Java Man: How Two Geologists' Dramatic Discoveries Changed Our Understanding of the Evolutionary Path to Modern Humans

First, before you get the book, there are three stories within the covers - 1 - The history of the study of human evolution, focused on the debate between single origin and multiregional origins. 2 - The discoveries made by Carl C. Swisher III and Garniss H. Curtis about Homo erectus and how this changed many of the ideas (or just clouded things even more). 3 - How science really works, with the egos, the money issues, the insults, the old guard against the new ideas and how each side slams into each other till somebody screams uncle and somebody wins. Logic seems to have nothing to do with it. At only 235 pages it does seem small, but the chapters are clear and simple, with more than enough details and examples to make everything easy to understand. They did a great work at explaining how technology has changed over the years when it comes to figuring out the age of an object. Yet I never felt like I was being talked down to. The only problem is that having been published in 2000 it makes you wonder what the 'hobbits' would have done to their ideas.

In studies of human evolution, dating fossil finds is of paramount importance. Since the fossil bones themselves carry no signature indicating their age, the placement in time must be done by inference. The clues lie in the rocks surrounding the teeth, jaws or skulls unearthed. Ever since Raymond Dart's finding of the Taung Child in 1924, the mysteries surrounding human evolution have been painstakingly revealed. Dart's discovery, which should have confirmed Darwin's predictions of African origins for humanity, had already been usurped a generation before. Dutch army surgeon, Eugene Dubois, had already found fossils in Java. The discovery confirmed what many believed, that human origins were in Asia rather than the Dark Continent. This new collaboration examines the evidence while making a detailed analysis of the controversy that emerged over our evolutionary track in Asia and Africa. Lewin's hand in this narrative is readily apparent. He's done many books on anthropology, each one as a close collaboration with the actual researchers. He evokes the human side of each trip to fossil sites - storm-tossed aircraft, jungle road trips, the frustration of pinpointing older finds, the clash of personalities. In this case, a fossil unearthed along a riverside seemed to evade identity. The failure of precise location means the dismissal of dating practices. Lewin and his team spend much time going over the ways a site is dated and what it meant for another Child, this one known as Mojokerto. Amidst the complications of pinpointing sites, verifying dates and the immense burden of funding multi-national investigations, we are suddenly transported into a maelstrom of professional acrimony. Curtiss and Swisher's team had been forced into an uneasy association with Don Johanson's [he of "Lucy" fame] Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, California. A private establishment, very loosely tied to the University, contributions to keep it running were, as always, the subject of priority discussions. The story Lewin relates is reminiscent of theological disputes, with backstabbing, character assassination and explosive temperaments. While the casual observer would assume the players in this scenario would be working in the same cause, small events exploded into destructive schisms. Lewin's writing is Swisher's voice, yet the hurt feelings are vividly related. You are almost sitting at the table witnessing the vituperation. Yet another fossil, with yet another dating crisis, brought what should be the resolution of yet another dispute. For many years the idea of human "origins" in Asia persisted, although in different guise. Dubois 1892 artefacts ultimately fit into a species later termed Homo erectus, an early precursor of ourselves. A school of anthropologists, led by Milford Wolpoff, has argued that H. erectus evolved into H. sapiens in parallel tracks in Africa, Asia, and perhaps elsewhere. Known as "multiregionalism", it is one wa

(...)This book contains three stories; and as a result none of them get the attention they should have. It is the story of Garness Curtis's retirement from the University of California at Berkley, and the subsequent disasters that followed as he attempted to continue his research outside the proactive environment of the university. It is the story of the evolution of the theories of the evolution of man, and it is the story of the discovery that Java Man was not one of many steps early man made in his evolution from an earlier ape like creature, but in fact a parallel evolution of a second homo species that died off around the time of Neanderthal Man.All three books were worth writing; it is unfortunate that, for whatever reason they got clumped into a single small volume. I should mention that all three stories were to a large extent interwoven. Much of the more scientific information was presented at conferences, and in journal articles. Nonetheless, it is the only place that two of these three events can be read about.The result is a readable book, accessible to any reader that allows a view into the messy world of real scientific research.To Criticize Garness Curtis for not being an anthropologist is a little bit like making the claim the Einstein was a physicist and not a mathematician. Any man who dedicates over 40 years of his life, working with, studying with, and publishing with the anthropologists investigating early man becomes an anthropologist, if not by degree, then by vocation. The overall quality of the book is far less than I had hoped for, however it is still worth reading if you are interested in the development of man, and the politics of academia.

This is an interesting story about anthropology and geochronology. I don't know much about the subject, but I am very enthusiastic. I am very attracted by this popular book.

From the authors' description of the crowded roads of Java to the thrill of the island's hominid fossil findings, this book captures the emotional side and intellectual insights of Asian paleoanthropology. Simply stated, it's a great read on a subject we have heard much about from Africa, but not enough from this part of the world. With excitement and sincere feelings, the volume details a thorough and good discussion of how Homo erectus lived much longer than anthropologists ever could have imagined a mere decade ago. Perhaps tomorrow, we shall learn that hominid species coexisted even more recently!!Great job.