Synopses & Reviews
INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY continues to present a comprehensive, well-balanced introduction to the field, combining an engaging writing style and compelling visual content to bring the study of physical anthropology to life for today's students. With a focus on the big picture of human evolution, the text helps students master the basic principles of the subject and arrive at an understanding of the human species and its place in the biological world. This book continues to keep pace with changes in the field by including thorough coverage of cutting-edge advances in molecular biology and genomics, expanded material on modern human biology, and the latest in new fossil finds.
Synopsis
Jurmain's best-selling text provides you with the course content you need to help you pass your biological/physical anthropology course. Through clear discussions that move from 'description' to interpretation, compelling visual content, cutting-edge research, and interactive multimedia, you'll discover life's history and the place of human beings in the biological world.
About the Author
Robert Jurmain received an A.B. in Anthropology from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Harvard. He taught at San Jose State University from 1975 to 2004 and is now Professor Emeritus. During his teaching career, he taught courses in all major branches of physical anthropology, including osteology and human evolution, with the greatest concentration in general education teaching for introductory students. His research interests are skeletal biology of humans and non-human primates, paleopathology, and paleoanthropology. In addition to his three textbooks, which together have appeared in 30 editions, he is the author of STORIES FROM THE SKELETON: BEHAVIORAL RECONSTRUCTION IN HUMAN OSTEOLOGY (1999, Gordon Breach Publishers), as well as numerous articles in research journals. Lynn Kilgore earned her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she now holds an affiliate faculty position. Her primary research interests are osteology and paleopathology. She has taught numerous undergraduate and graduate courses in human osteology, primate behavior, human heredity and evolution, and general physical anthropology. Her research focuses on developmental defects, and disease and trauma in human and great ape skeletons. Wenda Trevathan is Regents Professor (Emerita) of Anthropology at New Mexico State University, where she has been a faculty member since 1983. She is a biological anthropologist whose research focuses on the evolutionary and biocultural factors underlying human reproduction, including childbirth, maternal behavior, sexuality, and menopause. Her primary publications include works on the evolution of childbirth and evolutionary medicine. Her most recent book is Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped WomenÂ's Health (2010, Oxford University Press). She teaches courses in physical anthropology, nutritional anthropology, medical anthropology, evolutionary medicine, and anthropology of reproduction. Russell L. Ciochon is a leading paleoanthropologist specializing in primate and human evolution in Asia, as well as the geochronology of Asian Plio-Pleistocene sites. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and teaches at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, where he is Chair of the Department of Anthropology. He teaches courses in hominin and non-human primate evolution, as well as primate behavior, ecology, and functional anatomy. Besides co-authoring more than one hundred technical articles, he has also co-written two popular books: DRAGON BONE HILL: AN ICE AGE SAGA OF HOMO ERECTUS (2004, Oxford University Press) and OTHER ORIGINS: THE SEARCH FOR THE GIANT APE IN PREHISTORY (1990, Bantam Books).
Table of Contents
Introduction. Part 1. HEREDITY AND EVOLUTION. 1. Introduction to Physical Anthropology. 2. The Development of Evolutionary Theory. 3. The Biological Basis of Life. 4. Heredity and Evolution. 5. Macroevolution: Processes of Vertebrate and Mammalian Evolution. Part 2. PRIMATES. 6. Survey of the Living Primates. 7. Primate Behavior. 8. Primate Models for Human Behavioral Evolution. 9. Overview of the Fossil Primates. Part 3. HOMINID EVOLUTION. 10. Paleoanthropology: Reconstructing Early Hominid Behavior and Ecology. 11. Hominid Origins in Africa. 12. The First Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo erectus and Contemporaries. 13. Pre-Modern Humans. 14. The Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans. Part 4. CONTEMPORARY HUMAN EVOLUTION. 15. Modern Human Biology: Patterns of Variation. 16. Modern Human Biology: Patterns of Adaptation. 17. Legacies of Human Evolutionary History.