Understanding Early Man

Some twenty years ago, I began a quest to understand man. Why are we the way we are? Can we be a kind and caring species that voluntarily takes care of our brother without asking for

anything in exchange, or is that contrary to our nature, to survival? Were those traits bread in to us so we as the small creature on the savanna without thick skin, without claws and tearing fangs, without the speed of a leopard, could work as a group to out-size, out-muscle the predators that controlled our environ? Did it require the violence that has dogged our existence since modern man emerged, our seemed inability to be kind just for the sake of kindness?

I have no answers, but my curiosity drives me to study our earliest ancestors, starting with the first creatures we considered to be predecessor–Australopithecines. To date, I’ve reached Homo erectus. Along the way, I’ve read a slew of wonderful books by brilliant scientists:

• Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey (actually, all of Johanson’s books)
• The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey (and all of all of the Leakeys’ books)
• Java Man: How Two Geologists Changed Our Understanding of Human Evolution by Carl Swisher III, Garniss Curtis and Roger Lewin
• Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice-age Saga of Homo erectus by Noel T. Boaz and Russell Ciochon
• Evolution of Homo erectus by G. Philip Rightmire
• Meeting Pre-historic Man by G.H.R. von Koenigswald
• Adam’s Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form by Michael Sims
• The Acheulian Site of Gesher Beno Ya-aqov by Naama Goren-Inbar et al
• African Exodus by Christopher Stringer and Robin McKie
• Naked Earth by Shawna Vogel

To understand those primates that allowed our species to grow, I read:

• In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
• Through a Window by Jane Goodall
• My Life as a Chimpanzee by Jane Goodall
• Walking with the Great Apes by Dian Fossey et al
• Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey
• Reflections of Eden by Birute Galdikas
• The Human Zoo: A Zoologist’s Classic Study of the Urban Animal by Desmond Morris
• The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
  
• Naked Ape by Desmond Morris
• The Forest People by Colin Turnbull
• Bunyoro: An African Kingdom by John Beattie
• The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior by Tepilit Ole Saitoti
• The Tree Where Man Was Born by Peter Matthiessen
• Our Inner Ape by Franz deWaal

To understand specifically how those very human traits of culture, language, religion, adorning our bodies, came into being, I read:

• The Singing Neanderthals by Steven Mithen
• Timewalkers: the Prehistory of Global Colonization by Clive Gamble
• The Law of Primitive Man by E. Adamson Hoebel
• Social Life of Early Man by Sherwood Washburn
• Evolution of the Human Diet by Peter Ungar
• The Dawn of Belief: Religion in the Upper Paleolithic of Southwestern Europe by D. Bruce Dickson
• The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher
• The Runaway Brain by Christopher Wills
• Law of Primitive Man by E. Adamson Hoebel

…and this mixed collection, the biography for Born in a Treacherous Time:

• Allen, E.A., The Prehistoric World: or, Vanished Races Central Publishing House 1885
• Caird, Rod  Apeman:  The Story of Human Evolution MacMillan  1994
• Calvin, William, and Bickerton, Derek  Lingua ex Machina: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the Human BrainMIT Press, 2000
• Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca and Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco  The Great Human Diasporas: The
• History of Diversity and Evolution Perseus Press  1995
• Conant, Dr. Levi Leonard The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development Macmillan and Co. Toronto 1931
• Edey, Maitland  Missing Link Time-Life Books  1972
• Erickson, Jon Glacial Geology: How Ice Shapes the Land Facts on File Inc. 1996
• Fleagle, John Primate Adaptation and Evolution Academic Press 1988
• Grimaldi, David, and Engel, Michael Evolution of the Insects Cambridge University Press 2005
• Jones, Steve, Martin, Robert, and Pilbeam, David The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution Cambridge University Press 1992
• Lewin, Roger  In the Age of Mankind Smithsonian Books  1988
• McDougall, J.D. A Short History of the Planet Earth John Wiley and Sons 1996
• Meade, Margaret  Coming of Age in Samoa
• Savage-Rumbaugh, Susan, et al Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind John Wiley and Sons 1996
• Spencer Larson, Clark et al  Human Origins: The Fossil Record Waveland Press 1998
• Strum, Shirley C. Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons Random House 1987
• Tattersall, Ian  Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness Harvest Books 1999
• Tattersall, Ian et al  Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory, Chicago: St James Press 1988
• Tattersall, Ian Fossil Trail: How We Know What We Think We Know About Human Evolution Oxford University Press 1997
• Tattersall, Ian  The Human Odyssey:  Four Million Years of Human Evolution Prentice Hall 1993
• Tudge Colin Time Before History Touchstone Books  1996
• Turner, Alan, and Anton, Mauricio The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives:  An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution and Natural History Columbia University Press NY  1997
• Vygotsky, Lev  The Connection Between Thought and the Development of Language in Primitive Society 1930
• Walker, Alan and Shipman, Pat  Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins Vintage Books  1996

I spent much time reading about the paleo-history of our planet–paleoclimatology, paleo-geology, paleo-biology, all of the paleos. I believe what we were and are is buried in the rock of our planet if we can understand what we’re seeing. I then wrote a pre-history of early man as I understood him, to better contemplate exactly how his days go, called Born in a Treacherous Time.  That one concentrated on Homo habilis, so I followed it up with another called Evolution: a Biography on the days and nights of Homo erectus.

I still don’t understand.