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The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals Died Out and We Survived 1st Edition

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Clive Finlayson (Author)
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Clive Finlayson (Author)
4 out of 5 stars 102 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0199239191
ISBN-10: 0199239193
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (December 9, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0199239193
  • ISBN-13: 978-0199239191
  • Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 0.8 x 5.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsHumanistic understanding of our closest not- quite ancestors
By F. Scott Valeri on December 7, 2009
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
A terrific and well written analysis of human prehistory with emphasis on a nuanced understanding of our relationship and competition with Neanderthals. Incorporates new knowledge about the rapid cycles of climate change that influenced modern human success and other hominid failure in the last 100,000 years. This slim book gives a great overview of primate and hominid evolution with emphasis on how luck and good fortune in addition to possibly "superior" traits influenced Homo sapiens' ultimate success. Presents more of a focus on facts while withholding some prejudiced judgements that have previously colored our interpretations of prehistory by the final "victors" (us). Very thoughtful and thought provoking, with superb writing that makes technical topics accessible to the lay reader. Evolution is not just about DNA but also must take into account climate change, geography, and habitat stability/transformation in a complex interplay of forces. A smart read that suggests we should be a little more humble about our evolutionary success, and even more concerned about how our impact on climate can affect our future.
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5.0 out of 5 starsMy brain is reeling--enthralling brilliant book
By shanarufus on January 4, 2010
Format: Hardcover
I have been interested in paleo stuff for about 20 years. Read about botany, geography, linguistics, genomics, archeology, evolutionary biology etc etc all in the paleo world. Not being a science-y person (I read literary fiction 70%) it's a lot of information to sift through but after reading maybe 20-25 books I have a sense of the core. Finlayson just debunks and knocks around a lot of the conventional wisdom not really evidence-based and ego-defined debates in the field. My one criticism is that there were not good maps. When he is describing ancient ice ages and interglacials, a few maps with some arrows to show the encroaching glaciers and the receding ones would have ben handy and dandy. I prefer footnotes to end notes but that's a quibble. The fact that my library got this book at all is simply amazing. And trying to get other books that were in the endnotes has proven to be impossible for me. The book is dense and only 220 pages. There is not one wasted word. Finlayson does say in which chapter something is mentioned first when referring to it again which was helpful. This is not really a science book for the layperson and it is hard for me to imagine coming to it without any background at all. Chapter by chapter I never wanted it to end and I stretched out a 2-day read into 4 days. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel exhilarated me just as this book has. Aside: I just recently read Finding Our Tongues by Dean Falk which was wonderful, and Catching Fire: How Cooking Made us Human, which was good. Finlayson gives the origin of language short shrift--just a quick mention of the gene for language acquisition, and he writes a bit more about how eating meat allowed for larger brains. So a little from this one, a little from that one, and over time there is the over-arching story.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsMakes some very good points
By Atheen on June 11, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Although I'm not sure I go along with the Multi-regional Theory of human evolution, I do think that Clive Finleyson's book "The Human's Who Went Extinct" touches on some very cogent points that often get overlooked or glossed over by those with their eyes on the Out of Africa Hypothesis. I certainly found them enlightening and have tried to incorporate them into my own way of thinking about the human species.

More than anything, while authors often give lip service to the fact that people are animals too, they often neglect what that actually entails especially for early humans. Many of the patterns of behavior among early people, regardless of their genus and species, were dictated by necessity and what was possible--even by sheer luck. These writers also seem to ignore the fact that most genera have more than one species in it and that those few that don't are usually under some degree of distress. I think this is something we should pay more attention to than we do when we look at our Neanderthal cousins as "failures," since it has ramifications for our own kind. In this context the author points out that this means that, far from one species "succeeding" another and winning the sweepstakes, there may have been many types of humans alive at any one time, each occupying their own little niche, much as other species in other genera do. That our co-genera species are no longer with us may have something important to tell us about our own contract with Mother Nature. One does not usually blame most extinct species for being "too dumb to live," as we are prone to do with our own ancient ancestors and their peers. All species are suited to the environment in which they evolved; it's only when nature changes the game plan that they may find themselves in trouble.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA fresh look at evolution's "brutes"
By W. V. Buckley on September 27, 2010
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Neanderthals have gotten a bad rap. First they were considered evolution's brutes - a branch on evolution's tree that failed to go anywhere but to a dead end. Then they were classified as being inferior to their Homo sapiens counsins. They were victims of genocide at the hands of early modern man whose gift for innovation outpaced Neanderthals' ability to adapt. Some even postulated that Neanderthals interbred with our ancestors, but even our genes were superior to theirs and wiped out Neanderthal traits.

Now comes Clive Finlayson with the most detailed and complete theory about why our ancestors survived while Neanderthals went extinct, the last of the species dying out in the caves of Gilbralter. In essence, Finlayson's idea of why Homo sapiens prospered can be summed up in a single word: luck. Our ancestors simply moved out of Africa and into the Middle East and Asia at just the right time to take advantage of a changing climate. As the Ice Age locked up ocean water and opened new territories and land bridges for our ancestors, our distant Neanderthal relatives scattered across Central Asia and Europe were being squeezed out by ice shields as well as climate that changed their landscape and ability to hunt. Change a few variables and it could have just as easily been us who disappeared while Neandthals triumphed.

Finlayson's research is superb as he explains how hunting in a forest is different from hunting on a vast, treeless steppe and what these changes meant to the fight for survival. But despite the science that has gone into the book, it's easily accessible to the layman who is interested in paleo-anthropology and evolution.

Let's face it: most of us grew up having to memorize the periodic tables or the chemical process of photosynthesis. No wonder so many of use were turned off by science. It's a shame we didn't have scientists like Finlayson to make science textbooks come alive.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsRecommended

Finlayson presents a thoroughly researched, well reasoned, plausible argument for the effect of environmental forces on human evolution in general and on the demise of Neanderthals... Read more

Published 3 months ago by J. Morgan
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Pleasant.

Published 3 months ago by José Ponte
4.0 out of 5 starsGood informative read.

Found this book very informative, but the story line did jump around a little more than I would have liked. Still a very good read with plenty to think of. Read more

Published 3 months ago by History Larks
4.0 out of 5 starsToThose Of Us For Whom This Subject Is Endlessly Fascinating

This field is moving so fast that some of Finlayson's ideas are already out of date. Still, interesting ideas and good writing.

Published 5 months ago by cprkwy8
3.0 out of 5 starsThe Neanderthals Rediscovered by Dimitra Papagianni Is a Better Read

The book generates some powerful conclusions about man's evolution, but the writing is long-winded, and the author focuses more on geology and climate change than the lives of our... Read more

Published 5 months ago by C. Q.
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Good book

Published 7 months ago by Peter R. Bortolan
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Knowledgeable book

Published 9 months ago by danielle alip
5.0 out of 5 starsAn alternative perspective

A very interesting alternative view of a perennial question. The author approaches the problem from a new angle. Instead of asking "Why did the Neanderthals become extinct? Read more

Published 10 months ago by Stephan F. Politzer
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Wrong Place or The Wrong Time

Finlayson states his argument succinctly: ”The key point of my argument is the one that makes, for me, our story such a beautiful one. It is the role of chance. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Patricia P Nelson
5.0 out of 5 starsPerspective

From this book one gets a perspective on how we got here (lots of luck) and where we are likely headed (very bad news). Will we go extinct due to our lack of survival skills? Read more

Published 10 months ago by D. Dickerson

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