Customer Reviews

Race And Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction

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To begin with, there is a lot of trash out there posing as explanations of human evolution. Wolpoff and Caspari's book is NOT one of these. The authors take pains to explain what multiregional evolution is NOT, namely, the multiple origin of humanity. Like just about everyone else, they contend that humans originated in Africa. However, they build a persuasive case that (a) there is no such species as Homo erectus, and (b) that the earliest Homo sapiens left Africa some two million years ago. Whether or not one agrees with this scenario, it makes interesting and informative reading, and I believe is a must for anyone interested in the evolution of humanity, for it provides an alternative to the now-popular view that "modern" humans, whatever that may mean, originated late, in Africa and "replaced" everyone else.à

This book accurately portrays the skeletal evidence for human origins, in the context of the Multi-regional theory of human evolution. In this respect it's typical Wolpoff & his usual high standard of excellence, "nuff said. What REALLY needs commentary is the major misconception several reviewer have posted. DNA data has NOT "blown skeletal studies out of the water". We now know that mtDNA AND Y-chromosome lineages ARE HIGHLY subject to natural selection, which means that selective processes CAN (& WILL) cause "lineage replacement" in populations. The multi-regional theory REQUIRES geneflow between regional populations, and even miniscule levels of geneflow will introduce "new" lineages, that can replace the earlier lineages in that population. Selective advantages of as little as hundredths of a percent, and "once in a century" geneflow between adjacent populations, WILL result in total worldwide replacement of lineages within a 100,000-150,000 year period WITHOUT significantly affecting the rest of the genepool. So yes, lineage studies DO "show" that we all share common mtDNA & Y-chromosome ancestors within the last 50-250,000 years (depending on which mutation rate estimate is used), but this actually FITS the predictions of the multi-regional model (for that matter, some mutation rate estimates give calculations that ALLOW descent from regional Homo erectus populations). And.... autosomal DNA studies REVEAL ancient regional population structuring for most genes that goes back as much as a million years, but more recent structuring for other genes, which is ALSO exactly what you'd expect under multi-regionalism's "geneflow & spread of advantageous genes" expectation.... but NOT what would be expected of a human population that recently spread out of Africa. So look at ALL the data INCLUDING BOTH the skeletal (which this book is excellent on) AND the DNA side of things (sadly, I've seen no single comprehensive reference on this aspect) before making up your mind. I suggest you read this book AND search pubmed for scientific papers covering the full spectrum of DNA study interpretations.

The debate between multiregional evolution vs. the replacement model continues unabated, and naturally, not without certain biases muddling the understanding of the interested lay-reader. Wolpoff and Caspari do an excellent job of presenting the historical foundations for the intellectual biases AND the over-simplified misunderstandings of multiregional evolution perpetuated by the popular media which are responsible for the ongoing confusion regarding this debate. Human evolution is NOT a simple matter easily reduced to one or two easy-to-manage ideas. The replacement model is well addressed in the text and is shown to be easier to comprehend than the multiregional model, which explains the media's favoratism for the former. The technical information provided favoring both views is carefully presented and explained, and the reader is left with the task of making up his/her own mind. An approach of which I approve. Balancing this text with those of Dr. C. Stringer and Prof. Rushton (another review on this site) is recommended for even treatment. Were I teaching a course in paleoanthroplogy, I would certainly make Wolpoff & Caspari's book required reading.

I just finished reading Race and Human Evolution. There is a lot of food for thought within those pages and, overall, it is very well written. I must add, however, that some of their "scientific" views are based as much upon ideology as upon science. Though a breath of fresh air, this book is also a strict adherent, and proponent, of the leftist ideological edifice. If only Wolpoff and Caspari (who make a very nice looking couple, by the way), would free themselves from the shackles of leftist thought, they could reach new heights in the quest for human knowledge - though they would not be very popular amongst their colleagues and friends any more.

The first half of the book deals with the history of Anthropology and I love the way they lead up to the theories of Weidenreich and flesh him out into a very likable and sympathetic character whose ideas were ahead of his time, even as they were misunderstood and misrepresented.

Overall, this book is a worthy addition to my library and well worth the money.

I found the book extremly interesting and insightful. It is of interest that Wolpoff feels that anthropologists who use fossils which are categorized as Neandertal, might be a bit narrow, xenophobic, in their ideals. They use the European white as the standard. High eyebrow ridges are characteristics of some in the human family, whose skulls today might just as well be Neandertal.

Another anthropology college textbook described Viking skeletons as being almost identical to Neandertals. The publication, The Origin of Life, quotes Wolpoff as writing, "Neandertals may have been a true human race," from the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, "How Neandertals Inform Human Variation. 2009, p.91

Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution

Major changes in scientific thinking are rarely embraced by those who have dedicated a lifetime to an opposing orthodoxy. Plate tectonics is an example - it became accepted because old geologists died! And so it's no surprise that Wolpoff doesn't accept a recent African origin.

But we now have several mtDNA studies of Neanderthals, and this year the Planck Institute published a draft Neanderthal genome. So multi-regionalism (at least as far as Europe is concerned) is a dead duck. No doubt it will continue to have a dwindling following and ever more convoluted ways of shoe-horning the facts into this ill-fitting shoe will be conjectured, but as serious science it is already being wheeled into the morgue.

This book is a rehash of previous statements and out-dated concepts. As one reviewer has already noted, the molecular data and its interpretation (both mtDNA and RNA) makes this book redundant. Also the discussion of the fossil evidence fails to examine issues of function and developmental processes, which can have a significant impact on morphological form. As such, their implied 'evolutionary trends' within and between hominin groups are just as likley the result of convergence - anatomical analogies (i.e., homoplasies)

The dedication says it all:

"To Franz Weidenreich. He understood"

oh, to be a voice in the wilderness....