Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human Reprint Edition

by Richard E. Leakey (Author), Roger Lewin (Contributor)

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ISBN-13: 978-0385467926

ISBN-10: 0385467923

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Richard Leakey's personal account of his fossil hunting and landmark discoveries at Lake Turkana, his reassessment of human prehistory based on new evidence and analytic techniques, and his profound pondering of how we became "human" and what being "human" really means.

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Editorial Reviews

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Famed paleoanthropologist Leakey relates an intellectual odyssey, describing his discoveries of human origins and his reflections on the nature of humanity. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Paperback: 424 pages
Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (October 1, 1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385467923
ISBN-13: 978-0385467926
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 20 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #858,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #280 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Theology > Creationism
- #833 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Mammals
- #1757 in Books > History > World > Civilization & Culture

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Good Luck Putting It Down

April 16, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Read this in high school years ago and recently had been trying to find it again. Glad I decided to check Amazon-I've had to force myself to put it down. Leakey did an amazing job with this book. 5 stars and would recommend this!

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E. King

Nice ideas...difficult reading

October 6, 2004

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I almost gave this book 3 stars for it's difficult narrative style, but that would have taken away from the fact that it is full of great ideas. Lots of photos and illustrations cut through the slow moments. More info on the mitochondrial hypothesis would have been nice also. Still a great read all in all.

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April 3, 2017

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great

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LEAKEY’S FINAL BOOK ON HUMAN ORIGINS

June 2, 2014

Format: Hardcover

Richard Leakey also wrote Origins,People of the Lake: Mankind and Its Beginnings,The Making of Mankind,Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures, etc. Coauthor Roger Lewin (born 1944) is a British science writer, who wrote for "Science" magazine for ten years as News Editor; he has written other books such as Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins, and Principles of Human Evolution. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 375-page hardcover edition.]

He wrote in the Prologue to this 1992 book, "as a youth I fiercely wanted my independence and desperately fought to be out of my parents' shadow. I was drawn to the search for beginnings... Long after I became involved in fossil hunting, but while my father and I were still clashing antlers, I came across a manuscript of a lecture he had given... One sentence arrested my attention: 'The past is the key to our future.' ... it expressed my own conviction completely... had i unconsciously absorbed it from him? I doubt the latter, because as a boy I was not much interested in what he was doing. My father was religious, although not in the conventional sense; I am not. Yet apparently we had come to the same numinous point. It was a poignant moment for me..." (Pg. xiv-xv)

He observes about the fossils found by Dubois, "It is interesting and instructive that a single set of fossils could provoke such contradictory expert opinion. Fossil anatomy can be extremely difficult to interpret, especially when it is fragmentary, as it so often is. People's expectations, their scientific preconceptions, influence their judgments. All scientists work from some kind of theoretical framework and interpret evidence in its light. Weak evidence can often be made to fit such a framework, whatever its form. I've seen that happen many times in paleoanthropology today." (Pg. 51)

He says about Donald Johanson, "About a decade ago our personal and professional relationship began to deteriorate, for reasons I consider best not discussed publicly. One manifestation of the eroding relationship, however, was that, when reporters spotted an opportunity for a 'good personality story,' they frequently set up Don and me in opposition, often where no real confrontation existed..." (Pg. 98)

He argues, "I challenge the notion that humanness arose very rapidly and very late in our evolution. I suspect that this extreme position has been adopted because of a desire to have ideas accepted in an unusual intellectual climate, an unconscious but powerful process. Many people believe that humans are so different from the rest of the animal world, they cannot accept the idea that we are a product of evolution, just like other species... Much more reasonable, it seems to me... is the notion that qualities as complex as consciousness, morality, and ethics developed over a long period of time in our history." (Pg. 199) Later, he adds, "In a sense, proto-human culture is not only a product of our ancestors' behavior, it is also part of the selection pressure that drives further evolution." (Pg. 214)

He says, "Albert Einstein once quipped that he was interested in finding out 'if God had any choice in creating the universe the way he did.' In the same vein, I would phrase my quest as finding out what plans, if any, God had for Homo sapiens." (Pg. 342) Later, he adds, "To answer my earlier question, God surely had no plans for Homo sapiens, and could not even have predicted that such a species would ever arise." (Pg. 349) He concludes on the note, "I expect to continue my involvement in wildlife conservation for some years, but I may never again be as involved as I once was in the search for human ancestors. The journey of discovery has taken me to new territories, territories from which the place of Homo sapiens in the universe of things is more clearly perceived." (Pg. 359-360)

This is an excellent book, that will be of great interest to anyone studying the matter of human origins.

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LEAKEY'S FINAL BOOK ON HUMAN ORIGINS

June 2, 2014

Format: Library Binding

Richard Leakey also wrote Origins,People of the Lake: Mankind and Its Beginnings,The Making of Mankind,Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures, etc. Coauthor Roger Lewin (born 1944) is a British science writer, who wrote for "Science" magazine for ten years as News Editor; he has written other books such as Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins, and Principles of Human Evolution.

He wrote in the Prologue to this 1992 book, "as a youth I fiercely wanted my independence and desperately fought to be out of my parents' shadow. I was drawn to the search for beginnings... Long after I became involved in fossil hunting, but while my father and I were still clashing antlers, I came across a manuscript of a lecture he had given... One sentence arrested my attention: 'The past is the key to our future.' ... it expressed my own conviction completely... had i unconsciously absorbed it from him? I doubt the latter, because as a boy I was not much interested in what he was doing. My father was religious, although not in the conventional sense; I am not. Yet apparently we had come to the same numinous point. It was a poignant moment for me..." (Pg. xiv-xv)

He observes about the fossils found by Dubois, "It is interesting and instructive that a single set of fossils could provoke such contradictory expert opinion. Fossil anatomy can be extremely difficult to interpret, especially when it is fragmentary, as it so often is. People's expectations, their scientific preconceptions, influence their judgments. All scientists work from some kind of theoretical framework and interpret evidence in its light. Weak evidence can often be made to fit such a framework, whatever its form. I've seen that happen many times in paleoanthropology today." (Pg. 51)

He says about Donald Johanson, "About a decade ago our personal and professional relationship began to deteriorate, for reasons I consider best not discussed publicly. One manifestation of the eroding relationship, however, was that, when reporters spotted an opportunity for a 'good personality story,' they frequently set up Don and me in opposition, often where no real confrontation existed..." (Pg. 98)

He argues, "I challenge the notion that humanness arose very rapidly and very late in our evolution. I suspect that this extreme position has been adopted because of a desire to have ideas accepted in an unusual intellectual climate, an unconscious but powerful process. Many people believe that humans are so different from the rest of the animal world, they cannot accept the idea that we are a product of evolution, just like other species... Much more reasonable, it seems to me... is the notion that qualities as complex as consciousness, morality, and ethics developed over a long period of time in our history." (Pg. 199) Later, he adds, "In a sense, proto-human culture is not only a product of our ancestors' behavior, it is also part of the selection pressure that drives further evolution." (Pg. 214)

He says, "Albert Einstein once quipped that he was interested in finding out 'if God had any choice in creating the universe the way he did.' In the same vein, I would phrase my quest as finding out what plans, if any, God had for Homo sapiens." (Pg. 342) Later, he adds, "To answer my earlier question, God surely had no plans for Homo sapiens, and could not even have predicted that such a species would ever arise." (Pg. 349) He concludes on the note, "I expect to continue my involvement in wildlife conservation for some years, but I may never again be as involved as I once was in the search for human ancestors. The journey of discovery has taken me to new territories, territories from which the place of Homo sapiens in the universe of things is more clearly perceived." (Pg. 359-360)

This is an excellent book, that will be of great interest to anyone studying the matter of human origins.

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M. Tessler

Another great Leakey book...

January 22, 2015

Format: Paperback

This review duplicates my review of "The Sixth Extinction," but in no way detracts from my comments there, and here. I am currently working towards a Master's Degree in History, and this book fits nicely into my studies of prehistory, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology, and geology. I've been a student of the work done by the Leakey's, starting with Louis and Mary, Richard's parents. He follows their footprints quite well, and I have read several of his books. The two I find most notable are this, Origins Reconsidered, and "The Sixth Extinction." I think both books are well written, and for someone with interests such as mine, make great reading. Don't forget his latest find, the ”Black Skull”, a new species, Australopithecus Aethiopicus. His books are great reads, and this, like all of his books, follows suit. Highly recommended.

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