The Origin of Humankind

Leakey here distills the thinking he has elaborated upon in more richly illustrated formats, especially Origins and Origins Reconsidered, both coauthored with Roger Lewin. For the neophyte, something is perhaps gained by a sparer text. and fewer illustrations. The time lines and fossil skeleton views included here are sufficient to keep the wonder and mystery of anthropology pumping while Leakey meticulously teases out the disputes that make the discipline so obsessive. There is necessarily much that is familiar in these pages, but those who are not conversant with anthropology's near-ritual arguments on bipedalism, language and brain evolution, the origins of consciousness etc., will find this survey a reliable course. (Oct.)