ISBN: 9780285629967

When Elaine Morgan wrote The Descent of Woman in 1972, it sent shock waves around the world, and is now widely regarded as a key work on human evolution, and essential to any discussion o… Mehr…

When Elaine Morgan wrote The Descent of Woman in 1972, it sent shock waves around the world, and is now widely regarded as a key work on human evolution, and essential to any discussion of women's place in society. Now, with The Scars of Evolution, Morgan offers a pioneering look just where it was our earliest ancestors came from, and the legacy-not always advantageous-that they left us. As she sets out to solve one of the enduring riddles of our origins-to discover the evolutionary path that separated us from the rest of the animals-Morgan shows that many of the theories currently accepted by scientists cannot explain our unique features: they leave too many questions unanswered. Millions of years ago, something happened to our ape ancestors that did not happen to the forebears of gorillas and chimpanzees, something that made them walk on two legs, lose their fur, sweat, develop larger brains, and learn to speak. While scientists have visited many a dig and studied many a fossil for clues, Elaine Morgan argues that all of the facts about our mysterious origins are right in front of us-in the form of fundamental flaws in the human design. Our propensity to suffer from lower back pain, obesity, varicose veins, acne, even infant death syndrome, is essentially the result of a cataclysmic event in our distant past. Scientists have long observed that our spines were not made for upright walking. Yet natural selection-the basic tenet of evolutionary theory-dictates that enduring changes to a species occur because of the need to adapt to changes in the environment. While thousands of working hours are lost each year to ""bad backs,"" at some point long ago it must have been an advantage to walk on two legs. The most common theory is that we became bipedal while hunting on the African savannah, needing our arms free for weapons, using an upright stance to see enemies from afar. But as Morgan points out, animals need more speed on the savannah, both for pursuit and flight, than two legs can offer. Her explanation: bipedalism emerged from life in an aquatic environment due to the flooding of the African rift valley millennia ago. The apes that suddenly found themselves stranded in swamp land (a swamp that remained for thousands of years) had to walk upright to keep from drowning. The human tendency toward obesity was once not an unsightly health problem, but rather a lifesaving form of insulation, one present in all aquatic mammals. And as Morgan carefully considers all of our other uniquely human traits-our relative hairlessness, our ability to control our breathing, our inability to maintain proper salt levels-a compelling case emerges for our human origins in a watery environment. Lively, controversial, and presented with a brilliant logic, The Scars of Evolution will change the way you think about the world-and our place in it. | The Scars Of Evolution by Elaine Morgan Hardcover | Indigo Chapters Books > Fiction & Literature P10140, Elaine Morgan<

2000, ISBN: 0285629964

[EAN: 9780285629967], Neubuch, [PU: Profile Books Ltd, United Kingdom], Language: English. Brand new Book. In this lively and controversial book Elaine Morgan presents a challenging inter… Mehr…

[EAN: 9780285629967], Neubuch, [PU: Profile Books Ltd, United Kingdom], Language: English. Brand new Book. In this lively and controversial book Elaine Morgan presents a challenging interpretation to the question of human evolution. With brilliant logic she argues that our hominid ancestors began to evolve in response to an aquatic environment. Millions of years ago something happened that caused our ancestors to walk on two legs, to lose their fur, to develop larger brains and learn how to speak. Elaine Morgan discovers what this event was by studying the many incongruous flaws in the physiological make-up of humans. The human body is liable to suffer from obesity, lower back pain and acne. In support of her aquatic ape hypothesis she points out the flaws in our physiological make-up: the difficulties of erect bipedalism, our hairlessness and fat-layers, our preference for face to face sex and the way we breathe. Are these flaws a record of the history of the species, the 'scars' of evolution that are clues to earlier stages of evolution? Morgan establishes the origins of the evolutionary path that separated humans from other animals and questions the theories currently accepted by science. Did our ancestors adapt to an aquatic environment that subsequently dried out? Elaine Morgan has made the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis a plausible alternative to conventional theories of evolution and in The Scars of Evolution she brings a real understanding of who humans are and where they came from., Books<

ISBN: 9780285629967

Gebundene Ausgabe

New York: University Park Press, 1979. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No dust jacket. Hardcover edition. The covers look great. The binding is tight. The former owner's name is mar… Mehr…

New York: University Park Press, 1979. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/No dust jacket. Hardcover edition. The covers look great. The binding is tight. The former owner's name is marked out on the front flyleaf. The interior pages are clean and unmarked. A dust jacket is not included. Electronic delivery tracking will be issued free of charge., University Park Press, 1979, 3, Paperback / softback. New. Natural selection dictates that enduring changes to a species occur because of the need to adapt to changes in the environment. Elaine Morgan, author of The Descent of Woman and The Aquatic Ape, maintains that the human propensity for lower back pain, obesity, varicose veins, and other chronic conditions is the result of an earlier need for humans to survive a watery environment., 6<

1990, ISBN: 9780285629967

What Our Bodies Tell Us About Human Origins, Buch, Softcover, Main, [PU: Souvenir Press Ltd], Souvenir Press Ltd, 1990