Synopses & Reviews
Concise, well-balanced, and comprehensive, ESSENTIALS OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Eighth Edition introduces you to physical anthropology with the goal of helping you understand the big picture of human evolution. Supported by vibrant visuals that include abundant illustrations, photographs, and photo-enhanced maps, the book focuses on human evolution and biology to help you master basic biological principles of physical anthropology so you'll be able to better understand human origins and our place in the biological world. Offering balanced coverage of the topic areas you'll cover in class (heredity and evolution, primates, hominid evolution, and contemporary human evolution) this edition emphasizes the chronology of fossil finds instead of just describing the fossils and the sites where they were found. The authors also interpret each fossil within the framework of the story of human evolution. New features like "Why It Matters" further emphasize the fossils' evolutionary significance, and often even propose the relevance of chapter materials to our everyday lives. The seventh edition provides thorough coverage of cutting-edge advances in molecular biology and expanded coverage of population biology and human variation. It also includes powerful learning tools, including a robust book website. Altogether, ESSENTIALS OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Seventh Edition, integrates up-to-date coverage of the latest finds and relevant technologies in a format and writing style designed to help all students master the material.
Synopsis
Concise, well-balanced, and comprehensive, ESSENTIALS OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Ninth Edition introduces you to physical anthropology with the goal of helping you understand why it is important to know about human evolution. With a new framework that emphasizes 'connections', the reader is shown how humans are biologically connected to all other life, including our distant ancestors and our contemporary primate cousins, as well as how closely modern human populations are related to each other. Supported by new chapter-opening visual diagrams, a completely new art and map program, outstanding visual photographs and Photo Essays, as well as pedagogy such as "What's Important" boxes that put key chapter concepts into perspective for students, this text continues to help students master basic biological principles of physical anthropology and so be able to better understand human origins and our place in the biological world. Altogether, ESSENTIALS OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Ninth Edition integrates coverage of the latest fossil finds with relevant technologies to be the most up-to-date text available.
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 as well as on disease and trauma in human and great ape skeletons. Wenda Trevathan is Regents Professor (Emerita) of Anthropology at New Mexico State University, where she taught from 1983 to 2009. 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 WOMEN'S HEALTH (2010, Oxford University Press). She has taught courses in physical anthropology, nutritional anthropology, medical anthropology, evolutionary medicine, and anthropology of reproduction.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction. 2. The Development of Evolutionary Theory. 3. The Biological Basis of Life. 4. Heredity and Evolution. 5. Macroevolution: Processes of Vertebrate and Mammalian Evolution. 6. An Overview of the Primates. 7. Primate Behavior. 8. Hominin Origins. 9. The First Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo erectus and Contemporaries. 10. Premodern Humans. 11. The Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans. 12. Human Variation and Adaptation. 13. The Anthropological Perspective on the Human Life-Course. 14. Lessons from the Past, Lessons for the Future. Appendix A: Atlas of Primate Skeletal Anatomy. Appendix B: Summary of Early Hominin Fossil. Finds from Africa. Appendix C: Population Genetics. Appendix D: Sexing and Aging the Skeleton. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.