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Russell Tuttle synthesizes a vast literature in primate evolution and behavior to explain how apes and humans evolved in relation to one another and why humans became a bipedal, tool-making, culture-inventing species distinct from other hominoids. He refutes the theory that we are sophisticated, instinctively aggressive and destructive killer apes.
List of contents
Contents 1. Mongrel Models and Seductive Scenarios of Human Evolution Part I: Terminology, Morphology, Genes, and Lots of Fossils 2. Apes in Space 3. Apes in Time 4. Taproot and Branches of Our Family Tree Part II: Positional and Subsistence Behaviors 5. Apes in Motion 6. Several Ways to Achieve Erection 7. Hungry and Sleepy Apes 8. Hunting Apes and Mutualism Part III: Hands, Tools, Brains, and Cognition 9. Handy Apes 10. Mental Apes Color Illustrations Part IV: Sociality and Communication 11. Social, Antisocial, and Sexual Apes 12. Communicative Apes Part V: What Makes Us Human? 13. Language, Culture, Ideology, Spirituality, and Morality Notes References Illustration Credits Index
About the author
Russell H. Tuttle is Professor of Anthropology on the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, at the Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine, and in the College at the University of Chicago.
Report
Like the late Stephen Jay Gould's magisterial Structure of Evolutionary Theory, Tuttle's tome is a grand synthesis of all the latest research and data about apes and their relation to us... But lest you think it is intended chiefly for colleagues in the fields of anthropology and evolutionary biology, Tuttle's style throughout is crisp and often witty.
-- John Farrell Forbes
Witty, readable, compendious, learned, and judicious, Russell Tuttle's big new book offers every reader a thorough survey of the biology and evolution of apes, including humans and their ancestors. For scientists, it will be an invaluable resource and a treasury of unfamiliar facts and challenging ideas.
-- Matt Cartmill, Professor of Anthropology, Boston University
In this masterly overview, Tuttle interprets human evolution through detailed comparisons with our closest zoological relatives, the apes. This is a truly monumental treatise, not only in scope but particularly because of the depth of scholarship that has been brought to bear. Drawing on a lifetime of study focusing on anatomy but also including behavior and ecology, this is destined to become a classic reference work.
-- Robert D. Martin, A. Watson Armour III Curator of Biological Anthropology, The Field Museum, Chicago
A rare accomplishment. Apes and Human Evolution is an unusually fine contribution to the field and will foster great interest in any reader.
-- Duane Rumbaugh, Regents Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Language Research Center, Georgia State University
Tuttle provides both a synthesis and a history of the evolution of one of the most interesting species of all: ourselves. An impressive achievement, written by an authority on the topic.
-- Karen B. Strier, Vilas Professor and Irven DeVore Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
