Humankind

April 20, 2015
Harcourt (Gorilla Society), a professor emeritus in the anthropology department at the University of California, Davis, catalogs an extensive array of historical and current hypotheses in human biogeography—the “biology behind the geography of species distributions”—and the data that support or undermine them. Though he is conservative in acknowledging that evidential history is in some sense always theory, he integrates a broad variety of current research and focuses on showing that humans are “shaped by the same biogeographical forces that shape other species.” The genetic studies address the history of human diversity, using Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA evidence to support or dispute culturally driven theories of ancient migration. Harcourt discards the biological concept of race as paradoxically hindering a deeper understanding of variance, but he engages with the physical differences between human bodies and the cultural and medical implications of them, addressing such topics as why skin tone varies from region to region or the biological basis of why certain populations have evolved to better digest milk, starches, or seaweed. Harcourt reminds readers that biological conceptions of race should not be confused with sociopolitical conceptions of it, and that there are good reasons to understand the how and why of our biological differences. Maps & illus. Agent: Peter Riva, International Transactions.

May 15, 2015

Human evolution continues to fascinate scientists and laypeople alike. It takes only one significant fossil find with a direct lineage of human origin to reconfigure the evolutionary time line. One factor that remains static, however, is the evidence that the human race has its roots in Africa. Ergo, Harcourt's (emeritus, anthropology, Univ. of California, Davis; Gorilla Society; Human Biogeography) aptly titled second chapter, "We Are All Africans," offers a thorough explanation of our African origins. However, this book reaches far beyond origin to offer a complex yet highly readable account of our evolution in relation to biology, geography, and culture. Harcourt has compiled extensive sources (citations and sources are listed) not to present a new theory but to bridge the divide between archaeology and biology as it affects human diversity. He presents a concise explanation of adaptations made by the human species allowing for survival on a global scale. Chapters address such topics as biological diversity, diet, and how it affects our genes; how conquest and cooperation impact a species's survival; and where the human races goes from here. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in evolutionary biology, biogeography, anthropology, and human origin; also for those who have enjoyed works by Jared Diamond.--Angela Forret, Clive P.L., IA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
In his previous book, Harcourt (Emeritus, Anthropology/Univ. of California, Davis) wrote a definitive text on his specialty: Human Biogeography (2012). This book, directed at a popular audience, is a dense and often politically incorrect but lucid summary of everything you would want to know about human diversity. Homo sapiens originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. The exodus, which was really a slow trickle, began 60,000 years ago, but these few hundred homogenous emigrants produced 7 billion descendants with wildly dissimilar cultures, appearances, physiologies, and even DNA. Evolution works slowly, but we can see its action over the life of our species. All human babies once lost the ability to digest milk as they matured. Herders who began keeping cattle and goats gradually regained it. People who live at high altitudes-for example, in Tibet or Bolivia-develop enlarged lungs and increased blood oxygen transport. Small, thin bodies lose heat faster, so humans in cold climates grew larger and huskier. The dark skin of Africans protects them from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. Northwest Europeans are pale because they need some ultraviolet to produce vitamin D. In regions where travel is difficult and tribes quarrelsome, cultures multiply. New Guinea has over 800 indigenous languages; Britain, 12. Evolution is not the only factor. "Humans are extraordinarily good at picking trivial differences to separate 'us' from 'them, ' " writes Harcourt. "Ironically, this irrationality is the key to preserving the world's rich cultural diversity because technology, prosperity, and easy travel are a relentless force for homogenization." Unlike in his previous, academic book, the author makes all of this information comprehensible for general readers. Homogenization is inevitable, but we are an extraordinarily varied species today, and Harcourt delivers an opinionated but always science-based account of how we got that way.

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Starred review from June 1, 2015
Late in his popularization of his academic work, Human Biogeography (2012), Harcourt says that grand-scale historians, those who study the movements of whole peoples, of the effects of climate and environment on human development, are, in part, biogeographers. Be that as it may, Humankind is a history as sweeping and engrossing as they come. It proceeds chronologically from the earliest hominins to the present, responding to a series of questions about origins and effects with each answer even more intriguing than its predecessor. The answer to the first question, where did we come from?, is best known: Africa. But the second, how did we get everywhere else?, has all manner of surprises in its answer (e.g., the first settlers of Madagascar weren't from Africa). After a chapter on the scientific methods used to ascertain what, as Harcourt puts it, we think we know about humanity's grand story, the questions probe why humans differ depending on such things as location, impediments to movement (mountains, oceans), cultural variation, diet, relations with other species, and relations among various groups of ourselves. Keeping the science of the subject front and center, Harcourt airs the major differences of scientific opinion about particular developments. If he writes without much showmanship, his keen focus on the material makes the book gripping and then some.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)