The History of Our Tribe: Hominini
The book feels like it begins in the middle of the semester. The subject of paleoanthropology is introduced without an explanation of what anthropology is and quickly summarizes the history of paleoanthropology while touching upon major subjects like evolutionary theory and population genetics, which are rather important to the concept of an evolving hominin lineage. How paleoanthropologists conduct research in the field and in the laboratory would benefit from additional details and explanation. There are three chapters that discuss the primates as an Order comprehensively, including their classification, evolution, and social structures. Likewise, the chapter that describes the hominins is equally comprehensive in introducing the group. The majority of the text is dedicated to a chronological listing and description of the genera and species identified as hominins, taking a splitter’s approach by exploring each species separately. The latest available information is used along with maps, photographs, and sketches, which allows for a fairly complete picture of hominin history and diversity.
There are no glaring inaccuracies within the text. The public domain images used connect to the material and are placed appropriately within the text. The sketches that begin the chapters are creative interpretations and visually interesting.
The information is relatively up-to-date, which is not easy in this field. The way the text is organized should make it easy to update information as needed.
The author’s voice clearly comes through in the writing style. While her sense of humor won’t appeal to everyone, personally I find it more accessible than the usual dry style of the typical textbook.
There are no obvious inconsistencies within the text.
The text is highly modular and could easily be divided into numerous sections. Some chapters are far less informative than others, but that is more a reflection of how spotty the evidence is for some hominin species.
The organization of topics is logical and the chronological presentation of the hominin species is standard for texts on this subject at this level.
Some of the public domain images used are distorted at 100% magnification, including text elements that are unreadable.
The most glaring error is chapter 5’s title, What is a Hominim, rather than Hominin. Otherwise, spelling and grammar are acceptable.
In chapter 36, Homo sapiens, the discussion of cultural traits and innovations focuses on Europe to the exclusion of AMH elsewhere in Eurasia and especially in Africa. This makes it seem like all paleolithic cultural development occurred in Europe.
The textbook works better as a supplemental resource for biological anthropology courses rather than as a primary text because it is focused solely as a paleoanthropology text. Even for a paleoanthropology course there would need to be more information on evolution, archaeological methods and laboratory techniques, especially on the topics of reconstructing paleoenvironments and relative and chronometric dating.