Posted: Jul 11, 2015 2:59 pm
Spearthrower wrote:I think there are plenty of books already which do the whistle-stop tour, this one was special because he focused on what we consider to be really core to humanity, and the evidence we can see for this in our earliest human ancestors.
Fair enough, perhaps I got the wrong impression from the reviews etc. Though when you give a book a name like that I think it suggests you are going for something big and definitive.
Spearthrower wrote:I certainly didn't mean for it to be a book like that if that's what someone desires, instead I think it focuses on the more interesting interpretive issues, rather than just on chronologies and comprehensive narratives of human evolution.
Yeah it does. Its very 'on the one hand, on the other hand'. It felt to me like a summary for people who aren't necesarily right in the middle of this subject but who are maybe on the periphery. People who already know the broad strokes but are maybe slightly out the loop.
Spearthrower wrote:I was sorely tempted to start writing one a few years back, but it's an awful lot of work. I've still got the research on my 2nd computer, and so much of it is already out of date! In many ways, the field is moving too fast to be attempting something like this now. I made a prediction on this site back in 2010 that this decade would be a major one for palaeoanthropology, and for dramatic changes in our understanding of our origins, and half way through, I think I can claim that's already been fulfilled, with potentially even more exciting finds in the works!
Yeah this book felt like a half-time report straight from the trenches (if I may so blatently mix my metaphors). If you ever write yours then I'd suggest Fortey's as a good model for the popular reader. Yes, its a biology book, but it also creates a certain feeling,a feeling of, I think the best way to put it would be 'ascent', almost of purpose. You could do the exact same with humans and I'd definitely read it.