Narratives of Human Evolution [Paperback]

Misia Landau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 1993

In the notoriously controversial field of paleoanthropology Misia Landau has found a hidden level of agreement among theories of human evolution. According to Landau, these theories are versions of the universal hero tale in folklore and myth. The narratives all have similar structures, featuring a humble hero (in theories of evolution it is a nonhuman primate) who departs on a journey (leaves his native habitat), receives essential aid or equipment from a donor figure (through evolutionary principles such as natural selection or orthogenesis), goes through tests (imposed by competitors, harsh climate, or predators), and finally arrives at a higher (that is, more human) state. Analyzing classic texts on evolution by Darwin, Keith, and Elliott Smith, as well as more recent authors by scholars such as Dart, Robinson, Tobias, and Johanson, Landau reveals not only their common narrative form but also how this form accommodates differences in meaning-widely varying sequences of events, heroes, and donors. Landau shows how interpretations of the fossil record differ according to what the anthropologist believes it the primary evolutionary agent. She concludes that scientists have much to gain from an awareness that they are tellers of stories. An understanding of narrative, she argues, can provide tools for creating new scientific theories as well as for analyzing old ones. Her book will be entertaining and enlightening for both general readers and scholars.

Product Details

• Paperback: 215 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 11, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300054319
• ISBN-13: 978-0300054316
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,389,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Merging of science and humanities, July 1, 2002

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Narratives of Human Evolution (Paperback)

Landau's book is a breakthrough in the studies of early humanity. Most researchers, particularly field workers, naturally assumed they were simply finding, indexing and describing bones and artifacts. Landau's innovative ideas illustrate that once the "museum pieces" are listed and described, the urge to place them in a greater context is inescapable. We are too concerned with our origins to permit our origins to be relegated to a museum
directory. In order to explain and understand our ancestors, we fall back on the narrative format to explain our origins. Since our most familiar narrative experience is the "folk myth," with its frank order of events, explaining our past tends to use this easily understood framework. While she applies this formula to paleoanthropology, she argues that it fits well in the physical sciences also. Whether physical sciences or human evolution, the narrative format is given as much weight as the physical evidence.

She uses a classic analysis, Valdimir Propp's 1928 work Morphology of the Folktale as her reference point. Propp used "functions" in describing the elements of a story, beginning with the hero setting on a quest, accepting a "donor's" help and undergoing tests until "arriving at a higher state" at the conclusion. Given that Propp offered 31 different functions that could be applied, there's much room for flexibility in applying the story equation in various sciences. For paleoanthropology, Landau selects nine of Propp's elements in portraying how various theorists used a similar format in describing the path of human evolution.

Although Landau opens the book with the views of Thomas Henry Huxley and Ernst Haekel, the significant protagonists are the British and American thinkers, Keith, Wood, Elliot Smith, Osborn and Gregory. The central issue was whether humans became bipedal before developing large brains, or the reverse. Elliot Smith stood almost alone in viewing intelligence preceding upright walking. She provides us with a diagram summarizing these theorists before examining their individual views in the text.

Landau finds use of the narrative formula as a liberating mechanism in studying our past. Those paleoanthropologists who resist adopting this technique are unnecessarily restraining themselves, she argues. Attempts by the "post-modernists" and "deconstructionists" to subvert the established narrative structure are unlikely to succeed, particularly where it is utilized in the sciences. She offers the "biography" of a subatomic particle to demonstrate how pervasive the narrative form is within scientific literature. In one sense, Landau may have provided a major step in the unity of science and humanity so earnestly sanctioned by Edward O. Wilson in his "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Landau's book is a fine read and something to have as background when dealing with creating or reading science writing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars must read- anthropology, history of science, story-telling, November 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Narratives of Human Evolution (Hardcover)

Yale bioanthropologist Misia Landau's groundbreaking book is a must read for anyone interested in anthropology, story-telling and history of science. This well written and scholarly researched volume reveals how all major theories of evolution unconsciously retell versions ofthe classic hero folk tale. This book is often misunderstood and misused by Creationists who attempt to dismiss the scientific basis for evolution.