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Book Cover
Book
Author Stoczkowski, Wiktor.

Title Explaining human origins : myth, imagination, and conjecture / Wiktor Stoczkowski ; translated by Mary Turton
Published Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 2002

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 MELB SPC THORNE  599.938 Sto/Eho  AVAILABLE
Description ix, 234 pages : charts ; 24 cm
Series MyiLibrary
Contents Introduction: in which the author briefly explains his aims -- 1. Prehistory and the conditioned imagination -- 2. Anthropogenesis and science -- 3. In search of causes -- 4. Evolutionary mechanisms: the constraints of nature or of imagination? -- 5. A double game
Summary Wiktor Stoczkowski, a palaeo-anthropologist, argues that the theories of human origins developed by archaeologists and physical anthropologists from the early nineteenth century to the present day are structurally similar to Western folk theories, and to the speculations of earlier philosophers. Reviewing a remarkable range of thinkers writing in a variety of European languages, he makes a convincing argument for this case. Even though the book criticises the lack of development in theories of human origins, its conclusion is optimistic about the power of the scientific approach to deliver more reliable theories - but only if the influences of popular discourse on its thinking are properly identified
Notes Title from e-book title screen (viewed October 15, 2007)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-224) and index
Notes Electronic version is available via MyiLibrary
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web
Translation from the French
Subject Anthropology -- Philosophy.
Anthropology, Prehistoric.
Human beings -- Origin.
Author Turton, Mary
LC no. 2001035900
ISBN 0521651344
052165730X (paperback)
Other Titles Anthropologie naïve, anthropologie savante. English