Principles of Human Evolution

Citation

Lewin, R., & Foley, R. A. (2003). Principles of Human Evolution (2nd ed.). Blackwell Publishing.

Chapter Summary

The second edition is organised into nineteen chapters in three parts. According to the preface, the book was restructured for this edition so that it is organised "by issue rather than chronology", integrating behaviour, adaptation and anatomy. The summaries below follow the chapter titles and section headings of the contents list and the preface's stated aims.

Part 1: The Framework of Human Evolution (Chapters 1–7)

The first part is a toolkit for the rest of the book. The preface says the authors want students to approach problems "in terms of general evolutionary models", and Part 1 supplies those models before any fossils are discussed.

• Chapter 1: The Growth of the Evolutionary Perspective. Sections on "Our place in nature", the historical views that established the link between humans and apes, and "Human evolution as narrative and as explanation". The chapter opens with the tension between the continuity of evolution and the apparent uniqueness of humans.
• Chapter 2: The Principles of Evolutionary Theory. The fundamentals of evolutionary theory, followed by modern evolutionary theory: the development of Neo-Darwinism and the power of natural selection.
• Chapter 3: Pattern and Process in Evolution. From micro- to macroevolution and the debates in modern theory, the physical context of evolution, and extinction and patterns of evolution.
• Chapter 4: The Geological Context. Dating methods and what the chapter calls "the science of burial".
• Chapter 5: The Systematic Context. Systematics, and molecular systematics.
• Chapter 6: Human Evolution in Comparative Perspective. Primate heritage and the comparative perspective, then bodies, size and shape, and bodies, brains and energy.
• Chapter 7: Reconstructing Behavior. Bodies, behaviour and social structure, non-human models of early hominin behaviour, and jaws and teeth.

Part 2: Early Hominin Evolution (Chapters 8–13)

The second part moves through the fossil and archaeological record from ape ancestry to the genus Homo.

• Chapter 8: Apes, Hominins, and Humans: Morphology, Molecules, and Fossils. The history of conflict between morphological and molecular evidence, and the evolution of the catarrhines as the context of hominin origin.
• Chapter 9: Searching for the First Hominins. The earliest hominins and bipedalism.
• Chapter 10: The Apelike Hominins. The australopithecines.
• Chapter 11: Origins of Homo. The genus Homo and hominin relationships.
• Chapter 12: Behavior and Evolution of Early Hominins. Early tool technologies and the pattern of early hominin evolution.
• Chapter 13: Africa and Beyond: The Evolution of Homo. Evolutionary patterns, new technologies, and the question "Hunter or scavenger?"

Part 3: Later Hominin Evolution (Chapters 14–19)

• Chapters 14–16: The Origin of Modern Humans. Three chapters take up modern human origins from three directions: background and fossil evidence (competing hypotheses, chronology, regional continuity, and the place of Neanderthals); genetic evidence (the impact of molecular evolutionary genetics and recent developments); and archaeology, behaviour and evolutionary process, ending with a section on an integrated model.
• Chapter 17: Evolution of the Brain, Intelligence, and Culture. Encephalization and cultural evolution.
• Chapter 18: Language and Symbolism. The evolution of language and art in prehistory.
• Chapter 19: New Worlds, Old Worlds. Completing colonisation, the first villagers, and "the human evolutionary heritage".

Key Concepts

Part 1 (Chapters 1–7)

• Human uniqueness and continuity: the problem set out in Chapter 1, how to account for human distinctiveness without denying that evolution is a continuous process.
• Neo-Darwinism and natural selection: the theory developed in Chapter 2.
• Micro- and macroevolution; extinction: the scales of pattern and process examined in Chapter 3.
• Dating methods and systematics (including molecular systematics): the geological and classificatory tools of Chapters 4–5.
• Comparative and behavioural inference: reconstructing behaviour from bodies, from non-human models and from jaws and teeth (Chapters 6–7).

Part 2 (Chapters 8–13)

• Bipedalism and the earliest hominins: the subject of Chapter 9.
• The australopithecines and the genus Homo: Chapters 10–11.
• Early tool technologies: Chapter 12, with the hunter-or-scavenger question raised in Chapter 13.

Part 3 (Chapters 14–19)

• Competing hypotheses for modern human origins: set out in Chapter 14 alongside the chronological and regional-continuity evidence.
• Encephalization and cultural evolution: Chapter 17.
• Language and symbolism: Chapter 18.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Theory first, fossils second. The preface argues that a textbook covering every field that bears on human evolution is beyond the authors, so the book aims instead at "the principles", and asks students to treat theory and empirical data as equally essential. The seven chapters of Part 1, before any hominin is discussed, give that stance real weight.
• Organised around issues. The preface says the second edition replaced a chronological structure with one organised by issue, integrating behaviour, adaptation and anatomy, and adds a new emphasis on ecological and behavioural evolution.
• Study aids. Each chapter ends with a "Beyond the Facts" box on a scientific debate, key points and questions appear in the margins, figures are numbered for classroom reference, and a companion website offers study resources and downloadable artwork.
• Candour about uncertainty. The preface states openly that parts of the field are "little more than good conjecture", and presents the discipline as a historical science.

Limitations

• Not a comprehensive survey. The authors say plainly that the book is an introduction to principles and a "platform", and refer readers to the wider literature through its references.
• Dated by its publication year. The second edition appeared in 2003–2004 (the copyright page reads 2004), so discoveries and analyses since then are absent and need to be read from newer sources.
• Topics are spread across chapters. Because the book is organised by issue rather than by period, a reader interested in one group, such as the Neanderthals, will find it treated in several places, notably Chapter 14 on modern human origins and the sections on the genus Homo in Chapters 11–13, and will need the index to pull the material together.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the biological anthropology course, this is an intermediate-to-advanced text that works as a theory-driven second book. Gentler starting points are the introductory textbooks: Stanford, Allen and Antón's Biological Anthropology, Larsen's Our Origins, the free Explorations volume from the American Anthropological Association, and Bernard Wood's short Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction. Any of these will supply the vocabulary the book assumes.

Klein's The Human Career is the other large specialist text on the list: a densely referenced synthesis of the fossil and archaeological evidence, arranged by period and site. Lewin and Foley are the better choice for how evolutionary theory frames the evidence, Klein for the detail of the record.

How to Use This Book

It is written for students who have already had an introductory course; the preface addresses readers from a "hard science" background who will miss the reassurance of experiment, and explains that human evolution is a historical science that depends on observation, statistics and inference.

A practical plan: read Part 1 as a unit before Part 2, but skim Chapters 4–5 if dating and systematics are familiar. Use the margin questions to test yourself, read the "Beyond the Facts" boxes as short debates, and use Part 2 as a reference alongside a fossil-record text. Read Chapters 14–16 together, since they approach one question from three directions. Use the references to move on to primary papers.