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Close Encounters with Humankind
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Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Deep History of Ourselves
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Imagine a world without bees, butterflies, and flowering plants. That was Earth 125 million years ago. Turn back the clock 400 million years, and there were no trees. At 450 million years in the past, even the earliest insects had not yet developed. And looking back 500 million years, the land was devoid of life, which at that time flourished in a profusion of strange forms in the oceans. These and other major turning points are the amazing story of evolution.
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Engaging and wanting to know more about Deep Time!
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When we talk about human history, we often focus on great leaders, population forces, and decisive wars. But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the southeast United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea.
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the earth made us
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5 out of 5 stars
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Important information fills gaps
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Do plants have intelligence? Do they have memory? Are they better problem solvers than people? The Revolutionary Genius of Plants - a fascinating, paradigm-shifting work that upends everything you thought you knew about plants - makes a compelling scientific case that these and other astonishing ideas are all true.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Inaccurate book description
- By windelbo on 02-18-19
Publisher's Summary
What can fossilized teeth tell us about our ancient life expectancy? What can big data on fossils reveal about farming's problematic role in human evolution? How can simple geometric comparisons of skull and pelvic fossils suggest an origin to our social nature?
In Close Encounters with Humankind, paleoanthropologist Sang-Hee Lee explores some of our biggest evolutionary questions from unexpected new angles. Through a series of entertaining, bite-sized chapters, we gain new perspectives into our first hominin ancestors, our first steps on two feet, our first forays into toolmaking and hunting, and of course our continuing evolution.
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- John
- 09-15-18
A different perspective of human ancestry
I was looking for a different perspective of human ancestry and I found it. However, I was also looking for up to date information. While this book was published in 2018 the book is a collection of essays that were previously published.
The book also supports a multi-regionalist model for modern humans, but without any attempt to fit this theory with recent genomic data. In the book the authors appeared to be less comfortable with genomic data, but this could just reflect their paleoanthropologist perspective.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rami
- 07-17-18
Hard topic, simple presentation
Hard topic presented simply. Verry intresting and for once I didnt want the book to end.
Verry well read.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful