Re: need up-to-date book€€€€€

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In article <8B3230C.01EC000670.uuout@cencore.com>, evelyne.stalzer@cencore.com (EVELYNE STALZER) writes:
>Caroline wrote:
>
>CC> Milford H. Wolpoff just published a new
>CC> (VERY large) volume called, pertinently enough, "Human
>CC> Evolution". It's the 1996 edition, though I have it now.
>CC> McGraw-Hill published it.
>
>Out of curiosity, how does Milford treat the "opponent" Out-of-
>Africa school of thought?

I was wondering about that before the book arrived and, now that it's here,
I have been so swamped in my own work (and, of course, posting on these
important newsgroups :) ) that I haven't had time to look. I am finding
out about it with my students (I TA the class, teach a lab, not the whole
course, so am not responsible for knowing the content of the book before it
was ordered!) as we go along. I can say, at this point, that I am
disappointed in some things. In a book this size (and it is huge) I was
surprised to find some basic elements of introductory Physical Anthropology
left out -- no sections on mammals, primate behavior (just anatomy -- which is,
I suppose, what Wolpoff does best) no full modern skeletal chart, no primate
taxonomic classification chart. It is getting annoying. There is a lot on
the hominid fossils, however, which, I hope, makes up for it.
Looking quickly over the Contents section right now, I see a large
section entitled "The Evolution of Modern People" and, right underneath,
Chapter 11: "Regional evolution in the Middle Pleistocene." Guess we could
have guessed the slant of this book! Oh, I do see two sections within
Chapter 12, one is called: "A single place of origin for modern humans?"
and the other "Out of Africa - Out of Luck?" Looks like there's also a lot
of sections throughout the chapters offering evidence for the multiregional
view (as is proper to do, I think, if you're going to take a strong viewpoint
you can at least give evidence along with it, eh?). It does look like an
interesting read, if one has the time.

Caroline

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