Suggested Readings

Chapter 9: Archaic Homo sapiens and the Middle Paleolithic

Shreeve, J. (1995). The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the mystery of modern human origins. New York: William Morrow.

Shreeve is a science writer who has written extensively about human evolution. This book is engagingly written and covers most of the major issues in the Neandertal-Modern debate.

Stringer, C. B., & McKie, R. (1996). African Exodus: The origins of modern humanity. London: Jonathan Cape.

Chris Stringer of the British Museum is a leading champion of the “Out of Africa” hypothesis, and in this book one will find a vigorous presentation of his arguments.

Trinkaus, E., & Shipman, P. (1992). The Neandertals: Changing the image of mankind. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

The senior author of this book is a long-time specialist on the Neandertals. Eminently readable, the book chronicles the changing interpretations of these fossils since the first recognized find in 1856. For a good look at what is known about the Neandertals, there is no better place to go than this.

Wolpoff, M., & Caspari, R. (1997). Race and Human Evolution. New York: Simon & Schuster.

One of the problems in evaluating the multiregional and “Out of Africa” hypotheses is that many writers misrepresent the former. That is no problem in this book, written by the leading champion of multiregionalism and his wife. The hypothesis is presented and defended in a straightforward and thorough way so that anyone can understand it.