The story of the human body evolution health and disease sparknotes

Less satisfactory is his rather too brief discussion of the origins of culture, societal structure, intra-and inter-group behaviors etc: these are core to understanding cultural evolution which are central to his thesis. Similarly and core to the latter part of his book he has worked his way through the story of how humans evolved their major dietary patterns. The origins of bipedalism are obviously core to this story and Lieberman with his deep knowledge has done a brilliant job of making a logical and compelling story of the evolution of a bipedal long-distance running species. I found it very easy to read and comprehensive in what a non-scholar needs to know. The first section is both beautifully written and, for a person familiar with, but not embedded in the study of hominin evolution, Leiberman has done an outstanding job allowing the reader to see through the morass of conflicting taxonomies and describe the essence of what we understand about the major steps in evolving from an quadripedal last common ancestor with the other apes to modern homo-sapiens. The one caveat is that I find myself most impressed by the sections I am least familiar with as a scholar of evolutionary medicine and less satisfied by those where most of my own research lies and I will leave the reader to judge whether this has biased my view. In reviewing this book I felt it necessary to consider each of the sections separately as they have left me with quite distinct impressions. The third section builds off the first two to focus on the role of evolutionary mismatch in the origin of non- communicable disease. The second section is largely about the macro-history of modern homo sapiens in the Holocene with a particular emphasis on the impact of agriculture and the industrial revolution.

The first section is largely about the pre-Neolithic history of the hominin clade with a particular focus on the origins of bipedalism and energetics. This is a book in three distinct sections. But while the book is well-written and most enjoyable, its agenda is less ambitious and largely focused on the origins of evolutionary mismatch and its contributions to the rising burden of non-communicable disease. It suggested that he might be putting the challenges and opportunities of evolutionary medicine in a popular and accessible context. The title, Story of the Human Body Evolution, Health and Disease, suggested that the author, Daniel Lieberman who is Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, might be taking a more holistic approach. In a sense all three tend to be part of an authorвЂ™s agenda and this tends to put both a challenge on both the author and the reader. Is it to educate and inform the general public, to educate health care professionals, (too many of whom are sadly lacking in knowledge in evolutionary medicine) or is it to incite some particular actions in society, medicine or public health. The challenge with such books is always for whom is the author writing. I must admit to having co-authored a couple that suffer from these criticisms. In general they have suffered from either over-claiming the relevance of the particular perspective they have taken, or from over simplifying complex contexts in which their particular disease focus is set. In recent years there have been a growing number of popular books that try and put an evolutionary perspective on the human condition.

Publishers: Pantheon Books, Random House, USA (2013) and Allen Lane (UK) 2013 ISBN: 978-3-9 ( Amazon link here) Review byВ Sir Peter Gluckman,В Centre for Human Evolution, Adaptation and Disease,В Liggins Institute University of Auckland

The story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health & Disease ByВ Daniel Lieberman

The story of the human body evolution health and disease sparknotes