Human Origins
Our origins as homo sapiens, the stages through which our biological and social constructs evolve, is a complex but fascinating tale. In this reading list you will encounter accessible and entertaining reads that will inform and inspire.
"Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval N. Harari.
Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions.
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond.
A global account of the rise of civilization that is also a stunning refutation of ideas of human development based on race. Until around 11,000 b.c., all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved.
"Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors" by Nicholas Wade.
Nicholas Wade's articles are a major reason why the science section has become the most popular, nationwide, in the New York Times. In his groundbreaking Before the Dawn, Wade reveals humanity's origins as never before--a journey made possible only recently by genetic science.
"Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins" by Ian Tattersall.
Fifty thousand years ago—merely a blip in evolutionary time—our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct.
"Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth" by Chris Stringer.
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.
"The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution" by Richard Dawkins.
The renowned biologist and thinker Richard Dawkins presents his most expansive work yet: a comprehensive look at evolution, ranging from the latest developments in the field to his own provocative views. Loosely based on the form of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dawkins's Tale takes us modern humans back through four billion years of life on our planet.
"Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body" by Neil Shubin.
Why do we look the way we do? What does the human hand have in common with the wing of a fly? Are breasts, sweat glands, and scales connected in some way? To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.
"The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal" by Jared M. Diamond.
We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins?
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