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Humans: An Unauthorized Biography



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Author: Claudio Tuniz and Patrizia Tiberi Vipraio

Publisher: Copernicus

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Publish Date: June 23, 2016

ISBN-10: 3319310194

Pages: 124

File Type: PDF

Language: English

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Book Preface

Who are we? Where did we come from? How do we relate to other species? How has the history of human evolution on this planet shaped our behaviour and the challenges we now face, individually and collectively?

From the naı¨ve curiosity of early childhood to the more mature reflections of senior citizens, these questions are uncomfortably recurrent. Few people, however, have a clear basis for providing even provisional answers. We tend to conflate what we think we know with what we wish to be so. We need systematic knowledge, based on evidence, rather than prejudices, hunches or faiths.

Serious engagement with understanding our “deep history” takes us into the realms of anthropology, archaeology, natural history, geology, geography and political economy. It is a profoundly scientific endeavour—investigating the known facts, interrogating the evidence and assessing competing interpretations.

It is also a profoundly philosophical and ethical undertaking—considering the implications of this knowledge in regard to how we now behave and how we might sensibly change our behaviour or social arrangements. The questions to be explored are many and varied. What were our origins, going back over millennia? How have we evolved? Should humans be regarded as diverse species? What is the evidence from which we can draw deeper understandings of our human history? And how does modern science help us in identifying and dating that evidence? What do we know about our origins and our evolving relationships with the natural world, including other species (many of which we are responsible for making extinct)? What about the significance in this story of different types of food? Of the capacity to make tools? Of clothing? Of war? Of burial procedures? Or sundry other social arrangements?

It is rare to find authors with the capacity to deal with such a mind-boggling breadth of concerns. But here is the combined work of a physical scientist and a political economist, jointly seeking to clarify the issues in straightforward language for a broad public audience. It is a bold undertaking and, in my judgement, superbly executed. It is tempting to draw a parallel with other previous “popular” books on scientific topics, such as A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and The ABC of Relativity by Bertrand Russell, setting out to explain scientific complexity with a minimum of fuss.

The book does not presume any significant prior knowledge: an intelligent interest is sufficient. It is recurrently thought-provoking, prompting deep reflection on our origins and nature, while also weaving interesting (and often wry and witty) reflections on contemporary social issues into the historical and scientific narrative. It is clearly structured, progressing step by step through the various interrelated aspects of the topic. The shift in the latter parts towards consideration of cultural and economic themes leads to profoundly challenging conclusions at the end.

Reading this book illustrates the inherently exploratory nature of scientific inquiry and its essentially open-ended character. It is like being invited on a great journey. Better still, two great intersecting journeys—one following the evolution of our species and the other exploring how scientists have sought to analyse that evolution.


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