Five-Million-Year Odyssey (eBook)

The Human Journey from Ape to Agriculture

Peter Bellwood (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
384 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-23633-9 (ISBN)

Infos

The epic story of human evolution, from our primate beginnings more than five million years ago to the agricultural eraOver the course of five million years, our primate ancestors evolved from a modest population of sub-Saharan apes into the globally dominant species Homo sapiens. Along the way, humans became incredibly diverse in appearance, language, and culture. How did all of this happen? In The Five-Million-Year Odyssey, Peter Bellwood synthesizes research from archaeology, biology, anthropology, and linguistics to immerse us in the saga of human evolution, from the earliest traces of our hominin forebears in Africa, through waves of human expansion across the continents, and to the rise of agriculture and explosive demographic growth around the world.Bellwood presents our modern diversity as a product of both evolution, which led to the emergence of the genus Homo approximately 2.5 million years ago, and migration, which carried humans into new environments. He introduces us to the ancient homininsincluding the australopithecines, Homo erectus, the Neanderthals, and othersbefore turning to the appearance of Homo sapiens circa 300,000 years ago and subsequent human movement into Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. Bellwood then explores the invention of agriculture, which enabled farmers to disperse to new territories over the last 10,000 years, facilitating the spread of language families and cultural practices. The outcome is now apparent in our vast array of contemporary ethnicities, linguistic systems, and customs.The fascinating origin story of our varied human existence, The Five-Million-Year Odyssey underscores the importance of recognizing our shared genetic heritage to appreciate what makes us so diverse.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 2.8.2022
• Zusatzinfo: 25 b/w illus. 6 tables. 21 maps.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
• Schlagworte: Acheulean • Agriculture • Agriculture (Chinese mythology) • Ancient DNA • Ancient Egypt • Archaeological Site • archaeology • Asceticism • asian people • Australopithecine • Austronesian Languages • Bantu languages • body hair • Borneo • brain size • Bronze Age • burial • Cahokia • chert • Common chimpanzee • common descent • Defensive wall • Denisovan • Dentition • domestication • Early Pleistocene • East Africa • Ebla • Epidemic • Etruscan Civilization • Eurasian (mixed ancestry) • Fertile Crescent • Himachal Pradesh • Holocene • Hominini • Homo • Homo erectus • Homo habilis • Homo sapiens • Hunter-Gatherer • Indo-European Languages • Indo-Iranian Languages • Indonesia • Interglacial • Jebel Irhoud • Joseph Greenberg • Khoikhoi • Land • language family • Late Pleistocene • legume • Le Moustier • lime plaster • Literature • Maharashtra • Maize • material culture • mating • Mesolithic • Metallurgy • middle pleistocene • molecular clock • monsoon • Neanderthal • Neolithic • New Guinea • Nile • Northern Australia • Oldowan • Paleoanthropology • Pastoralism • permafrost • Philippines • Plate Tectonics • Pleistocene • Pliocene • Polar regions of Earth • Polynesia • polynesians • Population Growth • Pottery • Prehistory • Pre-Pottery Neolithic • Saint • Sediment • Semi-arid climate • South Asia • Southeast Asia • Stone tool • Sub-Saharan Africa • Sulawesi • Sunflower seed • Supply (economics) • Supraorbital ridge • Swanscombe • Technology • upper paleolithic • Vietnam • Western Europe • Younger Dryas
• ISBN-10: 0-691-23633-X / 069123633X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-23633-9 / 9780691236339