Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity

Amazon.com

Since its discovery in 1996, the issues surrounding Kennewick Man have grown ever more complicated and controversial. Out of this fracas comes Skull Wars, David Hurst Thomas's masterful contribution to the debate. The book is sure to stir passions even as it seeks to offer a better way for archeologists, anthropologists, and Native Americans to work together in the future. When it was determined that Kennewick Man, a skeleton with Caucasoid features discovered near Kennewick, Washington, was estimated to be more than 9,000 years old, it effectively lobbed a grenade into the already tense arena of the origins of the pre-Columbus peoples of the United States. Thomas, curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, leads the reader through the development of American anthropology and archeology, the many reinterpretations of Native Americans by non-Indians, an assertion of native rights, and the eventual intercession of the federal government, ironically, as protective party. Skull Wars is a gripping account of the way race, scientific practice, history, and politics converged around an ancient skeleton. --Julia Riches

Book Description

When a 9,000-year-old human skeleton washed out of a Columbia River cutbank in July 1996, it ignited a controversy that has not stopped burning. Archaeologists proclaimed the skeleton, named "Kennewick Man," one of the most important finds of the century and proceeded to plan extensive scientific analysis. Many Native Americans, meanwhile, with equal fervor declared such studies a desecration and demanded the skeleton for reburial. An acrimonious and highly public argument ensued, complete with lawsuit.

Why? What was at stake that demanded that battle lines be drawn?

In Skull Wars, renowned archaeologist David Hurst Thomas traces the five-hundred-year roots of the Kennewick Man controversy. From Thomas Jefferson's invention of scientific archaeology to the brutal massacres in which skulls of Indian warriors were sent east to build museum collections; from the strange fates of Ishi and Qisuk to the astonishing power of oral tradition in preserving centuries-old memories, this book tells what really went on between archaeologists and Indians-and shows how the two groups can work together in the future.

Customer Reviews:

an 8 star book -covers prehistory & archaeology.......2007-08-20

I really savored every page of this book. One of the best I have EVER read on both an OVERVIEW of american prehistory, and american archaeology. Addresses all the important questions, and most importantly to me, the author seems very unbiased. At FIRST i thought he was going to be definitely a Pro-Native American viewpoint, since Prof. Vine Deloria wrote the foreward. However, although the authoer is PC, he is in such a way as not to be "in your face" with it. I think a very balanced book. I will keep my copy handy and refer to it often, as it is a truly VALUABLE resource! I understand more of the political ramification so of the government vs the Indians now, and the author told it in a way so as not to bore you to tears. Very well done, and my sincere, heartfelt compliments to the author, for a job well done.

Origins of the Army Medical Museum and its collecting policy.......2004-08-05

Dr. Thomas' discussion on pages 57-58 of the Army Medical Museum's role in collecting human remains is misleading. The Museum (now the National Museum of Health & Medicine) was established in 1862, during the American Civil War, to begin the study of military medicine and surgery in wartime. It was not established at the urging of Professor Agassiz. US Army Surgeon General Hammond's orders pertained specifically to collecting the remains of Union and Confederate soldiers, who were overwhelmingly white, to study surgery before the era of x-rays or aseptic surgery. Thousands of specimens were sent into the Museum, including General Daniel Sickles' leg, which he personally had shipped after it was struck by a cannon ball and amputated. The specimens were studied and used to compile the six-volume study, The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. After the war, the Museum did expand its collecting focus and collected Indian anthropological artifacts and remains. The artifacts were deposited with the Smithsonian Institution, based on an agreement the Smithsonian proposed in 1869. Human remains were transferred to the Medical Museum, where they were kept and studied side by side with those of American soldiers. The Museum continued collecting Native American remains until the late nineteenth century when the role was returned to the Smithsonian Institution, where it remains today.

The star rating was insisted on by Amazon's computer - this note only pertains to Dr. Thomas' pages on the Army Medical Museum.

Michael Rhode, Archivist
National Museum of Health & Medicine

Read this book.... AND read the scientific journal articles!.......2004-07-22

This book is one of the better discussions of the issue, and far more factual than the arrant nonsense published by James Chatters. If anything, David Hurst Thomas errs only in trying to be fairer to certain of the current generation of scientists than they deserve. The truth is that there was never really any doubt over the direct genetic relationship between PaleoIndians like Kennewick Man & their modern Native American descendants, and that this has always been a purely political fight over control of ancient human remains... seen by the descendants as ?ancestors? to be protected, but viewed by scientists as ?research material? to fuel their careers with. (Several of the plaintiff scientists have even admitted that they had been searching for a legal ?test case? for years, hoping to gut NAGPRA. And their behavior was calculated to raise the hackles of local tribes & prevent any NAGPRA sanctioned study. They didn?t even TRY asking tribal permission under NAGPRA guidelines)

PaleoIndians & Native Americans share the same mtDNA haplogroups (which are found at low levels in Asia & the Pacific, & virtually nonexistant elsewhere). Craniometrically, some PaleoIndians (Buhl Woman, Wizard?s Beach Man, etc) show close affinities to modern Native Americans, the others don?t closely match anybody but show general affinities to Native American, Beringian, SE Asian, & Pacific populations. The largest & most comprehensive PaleoIndian craniometric study to date (Powell & Neves? ?Craniofacial Morphology of the First Americans?, from the American Journal of Physical Anthropology) determined that PaleoIndians overall DID match up with modern Native Americans, with the differences falling within the range of known evolutionary processes such as genetic drift. Linguistic & genetic studies of modern Native Americans reveal that their ancestors arrived here LONG before the PaleoIndian era (Linguistics says 30,000+ years, DNA says 20,000-40,000+ years).

Yet strangely, none of this is mentioned by scientists prominent in the Kennewick debacle. Instead, people WITHOUT biology degrees make false pronouncements about DNA, people without physical anthropology degrees (or who have them & should know better) make false & stereotypical pronouncements about craniometrics, and so on. You have the noted C.Loring Brace (a several times past director of the American Eugenics Society) claiming that ?all? Indians craniometrically match Asians such as Chinese (when his ?only? match turns out to involve one group of related tribes commonly thought to be late arrivals, and geographically nearest to Asia to boot... hence most subject to later geneflow). And he has been quoted by reporters as speaking of ?mongoloid invaders who exterminated the caucasoid first arrivals?. Other scientists speak of ?caucasoid? looking PaleoIndians, WITHOUT mentioning that these same traits are found among various modern & historical Native American tribes, and WITHOUT mentioning that rather than being typical only of ?Caucasoids? (they actually show up in ASIA before they are found in Europe), these traits are common among various Asian & Pacific populations... and are even found among some African groups! Much hooraw was made in the papers of mtDNA ?haplogroup X? as a link between ?ancient Americans? & Europeans, but it was rarely noted that the haplogroup is MORE common in the Near East than it is in Europe, and that it is also found in North Africa, Asia Minor, India, and SIBERIA?. and that the European haplogroup lineages form a DIFFERENT sub-clade than do the Native American ones, and have been phylogenetically shown to NOT be ancestral to them. Numerous scientists claimed that modern Indians didn?t possess the same head shapes as did PaleoIndians, stereotyping PaleoIndians as being narrowheaded (dolichocranic) & modern Native Americans as broadheaded (brachycranic), despite the fact that some PaleoIndians (like Marmes Rockshelter) were brachycranic & MANY modern Indians (including the majority of those east of the Mississippi & on the Northern Plains, & many South American Indians) were narrowheaded & that brachycranic Indians were actually in the minority overall! Scientists have quoted Christy Turner's old claim that all Native Americans possessed Sinodont dental patterns, like NE Asians, & did NOT match PaleoIndian dental patterns...when in reality Turner was shown to be mistaken, numerous Indian tribes have been shown to be Sundadont, or intermediate, and PaleoIndians have been shown to possess traits found in BOTH Sinodont & Sundadont populations. This suggests that either PaleoIndians arrived BEFORE Sinodonty evolved (~20,000 BP), or that they were a mix of peoples possessing both dental patterns.

Worse yet, while prominent scientists have shown themselves more than willing to make wild claims regarding PaleoIndians & Native Americans, even BEFORE study is conducted... they have not been as willing to offer correction when actual studies subsequently prove them wrong. Whether speaking of Kennewick, Penon Woman, or Lagoa Santa, the scientific craniometric truth behind their appearance has generally received less coverage than the ?pre-game speculation?.

Digressing a bit, I should note that I feel it helps if reviewers first had a good grasp of the facts. A prime example is the anonymous reviewer from Bogart, Georgia, who makes makes several glaring errors. ?Bogart? speaks of ?Caucasoid skeletal remains?, when PaleoIndians have been clearly shown to NOT be Caucasoid... merely to possess certain traits called ?proto-Caucasoid? by some researchers, and more accurately (given where they first evolved) called ?proto-MONGOLOID? by others. (A point to mention is that these self same traits are found in Australian Aborigines... hardly an indication of any ?Caucasoid? connection).

?Bogart? also claims that ?ancient artifacts? (& possibly the purportedly Caucasoid remains, his phrasing is a bit vague) ?predate the fabled land-bridge to Siberia in the last ice age?... yet the midpoint of the landbridge's existance (the last Glacial Maximum) predates the oldest proven archaeological site in the Americas (Monte Verde) by at least 7,000 years, it's first appearance is even earlier. For that matter, no landbridge was needed. The Bering strait can be WALKED over during most winters, when the ice freezes, and there is also evidence that humans in the Pacific had boats capable of crossing that distance well over 60,000 years ago.

?Bogart? also fatuously speaks of these purported ?remains & and ancient artifacts? as having more in common with ancient sites in Europe ?than with anything Asian or typically Native American?. The problem with this is that the oldest remains in the Americas match up with Pacific & East Asian peoples, NOT with Europeans (see various craniometric studies, particularly those of Joseph Powell or Walter Neves). (For that matter, the oldest ?anatomically modern?, or ?non-neanderthal?, human remains in Europe are actually a closer match to MODERN Native Americans than they are to modern Europeans, according to C. Loring Brace?s own data! It is likely relevant that genetic studies indicate major population replacements in Europe since the time of these first settlers).

As for artifacts, Clovis era artifacts have been tied to ?ancient European? peoples (i.e., ?Solutreans?) only by those with lots of theory but little fact to support it, or by those naively parroting them. The purported Solutrean tie has been discounted as a superficial similarity, differing on more points that it matches, by the ACTUAL Solutrean experts such as Lawrence Guy Straus. And pre-Clovis lithic artifacts in the Americas (Monte Verde, Cactus Hill, Topper, Meadowscroft, etc) are typically unifacial rather than Solutrean or Clovis type bifacials, and have been stated by the excavators of those sites to have NO similarity to Solutrean lithic industries.

?Bogart? says that Native Americans ?may not be the earliest immigrants to the Americas?, exposing ignorance... or bias... or wishful thinking... in one fell swoop. Currently, ALL evidence (DNA, linguistic, craniometric, lithic, etc) points to modern Native Americans as being descended from the earliest known inhabitants of the Americas. In those cases where claims of biological discontinuity have been espoused, closer scrutiny finds only inaccurate or out of context data behind such claims.

So for example, ?Bogart? erroneously states that ?DNA is found among some groups of "Native Americans" that matches a strand found only in Europe?. He is speaking of mitochondrial haplogroup X, which back at the time of the initial Kennewick furor was widely reported in the popular press (having been planted there by anthropologists & archaeologists WITHOUT biology degrees) as being a ?European? haplogroup totally absent from Asia. Nothing could be further from the truth (read actual scientific journal articles like Smith et al?s ?Distribution of mtDNA haplogroup X among Native North Americans? in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, or Reidla et al?s ?Origin and Difusion of mtDNA haplogroup X? in the American Journal of Human Genetics). Even at the time of the initial reports in the press it was known that haplogroup X was MORE COMMON & more diverse in the Near East, & that Native Americans had the same overall frequency of it as did Europeans (negating any thought of their having obtained it from ?partial ancient European? ancestry), and that the Native American & European lineages came from DIFFERENT sub-clades of haplogroup X. And rather than ?absent? in Asia, it had for the most part NOT YET BEEN LOOKED FOR in that region. One of the first direct attempts to search for it turned it up among a Siberian population (again, at the same level as in Europe & North America). Subsequent studies found it to be even further ranging (India, Africa, etc). For anyone to call it a ?European? haplogroup today is as misleading as it would be to call black hair merely a ?European? trait, despite it?s being MORE common in other parts of the world that predate the settlement of Europe.

I highly recommend this book. But I also recommend visiting your local university library, or searching the internet, for copies of scientific journal articles dealing with DNA (most of this is NOT available from other sources) & linguistics & archaeology & Ice Age conditions. By neccessity, ANY single book simplifies or glosses over certain things, without ample background, the reader can be inadvertantly misled. Other useful books would be Thomas Dillehay?s ?The Settlement of the Americas.? Sadly, more detailed books like those edited by Robson Bonnichsen of the Center for the Study of the First Americans are chronically out of print, poorly described (?conference proceedings? that DON?T say when the conference took place, or books that don?t give publication dates allowing you to determine whether they might be outdated or not, etc) or are unreasonably delayed in publication. But if you can find a copy, ?Ice Age Peoples of North America? is a good read. If it ever comes out (delayed twice already), ?PaleoAmerican Origins? promises to contain invaluable information.

Factual, biting and rivetting style.......2003-11-08

As an author myself, one of the kindest remarks about my work was paid by a detractor. She had written that "Davis' words may be factual, but they are biting, irreverent and at a total disregard for social ideals.." "Skull Wars" puts me in mind of this same quote, only I am hardly a detractor. Thomas's style IS biting. His "no holds bared, this is the plain truth" writing may well ruffle some eurocentric feathers. And it may well upset more than a few Arianists. So what? His work is direct, lucid, and to the point. His willingness, and in some areas blatant will for the disregard for political correctness must be applauded. This is a great bit of writing. Period. In an age of "warm and fuzzy, let's all get along at any cost", too many Americans have forgotten (or are ignorant of) the bloody history of our forefathers. I have often remarked that the Native people's biggest mistake was not burning those three ships right into the sea.

This is an excellnt example of an interesting page turner brimming with facts in favor of social-political agendas. A must for all historians.

Where do I begin?.......2003-07-03

I wouldn't even assume Chatters was simply foolish; I'd assume he did a racist snow job worthy of Broca himself. He basically compared East Asian features to Kennewick man, said "no", and then decided it was Caucasian, ignoring some very important differences between American Indians and East Asians.

Let's first look at the stereotypes: Cradleboard compression, arthritis, and presence of all teeth. Wouldn't it be BLINDINGLY obvious that arthritis and dental problems weren't really a problem traditionally, just like how sickle-cell is a side effect for defense against malaria? And cradleboard compression similarly is a cultural, and therefore Lamarckian, trait.

On to the cephalic, or cranial index. First developed as a way to "explain away" such annoyingly inconvenient groups as Buryats and Mongols, who had larger - but broader - heads than Caucasians. (And they still couldn't explain groups like the Xhosa, Iroquois, and Eskimos.) Not that it matters; it varies widely in Europe, brachycrania occuring more in Finland, Lappland, and much of southern Europe, and a mixture of meso- and dolichocrania occurring more in the rest of Europe. East Asian groups are more likely brachycranic. In the Americas, you get a much different picture: Iroquois and Eskimos, as I mentioned. North America's generally dolicho- or mesocranic, while Central America's generally brachycranic, and South America's generally dolichocranic. (Of course, that's all assuming it's heritable.) I'd even say that plains Indians might be more dolichocranic; remember, most of the remains from that time spent their infancy on the cradleboard.

Chatters also describes the gnathic index, which is quite funny, since most forensic reconstruction books tell you a prognathous face is rarely Caucasian. Oh, and the bigots of the 19th century track prognathism as a Bad Thing, which means it can't be very common in Caucasians.

He then describes a number of other "And that's a problem because..." traits that make me wonder if he's ever seen an Indian (a long, broad nose, for example), as well as traits which are a compilation of several traits (Turner's patterns, where Turner prematurely marked Indians as sinodont without any studies).

But Chatters is a soft-liner: Loring Brace effectively ruled Indians descendants of Neanderthals as a result.

On the other hand, Skull Wars showed that one in a thousand anthropologists who have heard of Kennewick man isn't a Thor Heyerdahl wannabe.

Book Description

VOXEL-MAN 3D-Navigator: Brain and Skull is a new kind of anatomical and radiolgical atlas. It was developed at the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science in Medicine, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. It is the successor of VOXEL-MAN Junior brain and skull. The material is organized as a set of interactively explorable scenes, each of which shows a special aspect of anatomy, radiology, or both. It allows interactive exploration of a three-dimensional anatomical model. It presents the radiological manifestation of normal anatomy in the context of three-dimensional anatomy.The VOXEL-MAN 3 D NAVIGATOR provides unique reference material not only for medical students, but also for professionals in all medical disciplines involving anatomy and radiology. The VOXEL-MAN 3D-Navigatior is multilingual. The anatomical nomenclature is available in English, German, Latin, French and Japanese.

Customer Reviews:

Very Poor Program.......2004-11-17

VERY low resolution- not truly 3-d. Not able to zoom. Comletely worthless. Download the demo from the publishers website- complete junk!

Buyer beware!!!!!.......2004-03-23

I am teaching neuroscience at a local college and planned to use this software as support to the textbook I was using. I received the software and attempted to install it on an XP platform. I continued to get a popup asking me to insert a "disk". Needless to say this should not have happened. I attempted to cancel out the popup only for the sofeware to continue to populate the screen with more popups. In addition, since a process was being run by the software XP would not allow a ctrl-alt-delete to terminate the process. I installed the software on four seperate occasions and on two seperate machines to no avail. HOWEVER what was worse was the FAILURE of the publisher to respond to my pleas for help. I left several e-mails only to finally receive a response three or four days later indicating that I should e-mail an individual named Jennifer McTamney with the following e-mail address " jenmcta@springer-ny.com" - go ahead and try the address it will bounce. I then left a voice mail for whoever this person is and to date I am still waiting for a response. In addition I EVEN sent once of the authors a copy of all of my e-mails + a screen shot of the popup and once again ABSOLUTELY NO response. If you plan to use this software I would advise you to contact the head of Springer Publications FIRST to see if this error has been corrected or to see if there is REALLY anyone in technical supprt or if they can get the BASICS of managing to send out e-mail addresses that are correct or most importantly if they have ANY interest in #1 delivering a piece of software that is not compromised and then if they have any interest in revolving the problem with customers. I stand by my suggestion BUYER BEWARE. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to send you ocpies of my e-mails + the response from Springer!

Average customer rating:

It was really good and then...
DEVILMAN-style dark adventure from a legendary Manga creator

The Skull Man
Kazuhiko Shimamoto
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Adventure & Thrillers | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1591822351

Book Description

They took his family, they took his face, and they took his soul. Now, the Skull Man is going to take his revenge. Resurrected from the land of the dead, the Skull Man is hunting down the men responsible for destroying his life and anyone who stands in his way. In an unjust world, the Skull Man will use any means necessary to get the vengeance he seeks! Locked between the lethal but gorgeous assassin Maria and the mutant Spider Man, the Skull Man digs into the conspiracy that gave birth to his powers and those of his partner Garo. Haunted by his past, he will not let them stand in the way of his revenge.

Customer Reviews:

It was really good and then..........2004-01-16

This is the revival of Skull Man after the conflagration of an ending from the original '70s mini-series. No don't worry about getting that, this book explains everything, and is quite enjoyable in itself. Ishinomori and Kazuhiko Shimamoto seem to have made a killer collaboration with perfect pacing, incredible artwork, and quite original conveyances of transition and action. Yes it all seems to good to be true, and then it is... It's unfortunate that Shimamoto pretty much destroys the series in about the fourth book with incoherent plot jumps and wasted deaths of core characters...and it just gets worse in the final books (7 being the last, and oh my it was pitiful). Readers should just stick with "Cyborg 009"...cause you'll just get really angry when you get to the later installments and it starts to self-destruct...so I guess you should take my rating as a sum of the series.

DEVILMAN-style dark adventure from a legendary Manga creator.......2002-05-21

Shotaro Ishinomori's SKULL MAN is the elder brother of his infamous manga (and subsequent TV series and so on....) Kamen Rider. Overshadowed for decades, SKULL MAN once again saw the light of the skull covered moon in 1997, when Ishinomori collaborated with manga artist Kazuhiko Shimamoto for an all new revamp of the classic 1970 character.

Perhaps Japan's creepiest Anti-Hero, Skull Man is a creature resurrected from the land of the dead, living only for vengeance, stopping at nothing to find those responsible for the murder of his family and the loss of his soul. Aided on his quest by his shape-changing ally Garo, Skull Man relentlessly pursues a string of shape shifting creatures in his pursuit, using any means possible to his own ends, injuring evil creatures and innocents alike.

Equal parts (Go Nagai's) DEVILMAN and (James O'Barr's) The CROW, but predating both, Skull Man is sure to entertain fans of manga and anime like Vampire Hunter D, Blood: The Last Vampire and the aforementioned Devilman.

Volume ONE oozes supernatural flavor, but it reads rather quickly, revealing background and origin toward the middle of the story, and ending abruptly with a cliffhanger.

Book Description

The book is the most in-depth account of the fossil skull anatomy and evolutionary significance of the 3.6-3.0 million year old early human species Australopithecus afarensis. Knowledge of this species is pivotal to understanding early human evolution, because 1) the sample of fossil remains of A. afarensis is among the most extensive for any early human species, and the majority of remains are of taxonomically inormative skulls and teeth; 2) the wealth of material makes A. afarensis an indispensable point of reference for the interpretation of other fossil discoveries; 3) the species occupies a time period that is the focus of current research to determine when, where, and why the human lineage first diversified into separate contemporaneous lines of descent. Upon publication of this book, this species will be among the most thoroughly documented extinct ancestors of humankind. The main focus of the book - its organizing principle - is the first complete skull of A. afarensis (specimen number A.L. 444-2) at the Hadar site, Ethiopia, the home of the remarkably complete 3.18 million year old skeleton known as "Lucy," found at Hadar by third author D. Johanson in 1974. Lucy and other fossils from Hadar, together with those from the site of Laetoli in Tanzania, were controversially attributed to the then brand new species A. afarensis by Johanson, T. White and Y. Coppens in 1978. However, a complete skull, which would have quickly resolved much of the early debate over the species, proved elusive until second author Y. Rak's discovery of the 444 skull in 1992. The book details the comparative anatomy of the new skull (and the cast of its brain, analyzed by R. Holloway and M. Huan) , as well as of other skull and dental finds recovered during the latest, ongoing field work at Hadar, and analyzes the evolutionary significance of A. afarensis in the context of other critically important discoveries of earliest humans made in recent years. In essence, it summarizes the state of knowledge about one of the central subjects of current paleoanthropological investigation.

Average customer rating:

Skull Man #4
IshinomoriShotaro
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Superheroes | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Adventure & Thrillers | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Teens | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1931514682

The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man

Average customer rating:

The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man
Amir Aczel
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Scientists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

China | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Science & Religion | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1594489564
Release Date: 2007-10-04

Book Description

In December 1929, in a cave near Peking, a group of anthropologists and archaeologists that included a young French Jesuit priest named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin uncovered a pre-human skull. The find quickly became known around the world as Peking Man and was acclaimed as the missing link between erect hunting apes and our Cro-Magnon ancestors. It also became a provocative piece of evidence in the roiling debate over creationism versus evolution.

For Teilhard, both a scientist and man of God, the discovery also exposed a deeply personal conflict between the new science and his faith. He was commanded by his superiors to deny all scientific evidence that went against biblical teachings, and his writing and lectures were censored by the Vatican. But his curiosity and desire to find connections between scientific and spiritual truth kept him investigating man's origins. His inner struggle, and, in turn, his public rebuke by the Catholic Church personified one of the central debates of our time: How to reconcile an individual's commitment to science and his commitment to his faith.

In The Jesuit and the Skull, bestselling author Amir D. Aczel vividly recounts the discovery of Peking Man and its repercussions, and how Teilhard de Chardin's scientific work helped to open the eyes of the world to new theories of humanity's origins that alarmed the traditionalists within the Church. A deft mix of narrative history and a poignant personal story, The Jesuit and the Skull brings fresh insight to a debate that still rages today.

Approaches to the Clivus: Approaches to No Man's Land

Average customer rating:

Approaches to the Clivus: Approaches to No Man's Land
Madjid Samii , and E. Knosp
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0387540156

Average customer rating:

Bloch doing what Bloch does best

Bogey Men

Manufacturer: Pyramid Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1115008390

Product Description

Weird Tales

Customer Reviews:

Bloch doing what Bloch does best.......2005-03-28

Which is writing excellent stories. This 1963 anthology gathers together ten stories, several of which will be well known to Bloch's fans, and a short biographical essay on the author himself by Sam Moskowitz. The ten tales show Bloch's range to good effect. A Matter of Life is a crime/suspense story of a rather unique door-to-door salesman. The Model Bride is a gotcha horror short short, while Broomstick Ride is a "science-fiction" piece about space travellers investigating a planet where magic appears to be quite real. Memo to a Movie Maker is Bloch doing comedy as only he can. The Thinking Cap has a struggling writer gifted with a unique idea generator and The Shoes is a prime example of Bloch's ability to come up with a brilliant twist ending. The Man Who Collected Poe is a story about just that, and was adapted by the author for the horror anthology film Torture Garden (Jack Palance and Peter Cushing starred in that particular story). Bloch obviously drew upon his personal experience with fandom, not to mention his legendary correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, for The Ghost Writer, which is another excellent story. The Man Who Murdered Tomorrow closes out the piece, and a more fitting finale could not be offered. Any fan of horror, suspense, crime, or science-fiction should immediately search out the stories of Robert Bloch, for he was one of the greats of the 20th century and he should never be forgotten. Highest recommedation.

Captain America #326 : The Haunting of Skull House (Marvel Comics)

Average customer rating:

Captain America #326 : The Haunting of Skull House (Marvel Comics)
Mark Gruenwald
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Antiquarian & Rare Books | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Batman | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity: A Study of Cranial Variation (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology)

Average customer rating:

Death knell to multiregionalism
it's coincident with my interests

The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity: A Study of Cranial Variation (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology)
Marta Mirazón Lahr
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0521473934

Book Description

Exactly how modern humans evolved is a subject of intense debate. This book deals with the evolution of modern humans from an archaic ancestor and the differentiation of modern populations from each other. The first section of the book investigates whether modern populations arose from regional archaic hominid groups that were already different from each other, and argues that in fact, most lines of evidence support a single, recent origin of modern humans in Africa. Dr. Lahr then goes on to examine ways in which this diversification could have occurred, given what we know from fossils, archaeological remains and the relationships of existing populations today.

Customer Reviews:

Death knell to multiregionalism.......2001-02-27

Dr Lahr's book provides an excellent rebuttal to the multiregionalists who believe their work is based on the fossil evidence, while the Out-of-Africanists are concerned with "suspect" genetic data. This book demonstrates how weak the case of multiregionalism actually is.

it's coincident with my interests.......1999-12-06

i'm investigator of behavior, and personality related to craneal and facial types, my speciality is graphology and i'm correlating specific writting data with facial data in order to locate authors of anonymous and criminal writing by reading faces.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books