In Their Own Words

This book is a synthesis of the evolution and adaptive significance of human anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits. Using paleontology and modern human variation and biology, it compares human traits to those of other higher primates, both living and extinct, and presents a new hominization model based on predictable trends observed in other primates. It compares animal tool behavior and the earliest archaeological record, in order to examine the origin of human tool manufacture and use. The book models the origin of early human social behavior, and argues that human intelligence does not arise from complex social interaction, as commonly thought, but from attentiveness to the natural world.

This book is published as part of a well-known series, Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology.