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As fossil discoveries stir debates about our deep past, a new
way of understanding human origin is taking shape. It places human ancestors within
the story of Earth's ecology -- the conditions of nature that have led to the
evolution of all the planet's organisms. In this groundbreaking book, Rick Potts
uncovers the ecology of our earliest forebears, explores their survival and extinction,
and tells the drama of human evolution as it has never been told before. Potts,
internationally known for his innovation excavations of early archeological sites,
brilliantly connects our planet's past with the environmental dilemmas we now
face, showing how ancient humans responded to the forces of nature and survived
long periods of dramatic habitat disturbance. As Darwin
defined the role of natural selection in evolution, so this book introduces a
new process of nature -- variability selection -- which laid the foundation of
modern human ecology, including our ability to endure, and to create, environmental
crises. Our planet became cooler, drier, and less forested over several million
years, but the change was neither simple nor continuous. Our ancestors emerged
in an area of erratic change caused by volcanic eruptions, land uplift, and climatic
extremes. Human evolution was not, as widely believed, a progressive adaptation
to the savanna, but a response to an uncertain environment. From the first two-legged
walkers and their eventual spread from Africa, to the origin of symbolic speech
and modern cultural diversity, Humanity's Descent traces how humans evolved
the means to cope with environmental disturbance and, ultimately, to hold the
reins of survival and extinction in the modern world. In
the end, Humanity's Descent offers a provocative statement about the present
status of our species and its institutions. Potts convincingly explains why prevailing
ideals of economic growth and environmental preservation are based on mistaken,
short-term views of the natural world. Our future lies, as it always has, in our
ability to tolerate environmental insult and to revise our relationship with nature. "People
like you and me," Potts concludes, "will decide a course for the planet
by choosing ways to interact with it. We cannot avoid being involved in the collective
result, which, in a primal sense, is the continuing path of human origin." Rick
Potts is Director of Human Origins at the National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution. In addition to his field expeditions to Kenya and China,
he is widely known as an author and commentator. His contributions include his
acclaimed book Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai and numerous scientific
articles. His ideas and comments have been aired on several occasions on NPR's
All Things Considered, and he was awarded a Certificate of Honour by the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the Emmy-winning Tales of the
Human Dawn on PBS. He gave the 1991 plenary speech to the American Association
of Physical Anthropologists and he will give the 1996 plenary address at the North
American Paleontological Convention. He lives in Arlington, Virginia. |
