Each chapter includes “Overview,” “Summary,” “Postscript,” “Review Questions,” “Suggested Further Reading,” and “Internet Resources.” I.EVOLUTION.
1.The Search for Human Origins.
Mini-Timeline.
Pre-Scientific Theories of Human Origins.
Early Naturalists Begin to Question Human Antiquity.
Geology Comes of Age: The Theory of Deep Time.
The Advent of Evolutionary Theories.
Gregor Mendel and the Problem of Heredity.
Turn of the Century: Mendel Rediscovered, Natural Selection out of Favor.
2.Evolutionary Mechanisms.
Levels of Selection and Change.
Genes, DNA, and RNA.
Sources of Genetic and Phenotypic Variation.
Populations and Species.
II.THE ORIGIN OF HUMANKIND.
3.Humans among the Primates.
Names and Classifications.
The Primates.
Human Characteristics.
4.The Behavior of Living Primates.
Studying Primates.
Basis of Social Organization.
Territory and Ecology.
The Apes.
5.Apes and Other Ancestors: Prehominid Evolution.
Mini-Timeline.
Studying Fossils.
Dating Procedures.
The Earliest Primates.
Undoubted Primate Fossils.
The First Higher Primates.
6.The Transvaal Hominids.
Mini-Timeline.
The Science of Paleoanthropology.
Dart's Discovery of the Taung Skull (1924).
Discoveries of Robert Broom.
Fossils and Artifacts.
Additional Finds at Swartkrans.
Comments on Australopithecine Phylogeny.
7.East Africa: The Australopithecine Fossils.
Mini-Timeline.
Separating Australopithecines and Hominines in East Africa.
Discoveries at Olduvai.
The Search Moves North into Kenya and Ethiopia.
The Pace of Discovery Quickens at Century's End.
Lifestyles of the Australopithecines.
Evolutionary Models of the Subfamily Australopithecinae.
8.East Africa: The Advent of Homo .
Mini-Timeline.
First Evidence of the Hominines.
Early Hominine Lifestyles.
Early Hominine Phylogenies.
9.The Evolution of Hominid Behavior.
Hominid Characteristics.
Bipedal Locomotion.
Early Technology.
What Triggered Brain Expansion in Early Homo?
III.THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANKIND.
10.Discovering Homo erectus .
Mini-Timeline.
Eugene Dubois and the Quest for the Missing Link.
Twentieth-Century Discoveries.
Homo erectus Fossils from Africa.
Evidence of Homo erectus in Europe: Many Artifacts, Few Fossils.
More Fossils and Some Surprising Dates from Asia.
The Anatomy of Homo erectus.
Evolutionary Relationships of Homo erectus.
11.Environment and Technology of Homo erectus .
Mini-Timeline.
Homo erectus: New Questions about an Old Species.
The World of Homo erectus.
Stone Tools.
Shelter and Fire.
Subsistence Patterns and Diet.
12.Hunting, Gathering, and the Evolution of Society.
Behavioral Speculations.
The Archaeology of the Hunters.
Beginnings of Hunting.
New Social Developments.
Intraspecies Aggression.
13.The Evolution of Language and the Brain.
Mini-Timeline.
Ways of Communicating.
Ability to Speak.
Evolution of Speech.
The Brain.
IV.MODERN HUMANITY.
14. Homo heidelbergensis and the Neandertals: Successors to Homo erectus .
Mini-Timeline.
The Descendants of Homo erectus.
First View of Neandertals.
Neandertals in Europe and Beyond.
Neandertal Anatomy.
Speciation in the Middle Pleistocene: Homo heidelbergensis.
The Anatomy of Homo Heidelbergensis.
Evolutionary Relationships in the Mid-to-Late Pleistocene.
15. Homo heidelbergensis and the Neandertals: Culture and Environments.
Mini-Timeline.
Range and Adaptations of Mid-to-Late Pleistocene Humans.
Cultural Developments among Homo heidelbergensis.
The Penultimate Pleistocene Glacial Cycle.
The Ice Sheets Return.
Cultural Developments among the Neandertals.
16.The Final Transformation: The Evolution of Modern Humans.
Mini-Timeline.
Early Discoveries of Anatomically Modern People.
Fate of the Archaic Humans.
The Biological and Cultural Transition.
A New Breed.
New Lands.
17.Technology, Magic, and Art.
Mini-Timeline.
An End to Wandering.
Art and Ritual.
18.The Human Condition.
The Story of Humankind.
Human Variability.
The Question of Race.
Challenges for the Future.
Appendix I: The Genetic Code.
Appendix II: Dating Procedures for Fossil Remains.
Appendix III: Diagnostic Traits of the Hominids.
Glossary.
Selected Bibliography.
Acknowledgements.
Index.
