World Book Day

Today being World Book Day I thought I’d tell about the books I’ve been reading over the past 6 months. As you look at the list you will notice a theme: these books form the bulk of a self-imposed “project” to update myself in knowledge about the Great Apes and the course of human evolution and prehistory. Arcane, you might say. I say “It’s just taking an interest in family history to its ultimate limits!” (Well actually Richard Dawkin’s book “Meet the Ancestors” which traces the family tree back to the first genetic fragments of prehistory does that. I’ll get on to reading that someday soon!) Here is the list:

1) In the Shadow of Man, by Jane Goodall
2) Through a Window, by Jane Goodall
Two enthralling books tracing the first 20 years of Jane Goodall’s life with (and study of) the chimpanzees of Gombe, with some passionate appeals that chimpanzees in captivity be treated with the dignity appropriate to our intelligent nearest relations.

3) Gorillas in the Mist, by Dian Fossey
Dian Fossey’s account of her encounters with, and passion for, the mountain gorillas of Rwanda’s Virunga National Park

4) Woman in the Mists, by Mowat Farley
A biography written using some of Dian Fossey’s personal notes, letters etc giving a different angle on Dian Fossey’s life and character. Okay, but shame about some of the (offensive) language she quotes.

5) In the Kingdom of the Gorilla, by Amy Vedder & Bill Weber
This is a really excellent book. The two authors detail their own studies of the mountain gorillas in the Virungas, mentioning the own first hand dealings with and impressions of Dian Fossey. The book goes on to discuss the efforts they made to create an Ecotourism project in Rwanda as a mainstay towards ensuring the future of the mountain gorillas. They give an illuminating and sobering account of the background to the terrible genocidal killings in Rwanda

6) Reflections of Eden, by Birute Galdikas
A wonderful read (although the printing is in a rather small typeface…..good lighting was required to read this!). The book tells of Birute Galdikas’ life and her sense of vocation to live with, study and champion the cause of the orang utans of Indonesian Borneo. Please donate to her work!

7) Lucy, The Beginnings of Humankind, by Donald C. Johanson & Maitland A. Edey
An account of what was known of human ancestry up until 1974 and how Johanson’s discovery of the now famous “Lucy” remains changed our understanding.

8) Origins Reconsidered, by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin
The story of Richard Leakey’s fossil hunting work, particularly of the (1.5 million-year-old “Turkana boy” skeleton in 1984. He also goes on to discus other aspects of human evolution.

9) Fairweather Eden, by Michael Pitts & Mark Roberts
This is another gripping read, describing the amazing archaeological digs at Boxgrove in Sussex. It has some really interesting discussions about flint knapping and what the numerous hand axes uncovered at Boxgrove can tell us about how Homo heidelbergensis (500,0000 years ago approx.) may have thought and acted.

10) The Prehistory of the Mind, by Stephen Mithen
The author sets out to try and get into the mind of various human ancestors to try and work out how our human mind evolved from its less complex beginnings, stage by stage. Intriguing!

11) The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odessey, by Spencer Wells
One of several similar books I could have read which looks at the evidence provided by modern human genetics to indicate how humanity spread out of Africa and around the world.

12) The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, by Jared Diamond
Another really enjoyable book. The author looks at human behaviour and prehistory from all kinds of angles, throwing out all kinds of thought provoking nuggets along
the way! I’ll re-read this for sure.

13) After the Ice, a Global Human History, 20,000-5, 000 BC, by Stephen Mithen
This book nearly brought me back into the present (well after a “journey” through several million years of evolution 7, 005 years isn’t that long ago!) I enjoyed this book because of the way Stephen Mithen puts us imaginatively back into the sites of archaeological discoveries as seen through the eyes of a time travelling character, John Lubbock. John Lubbock is the modern namesake of a Victorian writer on human archaeology, whose work the time traveller occasional reads from whilst he waits for a particular group of hunter-gathers to return from the hunt!

As well as all that there is of course lots of stuff in National Geographic magazines, chapters in other books I own and various web sites which I have looked at in the course of this project. Indeed, first and foremost in my project (indeed the prime mover in getting me going along this reading strand) was the series of excellent lectures that I attended in October at “@Bristol”