Customer Reviews

The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins

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This book is an example of excellent science writing. The picture of Homo Erectus ' everyday life immerges through the fascinating story of hard work done by a group of paleoanthropologists and other scientists. The book begins with the author's observation of how much different he is from a Turkana woman that he casually observes. The author then reflects back on the past investigations of the creature (Eugene Dubois, "Peking Man", etc.). The most interesting part of the book includes the description of the investigative processes that dig into the life of a creature that lived around 1.5 million years ago. I really liked the author's reasoning for the hypothesis that Homo Erectus possessed such human attributed quality as caring for the old and infirm. At the end of the book Mr. Walker returns to his original observation from another angle. This time he makes a reader feel that no matter how different other cultures in the world may be, we are still the same species, whereas Homo Erectus was a creature from a different world. It was a transitory creature of the process that made man from man-ape. This book really leaves the impression of a well thought up and very readable science writing, which will appeal to any reader interested in the origins of our species.

Alan Walker's and Pat Shipman's entertaining The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins, admirably accomplishes the writers' two objectives. First, Walker and Shipman describe Walker's own 1984 finding in Kenya of "Nariokotome boy", a nearly complete Homo erectus skeleton, and how that skeleton fit into the history of human paleontology from the 19th century through the "Piltdown Man" hoax and to the present. Second, this book explains how scientists are able to tease out from the slimmest of evidence great detail about their finds. For example, determining the boy's age, diet, and other particulars. This book should appeal both to the general reader and those interested in both the discoveries and marvels of science.

Aside from being a fantastic professor and wonderful conversationalist Alan Walkier is a great writer. He and his wife Pat Shipman have taken many literary ventures together; this one being their best.

The challenge in popular scientific books is to make potentially dense material easy to read so that the reader doesn't feel burdened by the material he or she reads. Walker and Shipman do this very well in "Wisdom of the Bones". Walker successfully integrates two stories here- one of his trip to Kenya leading up to his team's revolutionary discovery of Turkana Boy (Homo erectus/ ergaster), and the other of Turkana Boy and his bretherin.

The book doubles as a pleasurable novel and a factually saturated work-- I've found this book an invaluable resource in many classes, but i've also enjoyed the plot line. Walker keeps one engaged throughout the book-- not an easy feat in the scientific world.

Although this is obviously a book grounded in science, it's important to note that this isn't chemistry or quantum physics, where if you don't have specialized knowledge it will be a waste of your time. The authors here do a great job of presenting their findings and then explaining how and why they made the assumptions they did based on those findings. Anybody can follow their logic and come to their own conclusions based on the evidence. It is also very well written and even the story of the researchers travelling to Africa is quite interesting.

I saw another reviewer bashing the authors for making wild conclusions based on minimal evidence. But that is the creative genius of these people. They're not making wild conclusions, but rather the most logical findings they can working with tiny pieces of bone millions of years old. For instance, at one point the authors discuss finding evidence of a specific type of disease in a pre homo-sapiens fossil. We know that the person (or hominid!) would have been partially crippled for some extended period of time, and certainly unable to gather food and defend against predators. Much like reading tree rings, the next layers of bone show that the infection or disease healed, and the being likely recovered and went on with life. The fact of the recovery leads to the author's conclusion that at this point in pre-history, the (person) had someone else as a caregiver, helping gather water and food and offering shelter, etc. This is important and offers glimpses into the mental and emotional development at that point in time. It seems a rather simple idea, but it's just one of numbers of brilliant ideas the authors proffer that don't seem like wild conclusions at all.

The entire book is fascinating and quite honestly makes me wish I could go back in time and change professions.

Pat Shipman and Alan Walker are not only brilliant scientists, but also superb authors. Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. Excellent for aspiring anthropologists, like myself, and ANYONE interested in human origins. Fantastic writing, excellent research. In fact, every book this husband and wife team has written is fantastic. TAKING WING by Pat Shipman, about Archaeopterix and the origin of flight is another highly addictive book!

Although I'm not a specialist in this field and it is not written in my mother tongue the book took all my interest. It is absolutly faczinating. Nevertheless more technical information and less "old time" stories would be appreciated by me. I want to have more of these kind of books. Sorry for my poor English. Congrats Dr. G. Staengl

I had to read this book for an introduction to archaeology anthropology class in college this semester (fall 2007). I really enjoyed reading it. Compared to the professor's textbook, it was an easy read for a paleoanthropologic study, almost like a novel. I learned so much about the history of the field of paleoanthropology, archaeology and humans such as anatomy and why and how we are able to do what we do. I thought this was the best book we had to read for the semester. I'm very glad the professor assigned it. I feel like I've added not only an enormous amount of knowledge but valuable knowledge. Many subjects in the book applied to so many different parts of my life, my relationships and my future. I am really amazed at how this book has applied to me. I highly recommend it to people who aren't studying anthropology and to those who are.

It took me several chapters to get into this book, but once the authors began extrapolating on the reasons for various features of the Nariokotome boy, I was hooked. It contains some fascinating facts and speculations on our species' origins which stick with you to contemplate long after you finish the book.

It is largely a semi autobiogographic account of Alan Walker's life, which I am not concerned about, It does have some information on the Nariokotome Boy which I am very interested in.

As such it held little that kept me interested.