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Roger Lewin

Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human Paperback – October 1, 1993

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

4.8 37 ratings

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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.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Anchor
Publication date

October 1, 1993
Dimensions

5.66 x 0.92 x 9.18 inches
ISBN-10

0385467923
ISBN-13

978-0385467926
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Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5

37 global ratings

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Good Luck Putting It Down

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2017

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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!

2 people found this helpful

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oscar mc donald

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2017

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great

One person found this helpful

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E. King

Nice ideas...difficult reading

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2004

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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.

6 people found this helpful

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Chad M

Early humans were primitive compared to today's people, but were much smarter than chimpanzees

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2021

The evolution and living patterns of early humans near lakes and rivers further validates the vital role of these resources and ecosystems. Anthropologists find that hominids lived in bands of about 100 to 200 individuals and were constantly roving about and looking for food, water, and shelter. While the mental capacity of early humans was dramatically different they still were much smarter than chimpanzees. Their lack of any kind of modern culture meant that when they got sick or disabled they really didn't know why this was happening. The fossil record shows instances of good nutrition but also injuries and malnutrition. The co-evolution of early humans and ecosystems has been studied and is now well understood.

One person found this helpful

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Mapping Human Origins

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2009

This book shares the history of many history books in my library which were bought in the 1980s. I collected a set of books on various kinds of science and have kept them over the years, gradually reading them. I mostly read sections in each, to sample them.

From 2003 till about 2006, I systematically went through them all, plus others that I had added in the course of this reading plan. Thus Leaky and Lewin sat in almost new condition on my bookcase for many years till I absorbed the whole thing finally in 2005.

Acquaintance
One reason I bought this book is because of my acquaintance with Richard Leakey. We never had an extensive relationship but I met him early in my experience as a young man in Africa. I met Richard in 1972 in Nairobi, when my wife and I were members of the Kenya Museum Society. While living in Kenya for about 25 years, we followed Richard's career in paleoanthropology, conservation and politics in the precarious rough and tumble of Kenya's volatile tribal atmosphere.

I appreciated Leakey's stand on moral and scientific standards. He resisted the pressures of political expediency and the pragmatism of a party trying to stay in power. The situation made it difficult for him to conduct some of the public duties even while he was the Director of the Kenya Museums.

Species Revision
Edith and I heard and early lecture by Richard, presented to the small group of Society members one evening, on the change in theory of human pre-history arising out of his discoveries. In this book Roger Lewin assists Leakey to present a scenario of pre-history, reconstructed from fossil findings and surmises of archaeologists.

A key theme is that Neanderthals and other humanoid beings were NOT direct ancestor species of the modern human, homo sapiens sapiens. This has been proven definitively now by DNA research. DNA also proves Leakey's theory that the human race had one common beginning, in Africa. This book is very informative.

Drama
Origins reads like a novel, which it basically is. There is a dramatic motif spinning out how it must have been, filling in from imagination the details to bridge the great gaps between the relatively few bones of various kinds from which a humanoid evolutionary history has been reconstructed.

The stories attempt to paint a picture of daily life and interaction with their environment. This novelesque approach helps bring to life these beings as real living individuals. There is extensive cultural information, however, on various human cultures.

Leakey and Lewin make important connections from various disciplines of science to explain aspects of human culture and suggest possible ways these practices and social structures arose in human history.

2 people found this helpful

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C. M. Stahl

Convergence and Evolution

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2005

"Men it appears would rather believe than know. They would rather have the void of purpose...than to be void of purpose." E. O Wilson

There is a concept of "convergence" that is used by many evolutionary scholars to make their case that evolution is real, factual and not only tells us about history but allows us to make valid predictions about the future. This notion of convergence tells us that there is not one specific event or proof that guarantees that the theory of evolution is real but there exists detailed evidence in many arenas of science that all point to the same conclusion.

Origins Reconsidered provides a methodology of convergence that is critical in making a case for what appears obvious to the thinking individual. Unfortunately, the theory of Evolution requires constant re-proving. Evidence which has been overwhelming for the last 150 years is still subject to "debate" for a contingent large in numbers, who have attempted to erode the credibility of this science by locating little chinks in the over all armor. Briefly, convergence is the making of inductions from classes of facts that may be disparate in and of them selves, and making strong scientific cases for each class. Once that is done the convergence of all of these explanations makes an extraordinary case for the over all objective. In this case the objective is that the theory of evolution is once again, strong and obvious.

The book is written in six different parts that take the reader through an explanation of methodology, through some obvious conclusions and lastly into some speculation about what the future bodes. The authors tell most of the story in clear and sequential ways. Initially part one "In search of the Turkana Boy" is more prosaic and nearly fictional in style. It describes the setting and friendships amongst skilled and intellectual colleagues in search of "Missing link" or at least additional verification of paleo-anthropological evolution. In this section I did worry that I was reading the wrong book; that I was about to endure a book of anecdotes about what life in the anthropological dig would be. Fortunately I did not give up.

Leakey attempts to make a case for how the first humans came about. At what point are those of us who are considered human distinguished from other nearly similar hominoids? Leakey explores aspects of personality that of course include the use of tools but extends the search to the beginning of language, writing, musical instrument making and art to name a few aspects.

He explores the concept of consciousness and morality to further his premise. While many animals have instinctual altruism and show human signs of affection it is the ability to remember things distant and to create an ethical code of morality that distinguishes us from Cro-Magnons and other late near humans.

Leakey furthers his case by addressing evolution itself and the arguments against it. He talks about the arguments and dismisses them succinctly. "In many cases the urge to know surpasses what can be known; questions without answers." Many find this impossible to accept and seek mysticism in its place, extracting meaning where none exists.

Leakey would applaud the fact that mankind has evolved into the most powerful animal on earth but he has no delusions that this is part of a divine plan. There is no predestination in evolution. Mutations occur that are of benefit and help those survive to pass that gene on and improve the species. What has happened in history is only one possible result. There is no inherent superiority in adaptation. Humans have always tried to have a gap between them and animals mainly because of the need to assuage our subjective consciousness.

Origins Reconsidered also discusses how difficult paleontology really is. He uses the problem of distinguishing early hunter/gatherers from scavengers as an example. Both leave their orts in locations that are very difficult to distinguish. At the same time these are very different survivors.

Ultimately Leakey maintains that while currently humans rule the earth it may not always be so, at least not as we understand humans. He sees the future as one wrought with ecological problems. He uses the notion of mass extinction to make his point. He asserts that throughout history there have been many periods of natural mass extinction. Those were precipitated by events such as Ice Ages. He maintains that Biota are fairly resistant to natural disaster. Floods for instances can apparently wipe out some local vegetation but that same biota can revive. Man made ecological disaster is another matter. Leakey's concern is that the current trends toward smog, deforestation and global warming my create a pathos that vegetation cannot withstand.

Leakey and Lewin display very clearly, the science behind their own efforts but they also describe the weaknesses of science in making determinations about what is a human. Those weaknesses are noble when they are ascribed based on sound scientific theory and otherwise when "proven" by only considering results that make one's point.

Leakey may have an axe to grind. He presents excellent scientific evidence but was never trained as a scientist in any field. Of course he is a scion of one of the most prolific of paleontologists; he never received a degree of any sort to lend to his credentials. His skills come from "on the job training" but they are sound. I believe it is rare that an individual can produce sound evidence to back up their empirical claims without the scholarly background, Leakey has done it.

As a non scientist, it is my endeavor to understand evolution from as many perspectives as possible and this is a book that weighs heavily on that purpose.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Guy Pierre Poulin

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on August 17, 2017

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A must in anthropologue!

Macninetynine

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 1, 2017

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Book condition as indicated.

Sassafras

Mankind Arising.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2017

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A fascinating account of how ape-like hominids evolved into humans - both physically and mentally - by one of the world's most famous paleo-anthropologists.

Tze Tshen LIM

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 6, 2017

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Satisfied. Good product.

John L.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 29, 2016

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Thanks

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