BONES OF CONTENTION Controversies in the Search for Human Origins

• Main Author: Lewin, Roger
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: London Penguin Books 1987
• Subjects: Human evolution; Man > Origin
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 Bones of Contention is perhaps the most insightful and most controversial book ever written about the science of paleoanthro pology, the search for human origins. It is an insider's behind-the-scenes look at anthro pologists at work making and more im portantly-interpreting fossil discoveries. In this fascinating book Roger Lewin examines many of the most famous and most controversial discoveries in the history of paleoanthropology. Lewin quotes liberally from the scientists who made the discov eries, letting them speak in their own words about the significance of what they found including the mistakes they made. As a result, the anthropologists themselves reveal that their science depends heavily on inter pretation and is susceptible to subjectivity and bias, both of which have played a signifi cant role in the history of paleoanthropology. In one instance after another, from the dis covery of Neanderthal man a century ago to the famous Leakey-Johanson feud and on to today's highly scientific methods of fossil dating, Lewin demonstrates how scientists' preconceptions are at least as important to their interpretations as the fossils they are examining. A trained scientist and a science journalist who is knowledgeable about paleoanthro pology, Roger Lewin is uniquely equipped to write this book. Because of his familiarity with the leading scientists in the field, he has been able to draw on extensive interviews with them to write a book that will stand as a classic work about the way science is done.