Human Origins—Explorations and Discussions in Anthropology, Biology, Archaeology, and Geology discussion

This is the place to tell us a bit about yourself, what brought you here, and what you're interested in.

I'll start off--

My name is Chris, and I'm in my mid-fifties, a geologist by education, but I have worked in water and environmental resources management most of my professional career. I am a voracious reader, and love the classics, poetry, and well-written fantasy fiction (have a look at my "Favorites' shelf). I would say that for most of my adult life I have been a pretty serious student of paleoanthropology and human origins. Every 3-4 years I tend to spend a few months and catch myself up on the latest state-of-knowledge in the journals or in newly released books. Additionally, through my work I am becoming much more educated and aware of climate change and the impacts to regional and local ecosystems, and the influence of Humanity and the Industrial Age upon Planet Earth.

My goal in establishing this group is to create an informal forum and on-line resource where like-minded interested readers can share information and discuss ideas about our human origins and the new discoveries that are continuously coming out of the fields of paleoanthropology, archaeology, geology, and paleoclimatology. Maybe by better understanding where we've been as human species can also help us to make informed and more responsible decisions as we move forward into the future. Cheers!

I just want to take a moment and say, "Welcome!" to the group's new members, Nate, Kathy, Erika, and Aaron. I hope that you'll stop by here and introduce and tell us a bit about yourselves at some point. Cheers! Chris

Hi, Chris. Thank you for starting this group. I wish I can dig up the paragraph about myself when I first joined Goodreads. It saves time and typos in the introduction. The longer I've been a member of Goodreads, the less I want to talk about myself. It feels like a home now, so you don't usually introduce yourself at home. Okay, back to about me.....which I'm not sure of at this point....

I've always been an avid reader. Since I was a shy kid, instead of going to the crowded lunchroom, I would go to the school's library, where every book holds a treasure of information. Also, my stepfather gave us children our very own library cards. It was the best thing he did. I read up on the Holocaust, psychology, art, fairy tales, biology, genetics, etc., etc. I guess I would naturally gravitate towards anthropology since I am interested in such topics. I was pre-med, then engineering before I ended up with an MFA in painting. Thus, I know a little bit about everything. And now, I'm doing art work and photo manipulation on the computer, and reading and writing reviews at Goodreads. Basically, I'm interested in everything, including the topics in this forum.

Fascinating topic—and the information seems to get updated or changed every week. I'm a fiction author, not about this topic at all, but can't pass up the opportunity to keep up with it all. Thanks for starting this up. Pat

I absolutely adore paleoanthropology. I think "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Clan of the Cave Bear" led me down the archaeology path in college, but I soon changed to biological anthropology, with a focus on human origins. I've been on a six week dig in Koobi Fora, which was incredible, as well as several digs in Israel.
I graduated college, but never got around to going back for a master's or a PhD. I have been teaching 7th grade life science for 15 years, which I love, though the schools and the kid's attention spans keep declining every year. I just took a sabbatical to get my certification in ecotherapy.

Hi! I'm a historian by training, but I have always had an interest in archaeology and I gravitated towards learning more about human origins and paleontology after seeing Lucy in Houston a few years ago (and listening to Donald Johanson discuss the find). I'd like to learn more about the topic and figured there would be some good book suggestions and conversation in the group. Hope I can contribute!

Secondary school biology teacher in England. Originally studied biomedical science then switched to psychology BSc so my background is psychology and human sciences, but I've a broad interest in history, philosophy and sociology of science, and did a sociology MA for the fun of it.

In biology I'm a big fan of scientists with a political dimension; Steven Rose, and sociologist Hilary Rose, Richard Lewontin, Stephen Jay Gould, though I'll happily critically read the 'other side' too ;) Dawkins, Pinker, Wilson et al

Have a lot of time for philosophy of biology - Philip Kitcher, Michael Ruse, Elliott Sober, Massimo Pigliucci etc

Haven't read as much paleoanthropology etc as I'd like but always interested in finding out more.

Welcome, everybody! This is great. I was afraid this was going to be a dead group.

Hello, I just joined the group because I have a long time interest in human evolution.

I go back and forth between being a veracious reader for 6 or 8 months at a time then I almost completely stop for the next 6 or 8 months (been that way pretty much my entire life and have never quite understood it). My reading tends toward non-fiction and detective/mystery fiction.

Not too sure how much I will be actively participating since I suspect most of you will be discussing things that are way over my head -- the majority of my anthropology studies consist of several years spent as a doorman/bouncer at an "adult establishment" in Nevada when I was in my mid 20s -- but I intend to do my best to keep up.

Looking forward to some interesting discussions.

I'd like to join in. I have a bachelor's in linguistics with an unofficial minor in anthropology, a master's in sociology with a minor in anthropology, and am mainly interested in the evolution of language and cognition.

Christopher wrote: "This is the place to tell us a bit about yourself, what brought you here, and what you're interested in.

I'll start off--

My name is Chris, and I'm in my mid-fifties, a geologist by education, bu..."

Hello - just introducing myself. I've read Stephen Gould a little, Jared Diamond "Guns Germs and Steel" , books about Darwin BUT Have yet to read the "Origin of the Species" - sorry!

Hello everyone! I'm a closet scientist and fiction writer with absolutely no academic cred at all. When others were finishing their degrees, I was carrying signs against the war in VietNam, etc., etc. I have always had a deep interest in anthropology, especially in surviving indigenous cultures. I've in fact both an active reservation trader in American Indian arts since 1985 as well as a novelist. My last book, Troll(2012), re-examines the theories of the ascendancy of modern human species over their earlier cousins in Northern Europe. Not a scientific read, rather the story of how these two cultures may have clashed and the results. I look forward to discussing this and everything else that comes into this group. Troll

My name is Jerry Ward. I'm retired from a career of jobs usually involving technology; my academic background included both physics and economics. I've written a couple of books, listed here on Goodreads.

I've read a lot of Stephan Gould's stories many years ago, and, more recently, all of Richard Dawkins' books. I have not been a student of evolution and my knowledge is still fairly superficial.

My current interest is the future evolution of our species. We may have altered the survival criteria that obtained in the past, or maybe not; it was probably always a mix of tooth and claw and the milk of human kindness. I would appreciate any thoughts and/or suggestions of books that get into that issue.

Hey, Jerry! I'll check out your titles! I think you're wise to have an interest in our future evolution as a species. Me, too. I'm already worried for my grandsons.

Thanks, Richard. I'd appreciate anything you find on the subject; there's room for lots of conjecture.

By way of introduction, I’ll say something about my interests. The human brain as it manifests itself in all the phenomena of consciousness–perception, imagination, memory, thought, and emotion–has always fascinated me. What especially intrigues me is how we humans use language, more particularly poetic language, to reveal to one another these intricate, internal goings-on. In recent years I have been drawn to the study of human evolution with the understanding that, in the structures of the brain, is preserved a living record of our several-million-year past and that artful language is capable of reactivating that past. We’ve come a long way from the world of our remote ancestors who used to tell their dreams, their stories, their myths to one another face-to-face, sometimes even acting them out. Then their descendants invented writing and the book. Now, as solitary, silent readers, we’ve learned to perform stories and project images wholly in our minds. But because we still participate in the consciousness of our deep past, whenever we open a book and turn its pages, especially when do this, that past is never very long ago or far away.
When I found this discussion group I was delighted that like-minded people ready to share their enthusiasms existed “out there”–a sort of clearinghouse of ideas and recommendations. Besides my ongoing fascination with biological evolution, I'm also interested in cultural evolution, e.g., Neolithic agricultural societies, Bronze Age cities, and the gradual introduction of writing–in other words, I’m looking now not only for books about evolution but also for books about the evolution of books themselves.
[PS. My name is Christopher Collins, but, since our moderator has the first claim to that first name, I’ll refer to myself as “Chris C.” I hope that works out.]

Chris C. You've found the right group! I share all your interests, and especially the link between storytelling and linguistic singing, which other members have posted about before. It's an exciting time as the realization of the hard history that the genome provides truly sinks in and begins to be utilized. Welcome!

Welcome, Christopher! I too share your interest in better understanding this notion of "cultural evolution". This ties in, quite neatly, with the fascinating on-going debate about when (and how) Homo sapiens became "behaviorally modern". I am sure we can find much to explore, discuss, and share here! Cheers! Chris

Hi, I'm Claire, a MRes/PhD in Mitochondrial Medicine/Ageing and Health in the UK. However, I have a strong interest in Human Evolution and love to explore the area when I have the time!

Hi, my name is Bruce. Though I have no academic credentials, I learned quite a lot about evolution when I wrote a book about the intersection of evolution and Christian theology (entitled Exploring Faith and Reason). I noticed Christopher's comment on when Homo sapiens became "behaviorally modern." Along those lines, I have an interest in the question of when and how human intellect became capable of abstract reasoning--that trait which, at least to some degree, sets us apart from other creatures. I found that anthropologist Steven Mithen's book, The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion, and Science, to contain some useful insights in that area.

My name is John (every Tom, Dick and Harry is named John, no?) and I live in Taos, New Mexico, USA. Being an avid and somewhat scatterbrained reader, I'm currently reading three books intersecting the group subject, and would like to recommend Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful>, by George McGhee, for its elegant linking of past conditions with current adaptive limits. Great fun!

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Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful, by George McGhee, for its elegant linking of past conditions with current adaptive limits. Great fun!
Did it work THIS time?

Richard wrote: "My last book, Troll (2012), re-examines the theories of the ascendancy of modern human species over their earlier cousins in Northern Europe. Not a scientific read, rather the story of how these two cultures may have clashed and the results. I look forward to discussing this and everything else that comes into this group."
So Richard, since my early childhood, I was taught by my parents and others that the Cro-Magnard encounter with the Neandertalers left us north Europeans our cultural memories of trolls. Even many drawings of trolls seem to approximate modern restorations of Neandertalers. For some interesting tales reflecting the Neandertaler tragedy, you might enjoy the Neandertal Parallax series by Robert J. Sawyer. Read them in order!

John, Thank you so much! I will do just that. Oddly enough, growing up here in the Western US, I never heard anything remotely like that from teachers, or later, even in college classes. It took reading about Tolkien's scholarship and his belief that folk tales and myths were actual versions of historic events, before I began wondering about the two races and their convergence. Now, I've been trying to keep up with the discoveries of the Denisonvan culture in Siberia and the small people in the Philippines. It is so true that the victors always re-write history to their own ends, but it seems more and more that we have had many different kinds of cousins through our evolution.

Being now and for some decades a resident of the western US, I'm surprised to a certain extent that no one here would have advised a little kid about the possible link between Neandertalers and trolls. However, I was raised a Connecticut Yankee, a son of families all northeast enthusiasts of evolution, so perhaps my surprise is myopic. Now we must find out what happened to the Denisovans and Florensians, and, indeed, the formerly widespread H. erectus.

Having grown up in areas where Bigfoot sightings were not uncommon, dating back to the first European explorations, I have my own theories, but I'll keep them safely under my hat! Back in the 1950s when I was in grade school, and later, the little bit we did get about human evolution was the straight, time-line ape-to-man canon. Had to learn how to read between the lines and outside of the suggested material to get any real understanding. ;)

My own book, Troll, goes back into the past to illustrate how the confrontations resulted in a form of cultural selection. I pose that the Neanderthal culture, much older and much more adept at certain things, was simply not set up for aggression against "others", since they were the earliest wave of migrations. Following waves had to each put more stock into organized hunting and warfare as the resources overlapped and dwindled. I've also presented the Neanderthal culture as matrilineal, which also creates substantial variation when it comes to defending ones nest.

Anent Bigfeets, Sasquashes, Yetis and whatnot, I'm regrettably susceptible to the suspicion that any large hominin needs sufficient genetic variation within its population to avoid accumulating potentially deadly recessive genes through inbreeding. Consequently, I have always found it difficult to believe that viable but unproven populations of nonhuman hominins persist in places like, say, northern California, notoriously infested as such regions are with digitally-advantaged REI-equipped Google-Earth-posting trust-funded backpackers.

The only real obstacle to the movement of small bands of these possible hominids, is the Columbia River. On both sides, unbroken, still relatively unexplored forest stretches almost 1000 miles N&S. Our own species seems to have found sufficient genetic variation even in smaller island populations with little outside contact. Of course, despite the reality series (what a poor excuse for entertainment) the number of sightings have fallen over the past decades. BTW, those REI trustifarians are more likely to follow well-marked paths and trails, than bushwhack.

Hi, Jim here. It's great to see so many people interested in evolution.

I am a Web Developer working mostly on Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Stores. I am an avid reader on science, politics, atheism, the origin of human sentience, AI and the hope of the singularity, etc.

One thing that prompted me to join is the hope someone here can recommend a book for my wife. She wants to find a good book for a non-scientist to read on human evolutionary differentiation. She is Asian and has been wondering how Asians came to have the distinctive characteristics they do, and likewise how other racial groups arose. Bearing in mind that her education and career experience was all in art, not the sciences, what would be a good book to get her that would explain the genetic drift of isolated populations?

I have to make an unreserved recommendation of a new book on human evolution by Nature's editor, Henry Gee: The Accidental Species -- Misunderstandings of Human Evolution. It is just brilliant, iconoclastic and very funny, too.
The Accidental Species: Misunderstandings of Human Evolution

Thanks Richard. Sounds fascinating. I'll get a copy.

Richard. I recently finished reading The Accidental Species and you're quite right, it is everything you said. I greatly enjoyed reading it. Learned a lot, too. Such a deal!

James wrote: "Hi, Jim here. It's great to see so many people interested in evolution.

I am a Web Developer working mostly on Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Stores. I am an avid reader on science, politics, atheism, ..."

James - For modern human DNA, I'd recommend that your wife look at books by Spencer Wells coming out of the National Geographic Genographic Project.

I just want to say hello to all!

Thanks Michael. We will search his body of work.

Happy New Year!

James wrote: "Richard. I recently finished reading The Accidental Species and you're quite right, it is everything you said. I greatly enjoyed reading it. Learned a lot, too. Such a deal!"
Dr. Gee is truly a unique3, gifted writer. He writes SciFi as well!

Yes he is. He brings an incisive wit and ability to communicate in understandable terms; making his work accessible and fun to read.

Hello, I'm a student of cultural history and archaeology, from the University of Turku, Finland. I major in cultural history and I'm just starting my masters thesis about the first cholera epidemic of Finland. I'm also writing a second bachelors thesis for archaeology, about the exhibition of human remains in Finnish museums. And because writing a master's thesis and a bachelors thesis at the same time was not enough, I recently started a new minor; geology.

Emphasis on my studies is on cultural history, but I'm interested in pretty much everything the scientific world has to offer.
Book recommendations are always welcome, right now especially books about medical history, paleopathologies, osteology and museum ethics would be helpful.

I can recommend a book I just reviewed. It's called Architecture of First Societies, but it is much more than that. It is really an in-depth look at the impact of ancient human habitation to the environment and adaptation as needed within cultural milieu. It's expensive, so look in a library.
Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective

Hello everyone! I am studying archaeology and evolutionary biology at Columbia University, so obviously this topic is apropos to my academic areas of interest. Always happy to find other like-minded enthusiasts. My research is focused primarily in Mesoamerica and concerns the Maya, but because of my background in evolution I love to keep current on early hominin discourse. As such, book/article recommendations are always welcome!

James wrote: "Thanks Michael. We will search his body of work.

Happy New Year!"

Jim- I remembered reading something about East Asian traits and DNA and just tracked it down. Look at the NY Times for Feb 14, 2013, an article by Nicholas Wade called "East Asian Physical Traits Linked to 35,000-Year-Old Mutation." It summarizes some research published in Cell.

I haven't really introduced myself, and I hope it's not frowned upon to do this, but I found this discussion group after the moderator left a very kind review for a book I co-authored (and quite rightly, Christopher only mentioned my wife in his review!):The Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story

Hi,
My name is Chip Walter, author of Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived. Given the nature of this discussion group I thought you all might like to know that LAST APE will be this Thursday's (January 16th, 2014) Kindle Daily Deal. Normally $26 in hardback, for one day it'll be available electronically for $1.99! The New York Times called Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived “a lively journey.” The New Yorker called it “engaging … and fascinating,” and Kirkus Reviews, “engrossing.” It is also a Chautauqua Institution Literary and Scientific Circle selection — the nation’s oldest book club. It's true, I wrote it, but I think this group would enjoy it and you can't beat the price, at least for one day :-). Click this URL on Thursday to find the deal: http://goo.gl/Au5xJM if you're interested. Thanks!

Thanks, Michael.

Work pressures plus standing watch over renovations of a fixer-upper my son recently bought have kept me away from Goodreads far too long. Wouldn't you know just as construction was scheduled to begin, his company went into crunch mode to crank out a new product, so he couldn't take time off. In fact, he had to do 10-hour days. And dear old dad worked his way through school running a contract-labor crew building garages and small buildings.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. I think that's her major concern -- why do I look the way I do. My major concern is "I don't know, but I'm damned glad you do."

Chip, Hello and sorry I didn't read about the deal till too late to act on it. I'm adding that to my reading list, though.

Hello All,

I'm new to GoodReads and this group. I'm in the construction materials business and reside in Maryland. I grew up in a home where the word "Evolution" was met with laughter, and mockery. A conservative Religious approach to human origins was the rule...
As an adult I've had a passion for this topic! I'm very glad to be in this group and look forward to evolving with you all!

Ryan M.
Maryland

Hi Ryan and welcome to the group. If you don't mind sharing, what led you to reject the religious fundamentalist indoctrination of your youth. I'm fascinated by what in us causes some to become skeptics while others seem to dive right into the deep end of the credulity pool.

Jim Hollomon
Greater Boston Area

Hello everyone. I am so glad I "stumbled" onto this group. Anthropology fascinates me in that it has helped me deepen my connection to my own indigenous Igorot roots. I recently wrote Igorotdo: The Enlightened Warrior Within, the first fiction novel ever written about the indigenous highlanders of the Philippines - collectively called "Igorots." I also just started a global project called 4k Breaths of Heritage Project that aims to help "free" the 4,000 Igorot artifacts "hidden" in the Chicago Field Museums vaults so that they can someday be publicly displayed.

Topics relating to anthropology that interest me most are those that help people connect, re-connect, or stay connected to their cultural heritage(s). I look forward to any new found treasures awaiting to be discovered in this group.

James,

I'm in search of! If religion were more open-minded and open to new interpretation of old information, I would probably have never investigated evolution. (Probably just my moms overbearing zealous nature... Lol).
Truth is I hold no contempt for religion and do believe in a God of some sort. I believe my brain hasn't evolved enough to understand this God, just as an ant can't comprehend astrophysics! Lol.

Thanks for the reply, Ryan.

If we can temporarily conflate human origins (the topic here) with the origins of the many deities man has claimed to exist, then here is an interesting origins question I just posted on Quora.

"Who invented whom? If God created man, what would that predict? If man created all the gods, what would that predict?" http://www.quora.com/Who-invented-who...

Hello Christopher, hello everyone! This is such an interesting group and it has already proved a valuable resource as I embark on a project to trace the common genetic origins through evolution of myself, an American white woman of East European Jewish descent and my adopted daughter, who is black and was born in Mali.

First, a bit about me. I'm a career journalist, based in Paris for most of the last 40 years. Have also worked in Britain, Russia and the Philippines. Since leaving the International Herald Tribune four years ago, I've been studying prehistoric humans. Am currently enrolled as an auditor in the doctoral program of the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle. Main interest is human evolutionary genetics.

Having gone through the discussions and bookshelf here, and looked around elsewhere, I am puzzled by the apparent lack of writing about the movement of early humans across Africa. There is so much great out-of-Africa research available, but little, it seems, on the movement through Africa. If anyone has any tips on this subject, I'd be very grateful to hear from you.

Thanks and all best! Meg

Welcome aboard, Meg.

Given the topic of your project, if you haven't already heard it, let me recommend you spend 10 minutes listening to this TED Talk.

https://www.ted.com/talks/aj_jacobs_t...

Thank you, James! Will do that. Very curious. All best, Meg