Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins (MacSci) Reprint Edition

A trained but non-practicing anthropologist, and a bit behind in keeping up, I have been reading a variety of recent books of this sort, current overviews on where the human evolution field is now, and of the several I have read, I find this one OUTSTANDING.

Tattersall presents the current evidence and thinking in a delightfully cogent and reasoned way, not avoiding or downgrading the less acceptable theories, but politely stating their failures, so that I happily find him right on target with the most reasonable ideas. As he notes, we have not nearly found all the evidence that surely exists, but we seem to have collected enough to make some very salient guesses at what may have been going on these millions of years.

If you are looking for such a read, I highly recommend this one first and perhaps last. (Although I myself am by no means done!)

In Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins, Ian Tattersall tells “the story of how human beings came to be the extraordinary creatures they are” (though before readers get too excited, he tips his hand early-on by asserting, “remarkable as we may think we are, we are actually the product of a routine biological process”). Tattersall, who holds the title of curator emeritus in the Division of Anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History, narrates this epoch tale of human origins through the lens of evolutionary biology, leveraging his training in archaeology, anthropology, geology and geophysics (Cambridge and Yale University), along with his five decades of research, to interpret the evidence of humanity’s evolutionary lineage for a popular audience.

Tattersall frames his 14-chapter presentation in mostly chronological succession, where readers embark on their journey into prehistory by acquaintance with a geographical and topographical survey of the ancient earth (starting about 65 million years ago). Tattersall explains that such factors are not only germane for their influence on the evolutionary process itself, but also for understanding the all-important preservation of fossils which inform paleoanthropological conclusions. “The Rise of the Bipedal Apes” (chapter 2) is where the fabled “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis) is first presented along with the book’s “core,” which as the author explains, is “a chronological account of the long and astonishing process whereby our ancient ancestor . . . became transformed into the amazing and unprecedented creature that Homo sapiens is today.” More than arguing for the truth of this evolutionary perspective, Tattersall assumes it, though he does engage in mild polemics of an in-house nature as the story progresses. To his credit, however, he does not conceal perplexing theoretical and evidential gaps in an evolutionary accounting of origins; on the contrary, he grapples with them in plain view, which makes his engaging and informative account much more palatable for readers skeptical of dogmatic evolutionary presuppositions.

Subsequent chapters present the early hominid lifestyle and discuss the australopithecines in greater depth and scope, which includes an accounting (though not a very good one, see below) of how, within the constraints of their arboreally-adapted means, they ventured onto the wide-open African savanna and competed with predators against which they had little plausible chance of surviving. Nevertheless, modern humans exist, so evolution obviously happened—or so it is reasoned.

Unfortunately, such circularity is common. For example, the inexplicable emergence of symbolic behavior, a development Tattersall describes as a “qualitative leap in cognitive state unparalleled in history,” is accompanied by this surprisingly incoherent assessment: “the only reason we have for believing that such a leap could ever have been made, is that it was made." The problem of symbolic behavior occupies the final two chapters of the book, wherein the author makes a significant capitulatory note: “Exactly how the almost unimaginable transition to the symbolic mental manipulation of information took place remains a subject of pure speculation, though an irresistible one."

This kind of transparency on Tattersall’s part is one of the book’s great strengths. While its author is certainly committed to an evolutionary theory of human origins, he also admits where naturalistic accountings are weighed and found wanting—though that does not translate to an absence of explanatory effort on his part. In fact, some of the contortions he makes in attempting to fit data within an evolutionary story results in an unintended, though no less entertaining, form of amusement. If nothing else, readers will appreciate the imaginative endeavors that (necessarily) go into formulating theories of how the hominids emerged and what they were like.

Accompanying Tattersall’s willingness to bite the proverbial bullet by admitting annoying gaps and mind-boggling impasses in this tale of origins, is a charitable tone that will appeal to readers of all persuasions. Even if one strongly disagrees with him on particular points, they will happily find his presentation absent of bombast, and recognize it as categorically distinct from antagonists of theism/creationism (e.g., New Atheists). Intriguingly, as the final chapter’s title makes plain (“In the Beginning Was the Word”), his charitable attitude toward creationism, even if merely implied by critical omission, is not out of ignorance or disregard of religion, but for a reason he does not to disclose.

Still, while love may cover a multitude of sins, charitable writing does not excuse overreaching conjecture, of which there is plenty. This is an unfortunate weakness of the book, even if wild speculation is an inescapable liability of prehistorical research. Nevertheless, readers will be disappointed with “circumstantial cases” such as those which describe Homo ergaster’s survival on the savanna. Specifically, this (presumably) very lucky hominid managed to endure, by Tattersall’s own reckoning, in spite of its having to compete for food with “professional predators” while somehow escaping those predators in the absence of notable running and climbing abilities. Even worse for H. ergaster, he had no formidable weapons of any kind, a limitation that precluded the most rudimentary arsenal of rocks due to an unfortunate consequence of its awkward shoulder anatomy. The inability to control fire counted twice against this poor hominid, as such a detriment not only removed yet another potential offensive/defensive capacity, but also made it “rather difficult” to prepare animal proteins in a digestible way. These are just a few of the challenges confronting H. ergaster’s existence on the savanna. So how did he survive? Readers are mostly left to speculate for themselves, as problems outnumber the presented solutions. Of course, the lack of explanations (given the scant data) is no fault of the author, though it is problematic for his theory of origins. In fact, if Tattersall brought this “case” to court, it would undoubtedly be dismissed on grounds of insufficient evidence.

In spite of such critique, which applies to most of this project, Masters of the Planet is certainly worthwhile for gaining insight into evolutionary explanations of humanity’s origin. Of course, prospective readers have already been cautioned as to the author’s thoroughgoing naturalistic presuppositions, so assuming those can be tolerated, there is much to be learned from this seasoned and articulate researcher. Accordingly, this book is commended to anyone who is not too easily offended by views contrary to their own, and who wants to understand how an acclaimed evolutionist explains this most important and interesting of topics.

If you are interested in human origins, this is a book you have to buy.

Tattersall is a widely respected expert. His 50 professional years of familiarity, fascination and insight in the field are apparent as are his critical and clear headed thinking. As Curator Emeritus at Anthropology Division of the American Museum of Natural History he understands how to make this science accessible and interesting to the public.

If you've already looked into human origins, you will find the content interesting. If not, you might get more out of it if you read an introduction book first.(Robin McKie's Dawn of Man: THE STORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION is a good such book, and with a more balanced viewpoint). This is a summary book, covering most of the field and mostly up to date, concisely condensing the field's important aspects. The book provides a great overview to interpret future developments in the field. Someone who with a very advanced background may find it simplified - but Ian is an important person in this field and this book is full of his opinions and speculations that are worth reading if you haven't read him before. And his occasional controversial viewpoints and strong opinions should be food for thought.

The majority of the book reviews the interpretation of hominids fossils and their relationship over time. But the book also delves almost equally into a variety of related fields: genetics, biology, life style and features of living apes, skeletal morphology, prehistoric artifacts and chemical analysis. It also includes areas not usually discussed in other books: molecular forensics, language, developmental biology, brain development, psychology and more. Ian masterly interprets and weaves these disparate sources to help bridge information that is missing in the fossil record and create a fabric outlining human origins.

The book is information dense, not light summer reading. Several reviewers wrote they read the book twice and got more from it on the second read. True for me as well.

Literary Quality
Some readers state that Ian writing is easy to read while others find it "foggy" or difficult. Both viewpoints may be true. The book's value is its content and not its literary style.

Its content is presented in a light entertaining way, not in academia writing. Ian presents scientific information, which can be dry and cocooned in jargon, in natural language and an relaxed manner. He is not afraid of speculating about subjects that are not directly accessible from the fossil evidence on subjects that the lay reader will be more interested in. He is a natural story teller, adding surprise and color. So in this sense he is very readable.

But Ian's is not good at basic English exposition: paragraphs are run-ons with two or more topics. He over-qualifies, sometimes qualifies his qualifications - even digressing into equivocation. His desire to be objective (a rare trait among anthropologists) sometimes means he over vacillates. He can be disorderly, jumping around too much. Ian's earlier book was worst, his skills have improved a good deal, but there is still room to improve.

Main Concerns
Tattersall delves into what it means to be human, and how scientists have variously defined over time the criteria that indicate a species is considered to have a direct lineage to mankind. His summary is one of the best write ups I have seen on this.

His main focus is on at what really makes us different to other species - and especially the discontinuities in evolution that made us human. He is also interested in teasing out the critical qualities of our ancestors that made us the in the end the sole Hominid species and "The Masters of the Planet".

Content
I dislike spoiler reviews, giving up too much so I will mostly just mention categories of information. Besides concise reviews of the major fossils: role of genetics in understanding human evolution, non-linear human evolution, biological change is related to environmental change while technological change does not track species, symbolic reasoning, brain architecture, unique nature of our intelligence and reason for its development, language, changing definition of "Human" and the unique status of humans.

However, there are three areas I feel I should say more:

Classification/Systematics: A big problem in Paleoanthropology is a failure to agree on about this field's basics. The vacillations between categorization ("splitters" and "lumpers") and dizzying assignment of fossils to various names greatly adds to the confusion in the field for the interested lay public and amateurs. Ian provides an excellent review of the history of species classification and naming conventions and assignments, on page 94, that helps make sense of the mess that has been made. He hints at some of the remaining problems - but I would have preferred he had more explicit and given us his own opinion on those.

Sudden Change: This book is in some ways a second version of his earlier book - "Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness", where a great deal is said about 'Punctuated Evolution' This is not mentioned in this book probably because Punctuated Evolution, as a catch phrase, has passed out of fashion among most evolutionary scientists. But the concept is still here in a section he called "Sudden Change" and mentioned briefly elsewhere, because it is obviously part of Human Evolution. Being downgraded is ironic because a recent partial explanation has been offered by mutations in regulatory genes - which Ian does go into.

Bipedality is the first "human" trait to show up in the Hominid fossils. He briefly gives the most common conjectures made for its occurrence as most Anthropology books. He also covers the most likely explanation - the expatiations of a pre-existing upright posture of certain larger tree dwelling Miocene and Pleistocene apes. This makes great sense and is an important explanation. So the real mystery is not verticality, but the progressive expatiation of this verticalness to take it to the ground and modification of the foot from a grasping one, to a more human-like one. Ian's low key writing style, it's possible to miss this point which is why I mentioned it. Other books give a stronger presentation and more detail. And I was disappointed that more is not made about the critical role increasingly committed bipedality played in guiding hominid evolution and other human traits.

Ian rightly puts expatiation rather than direct functional adaptations as the fundamental evolutionary processes in his books. Evolution involves expiating and then selectively exploiting existing mutations for new uses/advantages. And he explains that a species is a package deal - with a cluster of advantages and disadvantage in certain circumstances. The book is worth reading for these points alone.

Recommendations to the Reader
Buy the book. I say buy it instead of just read it, because it's one that you are likely going to want to underline and make notes in the margins and read several times. An improved index would increase its value as a reference book. Speaking of reference books, I would read concurrently "The First Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans, which goes into greater detail about fossils and their status and provides reconstructions lacking in this book. But this book provides the interpretation and context lacking in The First Human. The books nicely complement each other. Another complementary book is Ian's earlier book: Becoming Human: etc. But read this book first and that book as an addendum for additional information about processes, not species. That book is also more out of date and by reading this book first you will recognize those areas.

Problems and Suggestions to the Author.
Improving the expository quality is my strongest suggestion. It's the reason I rated the book a four instead of the five your content deserves. I am hope in later editions you find a better rewrite editor or a graduate English student to help that time around. This book, as with most books, has some errors- read danielx's review for some of them. I applaud for you discussing speculations and conjectures - it adds richness to the book but I recommend you make it more apparent when you are doing so. Your focus on what makes humans different and unique can verge on chauvinistic - although less so here than your earlier book.

The book could use many more illustrations; maps of sites and illustration or photos of fossils for every species to just mention a few areas. Since you are a curator, I know you understand the role of visual aids in understanding and learning. Treat this book as you do the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins. The index could be expanded and you might consider a glossary for the less advanced reader.

You might consider going electronic to build upon the book. It deserves a blog by you and a discussion board (which might provide you better feedback - and this is one book that should generate a lot of discussion). If you go electronic, you can add supporting information, your own commentary and notes on the book and more information about additional readings. And you could put the needed glossary and additional illustrations there, as a way to contain publishing costs. Maybe some of the illustrations could come from the Spitzer Hall as a way to promote it. And the website allows updates in the rapidly changing field. It could even become a major website on Human Origins.

Finally, despite the problems and suggestions section you deserve accolades for what you have accomplished. This is a very difficult subject area to delve into deeply and to present in a condensed format and you have produced a `masterly" piece of work.

This is a great book. I highly recommend it if you've read on this subject previously. Tattersall is a giant in the world of Paleoanthropology and this book is nicely written and covers a lot of ground.

Just as an aside, while "Masters of the Planet" is a wonderful book, you may want to check out books by paleoanthropologists such as Donald Johanson and Lee Berger If this is your first book on this subject,

An outstanding review of the current knowledge of the development of our species from the earliest progenitor to the present. For the reader with some knowledge of the subject this work will be very valuable in drawing together information that has be distributed in other works. One of the attractive features of this work is the authors evenhanded and largely unbiased discussion of sometimes controversial discoveries.