The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Rating:
Summary: Excellent academic introduction to human evolution
Review: I am an archaeology professor who has used this book as a text in my human origins class. No, it is not a mystery-scifi read - but it does a quite decent job with a difficult topic.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Ultra-Left Propaganda.
Review: Much of the focus in this book centers on two issues:

1) There are no such thing as human "races,"

and 2) Humans evolved from apes and "creation scientists" and "intelligent design" theorists are boogie-men up to no good.

The book totally ignores research pointing to the contrary regarding the differences between human races and does not go into any detail why there are different ones. Races formed or "evolved" in adaptation to their environments and created different cultures to express themselves and survive in their environments to the best of their ability. Humans were created by God and this book only shows how difficult the fossil record is to interpret. It is unknown how many different hominids existed and to what species each fossil belonged and what specimins constitute "man" or "Homo sapiens sapiens" or not. If anybody is interested in how ultra-left political ideals influence texbook writing and distribution look no further than this tome.

Rating:
Summary: An ideal introductory text for students of human evolution.
Review: Now in a fully updated fourth edition, John Relethford's The Human Species: An Introduction To Biological Anthropology is divided into three major sections: Evolution and Diversity in Human Populations; Our Place in Nature; and Human Evolution. Updated coverage of the fossil record focuses on broad general groups of early hominids; principles of miroevolution show shown as they apply to the modern human species; the concept of race is thoroughly discussed from a biological and evolutionary perspective; and new interpretations of the number of species of early Homo and Neanderthal DNA are explored. The Human Species is an ideal introductory text for students of anthropology, and informative reading for any non-specialist general reader with an interest in the contemporary status of research in human evolution today.

Rating:
Summary: An ideal introductory text for students of human evolution.
Review: Now in a fully updated fourth edition, John Relethford's The Human Species: An Introduction To Biological Anthropology is divided into three major sections: Evolution and Diversity in Human Populations; Our Place in Nature; and Human Evolution. Updated coverage of the fossil record focuses on broad general groups of early hominids; principles of miroevolution show shown as they apply to the modern human species; the concept of race is thoroughly discussed from a biological and evolutionary perspective; and new interpretations of the number of species of early Homo and Neanderthal DNA are explored. The Human Species is an ideal introductory text for students of anthropology, and informative reading for any non-specialist general reader with an interest in the contemporary status of research in human evolution today.