a single, relatively more recent exodus from Africa than earlier versions of Out of Africa proposed.

Although Stringer obviously wants to justify his support for Recent African Origin, I’d say the majority of this book actually just summarizes how paleoanthropologists investigate the evolution of humanity. Each chapter discusses different techniques and issues. Stringer describes various ways of dating artifacts and fossils. He spends quite a bit of time talking about genetics, particularly because this is key in trying to determine if modern humans mixed significantly with Neanderthals (bow chicka wow wow). He throws in some possible climatic/environmental explanations for the decline of Neanderthals and subsequent spread of modern humans across the world.

If this all sounds like paleoanthropologists still aren’t sure, I got that impression too. I think it’s the impression Stringer wants us to have. I respect this. Sometimes scientists get so attached to their theories they become too eager to explain the advantages their theory has over the competition to the point where they don’t quite come out and say, “My theory is fact” but it can feel pretty close. Stringer very helpfully shares his personal evolution of thinking on this subject, from his time as a grad student throughout the more recent decades and advancements in technologies.

Indeed, as informative as this book is about evolution, it is most illuminating as a book about the scientific method. Many people who reject evolution decry it as “only a theory.” Which isn’t really accurate—as Stringer explains, evolution is actually many theories, some of which are competing. If an anti-evolutionist claims that scientists don’t have it all figured out, they’re right! But that doesn’t matter. Science isn’t about finding absolute truth; it’s about hypothesizing and then gathering as much evidence as possible to test that hypothesis. Stringer himself encapsulates this by illustrating the vacillation between multiregionalism and Out of Africa as a pendulum that has swung back and forth throughout the 20th century; Recent African Origin is simply a more extreme movement of the pendulum in the Out of Africa direction. In the case of evolution, gathering evidence can be really difficult because the fossil record is so spotty. I empathize a lot with these scientists who work hard to infer as much as possible from the data they do have—even if they don’t always get it right.

I appreciate Stringer’s attention to detail. Some of his language strikes me as outdated even for a book from 2012 (for example use of the label “Orientals”). He delves into ideas of evolutionary psychology and makes statements about what we might infer of the behaviour of modern humans based on ideas of gender roles extrapolated from fossil anatomy. I’m always loath to tar any entire discipline with a single brush, but evolutionary psychology always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

As I previous said, this book is very detailed and somewhat technical. It perches on the edge of what I would all a popular science book. I don’t think this is an academic book, however—this is meant for laypeople but for laypeople who have serious interest in science. Stringer is very clearly a scientist rather than a science communicator, and it shows.

I’m not sure I’ll pick up any of his other books, but I’m happy to have read this one and learned more about some of the theories (as of 2012) of how modern humans arose!

Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be a palaeoanthropologist.

Or at least, I did for a good half-hour after finishing this book, before I remembered that I have trouble identifying differences between bones in diagrams, even with little pointing arrows added, so my chances of being useful with the real thing are pretty thin. But Chris Stringer's book was just so good, it left me wanting to plunge further into this world of evidence and ambiguity, of scientific collaboration and debate, of furthering our understanding about how we came to be.

I have a confession to make - when deciding which books to read, I always read the negative reviews first. When non-fiction books (or historical fiction ones) are described as being "dry" or "too detailed", I'm in. This book, which is certainly full of caveats, alternate explanations, and cross-referencing is a good example of why.

The earlier chapters can be hard going, as Stringer lays the basis of what we know (not much); what what scientists agree on what can be extrapolated (a fair bit more); and what various theories are contesting the rest of the vast space of the unknown. As the books warms up in the later chapters however, Stringer pulls this together into a discussion about what various conclusions could be drawn, and what those are that he has. He puts across his own theories without ignoring others, and empowers the reader to understand various scenarios. It brings the reader into science, not just into a cheer squad for a particular theorist.

One of my pet hates is people (and I've been one) who read a single popular science book and then wander around citing what are in fact highly contested specific conclusions as if this is proven fact.(Please note, I am not talking about very broad scientific consensus conclusions such as "the world's climate is changing due to human activity" or "species evolve via natural selection into other species" here, obviously, more like "the velicoraptor had feathers" or "Neanderthals couldn't speak"). It does more harm to the cause of science than good, as the belief in black and white right and wrong understandings obscures more than it reveals.

It's not the fault of the readers as much as the writers - those who use writing persuasively to increase the consensus around their own work, or that of those they follow. No-one could accuse Stringer's book of this. One of the negative-ish reviews here suggest that you could save time by just knowing that we don't know very much about early human origins. That's true, but only if you are prepared to eschew a window into how we do learn things - by formulating and discarding different theories, by researching thousands of small questions (how thick is this skull?) and using them as building blocks, by inching DNA test by radiocarbon dating, towards an ever narrowing set of possibilities.

This review is now very long and I haven't said much about y'know, the actual book. So here goes: Stringer is a leading and opinionated palaeoanthropologist. He covers here the current state of research - using bone analysis, DNA tests, dating techniques and archaeology to piece together the story of what emerged when. He covers the contradictory nature of much of that evidence, including some which has contradicted his own previous thoughts, and posits a theory to explain what we know. he covers extensively what other theories are also in the space. He has a factual and precise style, but he writes with passion and love for the subject matter.

Stringer's final chapter, in which he discusses both the current-day relevance; the probable conclusions, and the importance of the scientific method itself is simply a masterpiece of scientific writing. I thought I wasn't going to find a book worth reading in this fast-moving area of research, just given how fast everything goes out of date. I'm really glad i decided to give this one a try.

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't necessarily chock full of information that I hadn't otherwise encountered in other sources I've read, collated, checked out over the years, but it wrapped it all up nicely in an entertaining and accessible fashion.

If I do have a critique, it's that I don't really feel like the subtitle was truly answered. It was mostly, Recent Origin+Hybridization is maybe probably kind of maybe possibly how maybe we came to probably be maybe the only Humans on Earth, maybe. I know science is never supposed to be a definite, but then the subtitle should be worded different.

I also feel like the author wanted to state that Homo sapiens probably wiped out Neandertal through violence and genocide, but for some reason was reluctant to actually pull that trigger, as it were.

[Xavier Patiño · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”

These are the words that adorn French artist Paul Gaugin’s famous painting, and these are questions I’m sure we all have pondered at some time. Where did we originate from? Did other species of humans exist, and if so, when and where?

Thanks to sheer luck, fossilized remains of our ancestors have survived that offer a hazy glimpse into our past. We have a plethora of bones – skulls, finger bones, femurs, rib cages, pelvises – that reveal bipedal species once existed. Archeologists have also uncovered ancient tools, like sharpened animal bones and flint stone used for hunting or carving up meat. Red ocher has been discovered, perhaps used as body paint or for artistic reasons. There are drawings on cave walls that have been found in Spain and France. Seashells with string holes have been found too, possibly ancient jewelry. Neanderthals may also have buried their dead, used ocher and jewelry, and this shows that they were not as stupid and brutish as paleoanthropologists once believed.

The date for the African exodus is also obscure. We don’t have an exact timeframe when modern humans began to migrate and settle Europe and Asia. How about homo heidelbergensis or the Denisovans, other species whose remains have been found. Did homo sapiens live among them, or the Neanderthals? Did we wipe them out through war, or were we better at hunting and gathering resources? As you can see, there are still many unanswered questions.

I found the section on forensic archeology fascinating. Trying to figure out how someone died thousands of years ago is quite the challenge, damn near impossible really. Was the broken rib from a fall or was it a violent attack with a spear? Perhaps that gaping hole on the top of a skull came from a murderous blow.

Stringer’s writing could be dry and technical at times, although this isn’t too common and most of the work is easily readable. This is the first book I’ve read that focuses on early human history, so I can’t compare it with other works, but this was great if you’re interested in the history of early hominins.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where does our species come from? Who were our ancestors?

These are enduring human questions, and we are piecing the answers together out of bits of bone and stone tools and recovered DNA. Chris Stringer is one of the world's leading paleoanthropologists, and one of the leading proponents of the "Out of Africa" theory, proposing a recent African origin for Homo sapiens in eastern or southern Africa, who then expanded out of Africa, replacing the archaic humans, including Neanderthals, in the rest of Eurasia.

Lone Survivors is an examination of the major breakthroughs of the last thirty years, with new evidence and new kinds of evidence, including the advances in recovering and analyzing DNA from ancient fossils. That evidence has, in fascinating ways, both reinforced the basic "recent African origin" hypothesis, and raised serious challenges to the idea that this origin happened in one, highly localized place.

We may have made the leap to modernity in Africa precisely because Africa is a huge and diverse continent. When one population made the transition to complex modern behavior, and the local conditions turned against them, they may have died out or moved on or slipped back to premodern levels.

But this was in Africa, and there was someplace to move on to where the environment would support the population density needed for modernity. And if the first group didn't migrate to a more promising area, there were other populations that could exploit them. Because there was a wide enough range of environments, and enough somewhat separated populations of early modern humans, eventually, that critical mass was reached, modern human behavior was here to stay, and modern humans spread out from Africa.

That's the simple summary. This is a complex and fascinating story, including not just modern and extinct human species, but the "archaic" humans whose genes are still with us in our own DNA, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Stringer avoids polemics, does not waste time on science deniers, and points out his own errors and mistakes over the years as readily as he does others'. His writing is clear, understandable, and informative.

There is also discussion of the most newly-discovered, and oddest, member of Genus Homo, Homo floresiensis, a.k.a. the Hobbits of the island of Flores.

Recommended.

I bought this book.

[L]

Stringer tells the story of research into human evolution as a scientific adventure, with competing theories, new dating techniques turning "firm" knowledge on it's head, and more. One of my favorite lines so far is in the second chapter, in a discussion of the impact of new techniques on two competing theories--"We were both wrong!" Instead of the usual academic self-justification along the lines of "based on the best methods at the time . . ., blah blah blah" Stringer shares with the reader the excitement that comes with watching what everyone, including himself, "knew" being swept away by new methods.

The repeated use of the term "Orientals" is distressing. I don't know if this is disciplinary, a British thing, political, or what, but it is jarring.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but found the organization to be all over the place. Lots of interesting tidbits on Neanderthals and theories for why they died off, but like another reader, I was irritated by the constant promises to explain very important points later in the book. The diagrams included did little to help with the confusion. One of them is a series of several points on a map with the names of species and dig names intermixed, no indication of which species was discovered at which site. Maybe I just need to build a memory cave, but keeping track of it all was a wee bit daunting.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lucid and lively overview of paleoanthropology today written by a leading researcher. It lays out the finds and interpretations and then gives the author's evaluation, which is Recent African Origin. At the same time, he is not dogmatic, emphasizing that the evidence is very imcomplete and that interpretations are bound to change in the future. An enjoyable read.

[Riversue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stringer does his usual erudite best on the topic of human evolution. I would wish for more.

[Wendelle]

A fascinating account of state-of-the-art knowledge on the topic of human evolution, focusing especially on the enduring question of the extinction of the Neanderthals, by a leading paleoanthropologist. The author's stated motivation is to compile in a book format that's accessible for lay readers, the preeminent findings from technical reports and academic publications about the frontier of paleoanthropological research, and he succeeds in creating a book that is rich in both detail and the sense of scientific adventure. The book narrates in great detail the tools, techniques and timelines used by paleoanthropologists in their quest to unravel our origins. It explains in great detail the emergence of aids such as radiometric dating, computer tomography, reolithography, X-ray scanning, cave diving and speleology, scanning and digitization, examination of abrasion in teeth, carbon and nitrogen isotope dating, collagen residue examination, examination of remains and bones of prey in noteworthy human and Neanderthal residence areas, and of course, the time-tested physical examination of the size and shapes of remnant skulls and jaws. The author is not spare or stingy in sharing the nitty-gritty details of the pursuit of research in this field.

These techniques lead the author to draw the conclusion that the hypothesis of Recent African Origin (RAO) is the most likely candidate for our origins, that Homo heidelbergensis had an evolutionary split to Neanderthals around 300-400 thousand years ago; that modern humans evolved from the African line 130 thousand years ago; humans ported over to the Middle East and Israeli area 100 000 years ago, and migrated to Australia by 60 thousand years ago; entered Europe 35 000 years ago and rapidly radiated to construct Stone Age tools by about 50 thousand years ago.

The book also tries to trace the germination of characteristics that are unique to humans, such as religion and culture. Some food for thoughts from paleoanthropologists on these portals of the human imagination include the following:
""Robert Bigelow argued that warfare went back to the beginnings of humanity and had shaped our evolution. Coping with conflict from other human groups encouraged individual intelligence and cunning, and group cooperation and cohesion, and thus fueled social evolution, language, and the growth of the brain.""
""Only humans have a sense of sin-- an infraction not against a person but against a divinely sanctioned law. The law in question may relate to hurting another or infringing a religiously enforced code of behavior.""
""From Darwin: a tribe may include many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over other tribes, and this would be natural selection.""
""Selection acts on genes or individuals, not populations, and while altruism can evolve, it is only favored in genetically closely related groups. Mathematical tests showed that group selection would fail when there was even a small amount of movement between groups or when cheaters exploited the benevolence of others to propagate their own genes."
"Robin Dunbar and Leslie Aiello argued that human language perhaps first developed through gossip, as a supplement to social grooming.""

[Richard Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

A million years ago, our Homo erectus ancestors consisted of maybe 20,000 breeding individuals, according to wizards who speculate on the hidden secrets of DNA. This is similar to the current population of chimpanzees or gorillas. The ancestors lived in scattered pockets of Africa, at a time when Earth was a paradise of abundant life. From these ancient roots, a number of hominid species evolved, but only Homo sapiens still survives, at seven-point-something billion and growing. The chimps and gorillas continue to live in a manner similar to their ancestors of a million years ago. What happened to us?

Chris Stringer is one of the venerable grandfathers in the study of human evolution. He’s read the papers, attended the conferences, examined the skulls, and had a ringside seat at the noisy catfights. This field of knowledge is far from finished. New specimens continue to be found, and new technology provides deeper insights. Stringer’s book, Lone Survivors, discusses some primary issues, and the scholarly disputes surrounding them, as they stood in 2012. He does a pretty good job of providing an overview to a huge and complex subject, but readers with little background are advised to wear life preservers.

I learned a lot about Neanderthals. They survived 400,000 years on a climate change roller coaster. They hung out with hippos in warm forests near Rome, and they chased wooly mammoths on frigid treeless tundra. They had short, stocky bodies that were good for preserving heat, but which required more calories. Males and females were about the same size, suggesting little division of labor, everyone joined in the hunt.

The Neanderthal diet majored in the flesh of large game. Readers who have hunted hippos with wooden thrusting spears know that his is very dangerous. One site in Croatia contained the remains of 75 Neanderthals, and none were older than 35. In their clans, there were probably many orphans and few grandparents. The scarcity of elders, and the small size of their groups, sharply restricted the flow of cultural information from one generation to the next, and from clan to clan.

Some say that Neanderthals lacked shoes and close-fitting clothing. When Darwin visited chilly Tierra del Fuego, at the bottom of South America, he was shocked to see natives wearing little or no clothing and sleeping naked in the open. Stringer noted that modern Europeans seem to be poorly adapted to the cold, physiologically.

Cro-Magnons were the Homo sapiens that moved into Europe maybe 45,000 years ago. European Neanderthals disappeared around 30,000 years ago. Neanderthals went extinct in the Middle East, Siberia, Gibraltar, and Britain at different times, probably for different reasons. This was an era of frequent climate zigzags. When temperatures plummeted, habitable territories shrank, and fewer folks could be fed.

Cro-Magnons apparently had footwear and warm, fitted clothing. They had better tools for hunting, so their diet was more diverse and dependable. They were able to extract more nutrients from an ecosystem, so they could survive in places where Neanderthals could not. They lived in larger groups, and more of them survived to middle age or old age, so more cultural information could be passed to the young.

Large populations are better at preserving cultural knowledge, acquiring new information from outsiders, and generating innovations. More busy minds interact, exchange ideas, compete, and imagine cool ways for living even farther out of balance. Witness the city of Los Angeles, where 14 million animals with hunter-gatherer DNA are temporarily able to survive because of a highly complex system of innovative technology. Note that this innovation has no relationship to foresight or wisdom. Time is running out on Los Angeles.

On the other hand, less innovation occurs in smaller simpler groups, and that’s often a blessing. Innovators can be dangerous loose cannons, introducing risky new ideas that result in horrid unintended consequences — like cell phones, automobiles, or agriculture. Nothing is more precious than a stable, sustainable, time-proven way of living, where the secret to success is simply imitating your ancestors, conforming to the norm, and enjoying life, like the chimps and gorillas do.

When the planet heated up 14,000 years ago, rising sea levels submerged the land link between Australia and Tasmania, terminating the exchange of people, ideas, and gadgets. Tasmania’s traditional way of life was also squeezed as the warmer climate spurred the expansion of heavy forest. The natives experienced a cultural meltdown. “Tasmanians appear to have led an increasingly simplified life, forgoing apparently valuable skills and technologies, such as bone and hafted tools, nets and spears used to catch fish and small game, spear throwers and boomerangs, and anything but the simplest of skin clothing.”

Will climate change have a similar effect on industrial civilization in the coming decades? Will it slash food production, sharply reduce population, eliminate travel between regions, pull the plug on modern technology, and erase lots of obsolete and unsustainable cultural information? Could collapse have a silver lining?

Climate change can derail any culture, and drive species to extinction. It can also produce beneficial conditions, like the unusually favorable climate of the last 10,000 years. Natural selection rewards species that can adapt to change, and it deletes those that fail. There is another important variable that is often overlooked — genetic drift — mutations that happen all the time when slight boo-boos occur during cell division. These tiny defects can provide a barrel of surprises.

We are repeatedly taught that humans are nature’s flawless masterpiece, the glorious conclusion of three billion years of evolution. But, if Big Mama Nature had experienced slightly different moods over the eons, we might be Neanderthals or Denisovans today (or maybe slime mold). Climate change and genetic drift are purely random. The fact that Homo sapiens is the lone survivor among the hominid species is not absolute proof of superiority, but it does indicate a temporary streak of good luck.

Homo heidelbergensis was an ancestor that lived 500,000 years ago. They had brains ranging in size from 1100 to 1400 cc (modern brains average 1350 cc). The average Neanderthal brain was 1600 cc — much bigger than ours. Stringer noted that our brains today are ten percent smaller than our Homo sapiens ancestors of 20,000 years ago. Is there a message here?

Without words, chimps and gorillas can express contentment, affection, irritation, excitement. But without complex language, they are more trapped within themselves. Language took us “into new and shared worlds that were unknown to our ancestors.” We can talk about the here and now, the past, the future, abstract concepts, feelings, imaginary worlds, and so on.

Later, innovative geniuses invented the use of symbols. Now we can convert words into patterns of squiggly lines, for example: “computer.” Writing enables us to communicate with folks in faraway places. I can read words written by Julius Caesar, and so might the generations yet-to-be-born, in theory. Industrial civilization cannot exist without symbols — numbers, graphs, pictures, status symbols. Progress abounds with powerful and dangerous juju.

Stringer is a mild mannered humanist. And so, he portrays the human journey as one of admirable advancement (the chimps fall down laughing). On the last page, he confesses a profound doubt. “Sometimes the difference between failure and success in evolution is a narrow one, and we are certainly on a knife edge now as we confront an overpopulated planet and the prospect of global climate change on a scale that humans have never faced before. Let’s hope our species is up to the challenge.”

[Linda Bakker-Zwakhals · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Not completely finished but read the chapters I wanted to read. Very interesting but sometimes a little dry.

[Antti Värtö · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stringer tells the story of human evolution: how Homo sapiens evolved and came to dominate the Earth.

Or no: actually he doesn't tell any kind of story at all. Stringer describes different findings, tells how different researchers have interpreted them, but declines to weave a coherent narrative out of them. I thought I understood the basic principles of human evolution before I read this book, but now I'm definitely more confused than before.

This is, of course, a sign of a good book. Stringer revealed how my "understanding" had been an illusion, and replaces that illusory clarity with a more realistic bewilderment. So, did the early humans leave Africa once, twice, or many times, did Homo sapiens evolve only once, or many times, and did the early humans cross-breed with neanderthals and denisovans? All of these questions are still pretty uncertain, according to Stringer.

One thing is certain, though: human evolution wasn't a straight line from "primitive" forms to more "advanced" forms. Humans arent Pokemon: there were dead ends, different forms coexisting at the same time and most likely crossbreeding. Instead of a straight line, the human family tree is a tangled thing.

[Steve Van Slyke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a handful of books on paleoanthropology over the years, and of the sciences that I enjoy following, this one seems to have the most volatility in terms of controversies, debates and new discoveries, which makes it fun to track. One of the oft-made comments about paleoanthropologists is that there are more of them than there are of the bones and skulls they study.

As the book's title suggests, the author, Chris Stringer, focuses on the latter stages of human evolution, picking up the story shortly before the departure of the first members of the genus Homo from Africa. If you're more interested in the whole span of human development, beginning with our separation form chimpanzees and bonobos 6-7 million years ago, you might first want to read Masters of the Planet.

Having said that, Stringer makes a thorough and compelling argument that modern humans are, for the most part, descendants of culturally advanced band of people that left Africa 50 to 60 thousand years ago and gradually replaced more ancient Homo ancestors including the Neanderthals in Europe and Homo Erectus and the recently discovered Denisovans of Siberia and SE Asia. However—he points out—recent genetic studies indicate that some moderns still contain Neanderthal and Denisovan genes in their genomes. Something happened in Africa just prior to this time that resulted in the so-called Great Leap Forward. Stringer offers a view that I personally agree with: that human population densities in Africa reached a critical point where there began to be an exchange of culture, technology and knowledge that created a multiplier effect, ramping up the rate of sophistication in middle to late stone age tool making. With these advanced tools/weapons modern humans were, for the first time able to enter Europe and out-compete the Neanderthals, eventually forcing them into a corner at Gibraltar where they finally disappeared from the record. Similarly, these new modern humans spread east and displaced their Homo Erectus and Denisovan cousins, apparently inter-breeding with them in limited instances.

I found it interesting that Stringer is somewhere in the middle between the “lumpers” and the “dividers”. The first want us to believe that there is really only one species of Homo; i.e., Sapiens, and that archaic members of that group separately evolved into modern humans at various points on the planet, explaining the racial variations we see today. The “dividers” on the other hand, see a new species with almost every fossil that turns up. Springer's view includes Erectus. Heidelbergensis, and Neanderthalensis, but he does not differentiate between Erectus and, for example, Ergaster, as others do. As I said in the beginning, this is a rather volatile discipline with new views coming forward and being accepted or rejected.

There were many interesting facts discussed in the book including: the human brain has actually shrunk a bit in average size over the last 20,000 years; Neanderthal brains averaged larger in size than modern humans; the modern human brain is about as big as it can get without medical intervention at birth due to the limits of the size the the birth canal; and humans are the only species whose skulls are limited in this way.

This is an excellent book if you wish to understand the most accepted current view of how we came to be the lone surviors.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Както знаете (а може би не), Homo Sapiens далеч не е бил първият човек, населявал планетата ни - имало е най-различни други видове човеци, като австралопитеци, кроманьонци, неандерталци, денисованци и т.н. Най-интересното обаче е, че както изглежда, не всички те са били наши (т.е. на Homo Sapiens) предци, или поне не преки.

Различните видове хора (или хоминиди по-скоро), са различни разклонения на родословното ни дърво, като някои от тях са наши прародители, но други са измрели (или са били изместени/избити) от някой от другите видове хора. Също така е имало и кръстосване на гени (т.е. междувидов секс, плодовете на който са оцелявали) и така съвременните хора имат в себе си между 1 и 5% гени от неандерталци, макар неандерталците да са били съвсем различен вид хоминиди, които са измрели/били са изместени от нахлуващите от Африка Homo Sapiens.

Всъщност, налага се да кажа, че когато говорим за стотици хиляди, а дори и милиони години, както и когато археологическите находки понякога се състоят само от мънички костни или черепни фрагменти, два зъба, част от челюст и подобни, точността и достоверността на научните теории и твърдения е твърде относителна - макар в това в последните години изключително много да помагат ДНК изследванията.

Авторът на книгата се е заел да ни запознае както с историята, така и с последните теории на науката за произхода на човека, нейните методи, академични спорове и какво ли още не. За съжаление не му се е получило много, защото стилът му е неясен и разпилян, набляга повече на методиката на изследвания и историческите академични спорове, отколкото на теориите с най-много доказателства и изобщо след прочитането на книгата на човек не му става много по-ясно най-важното: какви са били различните видове хора които са живели на Земята, кои от тях и как са съжителствали един с друг, и с предците на Homo Sapiens.

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I saw the author, Chris Stringer, on the Colbert Report. He was personable and engaging. It made me think this book would be very accessible to the layman. It isn't. It is very dry. I think the author thinks he has dumbed this down for the general populace but no. The only reason I got a good bit out of it was I knew something about all those early hominids, and how scientists had connected them in the past.

Stringer kept throwing around abbreviations of things that the majority of people wouldn't know. Then there were utterly useless graphs and charts. They showed nothing. Literally nothing.

I did find some of it interesting. That there might have been more than one exodus out of Africa. That maybe there wasn't a direct lineage to some of these hominids. That maybe there was some intermingling between several of the species.

But overall this could have been a much better book. I'm sure that scientists in the field thought it was too simplified, and the layman gave up after the first chapter.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm torn between a two or three star rating for this book.

Chris Stringer makes it known in the first few pages that he wishes to write a book that is illuminating to both the layperson as well as the expert. In attempting to please both crowds, however, he succeeds in pleasing neither. The text sorely misses the easy to understand explanations that still contain high level material that books such as How to Clone a Mammoth touch upon, as well as the easier to approach tone that Bill Bryson, Beth Shapiro, and others have so easily mastered. What is found instead is a fairly dry, informative, and slightly opaque book that is full of abbreviations where none are needed. The Out of Africa hypothesis may be more accurately called the Recent African Origin hypothesis - but does it need to be referred to as RAO? These aren't things like CRISPR which benefits from abbreviation, after all...

Anyway, this book was fascinating. I learned a lot about other extinct hominids, the debate between RAO and Multiregionalists and the eventual current thought that RAO + Assimilation is likely the current best knowledge. I was a bit perplexed by the lack of attention to various specimens out of Asia, and the reluctance to speculate further on Denisovans and Hobbits. The Flores section in particular was lacking, but that may simply be due to the lack of new information in that area. I was also mildly perplexed by how little attention was paid to possible mating between hominids and gorillas (?!) I'd never heard of that being a predominant theory on where public lice came from, but one sentence was all that was given to it.

This book is highly technical, and very dense. I love the subject, but I had difficulty with this book. Nevertheless, I look forward to reading more on the subject and continuing to challenge myself with each new text I come upon. Learning is never a bad thing, after all... And this book was definitely informative, challenging, and a higher level text on the topic than I think I've ever yet read.

[David Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lone Survivors was a very fun (for me at least :)) dive into the nerdy and murky depths of the study of why homo sapiens are the last of our genus left. Stringer digs into everything from the mechanics of radio carbon dating, to the specific (and shockingly sparse) fossils that make up what we know about early competitors to homo sapiens, to the various theories about where the first humans originated from. I was surprised at how nuanced and hotly debated some of these things still are. For example, the debate apparently still rages about how, when and how often humans came out of Africa to fill the various continents. Overall this feels like a strong foundation for navigating academic research on the topic.

[Clifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because it seemed at least partially tangential to my interest in the origins of human language, and indeed the author does touch on that subject. I found fascinating the study of fossils from various sites around the world attempting to date and identify them by species. The author has a lot of data to work with and specimens from an immense range of time, making the whole proposition somewhat confusing. His conclusions validating the Recent African Origin theory of Homo Sapiens are very interesting, but I do wish we knew more about, especially, the Neanderthals.

[Pearson Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Lone Survivors
Author: Chris Stringer
Genre: Nonfiction, Paleoanthropology
Length: 321 pages
Reviewer: Pearson Moore
Rating: 5 stars

Summary
The creator and primary spokesperson for the Recent African Origin Theory presents a well-supported discussion of his view of human evolution concentrating on the modern Homo era from about 40,000 years BP.

From the Publisher
A leading researcher on human evolution proposes a new and controversial theory of how our species came to be.

In this groundbreaking and engaging work of science, world-renowned paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer sets out a new theory of humanity's origin, challenging both the multiregionalists (who hold that modern humans developed from ancient ancestors in different parts of the world) and his own "out of Africa" theory, which maintains that humans emerged rapidly in one small part of Africa and then spread to replace all other humans within and outside the continent. Stringer's new theory, based on archeological and genetic evidence, holds that distinct humans coexisted and competed across the African continent—exchanging genes, tools, and behavioral strategies.

Stringer draws on analyses of old and new fossils from around the world, DNA studies of Neanderthals (using the full genome map) and other species, and recent archeological digs to unveil his new theory. He shows how the most sensational recent fossil findings fit with his model, and he questions previous concepts (including his own) of modernity and how it evolved.

Lone Survivors will be the definitive account of who and what we were, and will change perceptions about our origins and about what it means to be human.

Review
This is exactly the in-depth presentation and evidence-based debate I have been hoping to find in non-technical paleoanthropological works by leaders in the field. Kudos to Professor Stringer for laying out his vision of late human evolution in such an accessible and engaging manner.

There is so much to like about this book. Of the five linear feet of shelf space I have given over to books and texts on anthropology, this one has become my favorite by far. The presentation of data is balanced, informative, and humble in its slow, methodical development of Stringer's now-modified "Mostly Out of Africa" Theory of human evolution and migration. One might expect the originator of a major scientific theory to defend his position tooth and nail. Instead, Stringer's presentation seems predicated on an almost completely open mind. His modification of the Recent African Origin (RAO) Theory to include elements of multiregionalist interpretation is nothing short of breathtaking to anyone familiar with the long and sometimes heated debate over human origins.

This book may not be for everyone. In particular, non-scientists may find Stringer's relentless support of every statement daunting. Many reviewers penalized him on precisely this point. From my point of view, though, the detailed and balanced presentation of data, accompanied by authority-level interpretation and debate, was precisely the rich fare I seek in books of this type. But my perspective is that of a highly trained chemist; I recognize that readers not accustomed to the rigors of scientific inquiry may find Stringer's discussion tedious and perhaps overwhelming. On the other hand, readers not afraid of a deep, mature discussion of human origins will find in Professor Stringer's work a fascinating and thought provoking treatise.

Stringer spent much of the book analyzing evidence for Neanderthal culture and genetic contribution to modern Homo sapiens. I paid close attention, for it is my intention to apply this information to my own work (I am a novelist). I have read widely in studies of Neanderthal tools, culture, and art. I have at least heard of every bit of evidence presented, and I have my own ideas about its significance, sometimes at odds with Dr. Stringer's view. Nevertheless, I found the author's informal but vigorous style more than engaging.

Overall
This is an excellent, balanced development of the most recent permutation of the RAO Theory. Readers preferring a less rigorous explanation of human evolution may wish to read a coffee table book, such as Douglas Palmer's "Origins," G. J. Sawyer's "The Last Human," or Alice Roberts' "Evolution."

Rating: 5 Stars

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN ARGUMENT THAT AFRICA WAS THE ORIGINAL SITE OF “MODERN” HUMAN TRAITS

Paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer wrote in the Introduction of this 2011 book, “While it is generally agreed that Africa was the homeland of our earliest human ancestors, a fierce debate continues about whether it was also the ultimate place of origin of our own species, and of everything that we consider typical of our species, such as language, art, and complex technology… the debate has grown to encompass archaeological and genetic data… Yet much of the new data … are buried in … specialist journals and books, so it is difficult for a general readership, however, informed, to get an accessible overview. In this book I want to try and provide a comprehensive … account of the origin of our species.”

He explains, “As more fossil and, particularly, genetic data emerged to support a recent African origin, what we can term the classic RAO [Recent African Origin] model was developed by a number of researchers, including me… this had become the dominant view… the classic RAO model argued for an African origin of two human species---Homo erectus and Homo sapiens---and perhaps also of Homo heildelbergensis between them… Having evolved from something like the earlier species Homo habilis in African nearly 2 million years ago, Homo erectus dispersed from Africa about 1.7 Ma, in the event commonly known as ‘Out of Africa.’…The origin of modern Homo sapiens must have been a relatively recent and restricted one in Africa… and it may have been quite rapid, in one small favored area such as East Africa… Such progress finally allowed the moderns to spread into Europe, where… they quickly took on and replaced the Neanderthals through their superior technology and adaptations.” (Pg. 26-27)

He notes, “If there were, in fact, different human species in the past, could they have interbred? In my view, RAO has never precluded interbreeding between modern and archaic people during the dispersal phase of modern humans from Africa. This is undoubtedly on of the main areas of confusion in studies of modern human origins: how to recognize species in the fossil record, and what this signifies.” (Pg. 33)

He acknowledges, “This brings us back to one of the favored explanations for the extinction of people like the Neanderthals: behavior. I am one of those who have often invoked the behavioral superiority of modern humans over other human species as the main reason for our success and their failure, but reconstructing such behavior from the archaeological record, let alone deciding who is superior to whom, is no easy matter.” (Pg. 57-58)

He suggests, “I think that early humans were probably as capable of love and hate, and tenderness and violence, as we are, and even chimpanzee bands have been observed in violent and often fatal territorial ‘battles’ with other troops. Such behavior is almost certainly part of our evolutionary history too.” (Pg. 90) Later, he adds, “some scientists believe… that genetic changes unique to modern humans also qualitatively rewired our brains about 50,000 years ago, making us behaviorally modern at a stroke. If that was so, then despite their large brains, Neanderthals were fundamentally unlike us in their lack of human behavior, because they followed a separate evolutionary trajectory. That same lack would have applied to the modern humans who occupied Africa before 50,000 years ago, because they lived before the mutations occurred that made us fully modern.” (Pg. 118)

He observes, “For some, religious beliefs are a pathology… Others argue that spiritual beliefs evolved because they were useful to those who possessed them, and endowed survival on those individuals and their close relatives… human feelings such as depression, pessimism and anxiety are handicaps to health and longevity, so religious beliefs that alleviated these ‘symptoms’ could certainly have been favored. Humans od seem to be preprogrammed for religious beliefs… however irrational they may seem to be no nonbelievers… If that was true in the past, selection would have favored those with religious beliefs, as long as the benefits outweighed the costs.” (Pg. 139)

He states, “humans undoubtedly evolved vital mechanisms to defuse potentially aggressive encounters with neighbors. These would have included intermarriage, so that potential enemies could instead become kin, and it is possible that some of the symbolism we see in the Paleolithic… was aimed at managing external relations.” (Pg. 157)

He points out, “These genetic complexities show why old ‘racial’ categories such as ‘Negroid,’ Caucasoid,’ ‘Australoid,’ and ‘Mongoloid’ have largely been abandoned by science, because they are not meaningful descriptors of levels of biological variation… African populations probably contain as much genetic variation as the rest of the world put together, and the boundaries between these categories are often fuzzy in reality… if we try these forensic tests that are based on modern patterns of regional variation on early modern skulls more than 20,000 years old, the results are invariably confused.” (Pg. 189)

He asserts, “Something as important as the origin and growth of religious belief certainly warrants further discussion… once the human brain had the potential for high levels of mind reading and for episodic memory, it was ripe for these to be co-opted for religious purposes... did religion first provide a mechanism to allay possible neurosis about the future and about death, once we had the power of imagining these?...Religion can certainly unite disparate and even geographically dispersed individuals to reinforce certain behaviors, and even to give them a common purpose, but was the possibility of growing populations and more contact with other groups during the later Middle Stone Age, I think that the unifying effect of shared beliefs amid increasing social complexity would have been invaluable, providing the glue that bound people together, encouraging self-restraint and putting group needs ahead of their own… There is another potential benefit of religious belief, and that is the mnemonic … structures that religious myths can provide, structures that facilitate the storage and transmission of important information about the group, its history, and its environment.” (Pg. 228)

He summarizes, “Back in 1970, no scientists held the view that Africa was the evolutionary home of modern humans; the region was considered backward and largely irrelevant…Twenty years later, the pendulum was starting to move in favor of RAO, as fossil evidence began to be increasingly reinforced by the clear signals of mitochondrial and Y-DNA. The pendulum swung even further toward a pure RAO with growing fossil, archaeological, and genetic data…” (Pg. 265)

He continues, “The big picture is that we are predominantly of recent African origin, so is there a special reason for this? Overall, I think that the preeminence of Africa in the story of modern human origins was a question of its larger geographic and human population size, which gave opportunities for morphological and behavior al variations, and for innovations to develop and be conserved, rather than the result of a special evolutionary pathway. ‘Modernity’… was a composite whose elements appeared at different times and places and were then gradually assembled to assume the form we recognize today.” (Pg. 267-268)

This is an enlightening and challenging book, that will be of great interest to those studying human origins.

[Chris Demer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book has some very interesting aspects, there are some downsides. One: In places it is quite technical and the author assumes familiarity with the field that most non-scientists do not have and, two: the author seems to skip around a lot- from place to place and through time, sometimes leading to bewilderment!
That being said, I gleaned some new information. While it is true that for long periods of time more than one human species existed - probably side by side at times, only H. sapiens evolved and survived to the present. Stringer solidifies the "recently out of Africa" theory and attempts to answer some of the most puzzling questions about our beginnings. He provides evidence for his ideas and acknowledges when there is still room for doubt.
New dating techniques and genetic data have provided much information in recent years. He believes there are some Neanderthal genes in human populations of today, although they are few. Also Neanderthals were probably not brought to extinction by more sophisticated humans (ourselves) but met their demise gradually due to social, climatic and other changes.
Stringer speculates that the forces that drove some humans to leave Africa around 60,000 years ago included larger groups living in close proximity and sharing knowledge. He believes modern humans had the edge over Neanderthals due to higher population density leading to cultural exchange and development. "What is interesting about this (idea) is that it suggests that genetic continuity, large brains and intelligence on their own will not ensure success for human groups:the survival of knowledge is also vital."
He also puts to rest the concept that we are no longer evolving.

[Alex Telander · Rating 4 out of 5]

One might say that Chris Stringer has had the ideal career that he dreamed of achieving when, at the age of eighteen, he switched his major from medicine to anthropology and was accepted in the PhD program at Bristol University to study Neanderthals. Shortly after graduating he received a job offer at the Paleontology Department at the Natural History Museum in London, where he is still a researcher, and is now one of the world’s foremost paleoanthropologists.

Lone Survivors is the ideal book for any would-be fan of anthropology, wanting to get the latest news and discoveries on our ancient ancestors, as well as the perfect text for one either taking an anthropology course or perhaps contemplating switching majors, much as Stringer did. The book is an easy read in that Stringer’s voice is conversational and pleasant, he breaks everything down to its base parts, and shows complex matters in a clear light. He has introductory chapters dedicated to the various methods of archaeology used in studying fossils, as well as dating them. Stringer also skillfully provides constant hints of matters he will be later discussing to entice and keep the reader hooked. By the end of the book the reader will feel well educated and well versed on our ancestors, as well as up to date on the latest findings in the world of anthropology.

Originally written on February 3, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was watching a documentary on human evolution recently and realized the state of my knowledge on the topic was in dire need of updating. When I saw a review for this book, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to dive on in. But basically, I'm just dabbling here in paleontology, archaeology, and evolution.

As for the book itself, for the most part everything was written clearly so even I, as a dabbler, could grasp most of what was being covered. But I found the organization horrible! I suspect my unfamiliarity with the topic contributed greatly, but my mind was spinning trying to keep track of when/where all the bones were coming from and how they all tied together. Essentially, I wanted more pictures, more diagrams, and way better maps. I think the nature of the topic lends itself to visual aids and the few that were in the book were severely lacking (for me, anyway).

However, I definitely do not regret reading the book since I feel I did get some interesting information from it. My favorite part was the DNA analysis because (yay!) it felt more concrete (maybe even more reliable) than the speculation on culture, behavior, etc. of peoples dead millennia ago.