Who are we and where have we come from? Potts, director of the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program, offers an academic study tracing humanity's ancestors and the forces that led to our dominance on Earth. He argues persuasively, if redundantly, that environmental instability has been the single constant shaping our interaction with nature. He is at his best when discussing characteristics that may make us unique in the animal kingdom: our acquisition of language and culture, as well as our capacity to plan for the future, particularly with respect to maintaining a viable food supply. Unfortunately, Potts concludes the book by attempting to apply his anthropological, archeological and paleontological hypotheses to current environmental issues such as global warming, habitat loss and species extinction; his treatment of both environmentalists and their opponents is too simplistic. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Potts, the director of the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins program, proposes that climatic forces are always at work in the world and that ecological stability is a misnomer. Exploring the relationship of human and animal life with nature in an attempt to explain evolutionary patterns, he notes that similar evolutionary paths are traveled by a wide variety of plants and animals, even by those on isolated continents. Like Steven Stanley in Children of the Ice Age (LJ 4/15/96 ), Potts proposes that the evolutionary advantage of Homo sapiens lies in the ability to adjust constantly to a changing environment. Yet he goes further by exploring this premise with many other species, concluding that the earth's ecology is constantly changing. Numerous animal and plant species have flourished for thousands of years only to become extinct at some point when they could no longer meet the challenge of a changing environment. Potts has presented a truly interesting hypothesis that he supports throughout with good examples. Recommended for most libraries.
Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., Kansas
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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