Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness

I enjoyed this book very much, not being a professional anthropologist. I understand the criticism that it may be elementary it its approach; however, there is an audience of intelligent people who need to be introduced to the subject in this way. I have been seeking such a work on human origins for several years. Many of them start well but soon soar into the stratosphere of technical overkill and lose me. For those who have a professional's understanding of the field, I am sure you can locate more in depth resources. For the rest of us, I highly reccomend this book. It is an up to date summary and a pretty good yarn as well.

How long have we waited for such a comprehensive and detailed account of our evolutionary history, at last given by one of the world's leading authorities in the field of paleoanthropology. Ian Tattersall has dared to render a fascinating narrative, abandoning hundreds of tedious scientific references in favor of a fluent, yet personal account of how our "Becoming Human" may have progressed throughout history. The author leads the reader through a wealth of information available from fossil records. Starting with 20th century scientists, like Tattersall himself, who study and admire, yet puzzle over paleolithic cave art, Tattersall then trails backwards to our very earliest human ancestors to develope a cohesive explanation of how evolving hominids with their increasing brain capacities have finally, albeit almost certainly accidentally, given rise to who we are today. A fine work indeed, and a must-read for all those curious enough to seek answers as to the origins and evolutionary processes that lead to "our old familiar - and potentially dangerous - selves."

This book fills in the gap to many questions that pertain to our origins. Mr.Tattersall writes in laymans terms that jsut about anyone can interpret. If your the bible reading kind. I don't suggest you read this because he will throw some serious doubt into your faith. He shows you pretty clear cut evidence that evolution is no longer just a theory!

"Becoming Human" is an engrossing consistent account of human biological history, that you read as it were a novel. You are left with no unanswered questions. This book is a must-read for everybody who wants to learn the basics on human evolution. For those interested also in the pre-human stages of evolutionary history, I would recommend Robert Jastrow's "Red Giants and White Dwarfs" and "Until The Sun Dies", which end where "becoming Human" begins.

If I'd read this book 15 years ago I'd rated it 5 for content (it won the prestigious W.W. Howells Prize of the American Anthropological Association when published) but overall I'd rated it a 4 because of its literary quality. Now I rated it a 3 because it badly needs updating. I would still recommend reading it, but with the qualifications of my last section.LevelThe author is curator of the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (as well as a recognized authority of Hominid fossils) - and it shows: the content his work is generally accessible and interesting to the lay public. Not an introductory text, but appropriate for those just beginning to get serious. His insights and sometimes controversial viewpoints and strong opinions should also be meat to chew-on for the more advanced reader.Literary QualitySome books on hominids are dense, compilations of journal articles - with scientific references, detailed analysis, qualifying statements and conditions, and jargon. Ian's isn't - and so more accessible. But readers looking for a book with details about fossils are going to be disappointed. (There are better books for this, including several written by Tattersall)But it has some literary problems that limit it, such as only one illustration (sketch of a poignant cave painting), no photos, maps, charts or illustrations. Surprising since as a curator he must know their importance in his Museum display - and accordingly may have access to those resources.Ian's is not good at English Exposition: paragraphs are run-on with two or more topics. He over-qualifies, sometimes qualifies his qualifications. He's a bit wordy. In this book his organization is disorderly, jumping around far too much. He often states he is going to develop a point in more detail later - which might be able to avoided if the book was better organized.* ContentIan establishes and develops some major points that tend to run through out the book: the impact that climate (and habitat change) has had on hominid and mammals evolution in general - leading to isolation and species change.Niles Elderidge is also at the AMNH and influenced Ian. Ian is a proponent of Punctuated Equilibrium. (With good reason - even opposed to it generally usually end up conceding its strong role in the evolution of our lineage. He singles out 4 instances where it occurred and notes that Punctuated equilibrium can also be seen in tools development. He points that tool development does not track with species changes but that biological changes do track with climate changes. (He goes into quite a bit of detail on speciation due to isolation and environmental stresses). He also quotes Niles in other areas.To Ian, evolution is non-linear. He sees it as a bush producing and bush trimming process - and one that is erratic and wholly random. (IMHO - he pushes this point perspective too far.)He goes into quite a bit of detail about the rise and role of symbolism and what that indicates in human intelligence, its presence in art and its connection leading to language (and the importance of language in subsequent evolution/human history and social structure.)There is much more here - you will just have to take a look.The last two chapters attempt to deal with what it means to be human and what light science can cast on it. He also takes on Evolutionary Psychology and genome focused evolution - which are seen here in contrast to evolution at the species and above level (macro evolution) - the focus of this book. But these last two chapters are the least successful in the book. Literary shortcomings are more severe: wording becomes denser, run-on paragraphs get longer and qualification becomes equivocation - ending up in vagueness.There are important viewpoints in the last chapters that deserve to be developed and clarified - but I am not sure that they belong in this book, if it is rewritten. The sense of this section is far more philosophical and speculative. The audience for the first part of the book is probably going not the same as for these later chapters.* CriticismsNow 17 years old its missing many species and needs updating of many that he does report on.There are multiple areas where he suggests that outstanding questions may be resolved in the future - some of which have advanced.Ian is a chauvinist. He has an obvious bias towards the west / Europe, in the hominid fossil record, art and intelligence. East Asia only gets one or two sentences? Australia nothing.His bias extends to species. His position on Neanderthal is out of date - (rejected possibility of Moderns inter-breeding with them) they may have been behaviorally and cognitively closer to Moderns than he gives them credit for. His western bias extends to the world of art - as another reviewer pointed out: " 'he offers the astonishing statement that "art, as such, is a concept invented by Western civilization.' This proposal might be forgiven as an editing oversight, if the remainder of the book didn't sustain it."Given the prominent role things such as art, symbolism, language it's surprising he didn't go more in Cultural and Social Evolution. He hits around the edges of these fields without really developing them.And there is very little on genetics and what it has to say about evolution. Recent understandings about the role of mutation of regulating genes goes a long ways toward explaining a reason for some Punctuated Evolutionary events, for instance.There are still important writings here. I hope Ian will take the time to update it in the near future.Recommendation to BuyTattersall later wrote "Masters of the Planet", which I was hoping would be that rewrite - but its not. "Masters" does tend to cover the same material but is more up to date, overcomes some of this books problems (better organized and has added a few illustrations, charts etc). That book focuses on the fossils (190 pages vs less than 60 here) and consequently doesn't go into as much details as this book on evolution, art and symbolism, the brain and intelligence and other processes involved in the transition of Hominids as discussed here.These books do compliment each other. This book is more about interpretations and implications that can be extracted from the fossils. Involves a lot of deductions and (and some think controversial) speculations - by an important person in the field. "Masters" has more fossil details. This book is more generalization about what it means to be "Human" and the processes to get there.So - read "Masters" first or concurrently with this one - so you will know where data and interpretations have been updated - and have the detail and visual aids that are lacking in this book. Read this book second to gain insight to processes and implications about the fossil record and evolutionary processes involved and Ian's opinions about them. When I wrote this review a used book goes for a penny and new books as low as $5, so it's affordable as a supplementary text. I just wouldn't read it alone.

This is a wonderfully written book that contains an extraordinary amount of material fascinatingly and painlessly presented. Its worth owning just for the information it contains about Homo sapiens and its ancestors, but its value is vastly increased by the scientific investigations and personal insights offered by the author.