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A review by archytas
The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals Died Out and We Survived by Clive Finlayson
3.0
This book is an attempt to replicate the approach of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, to explain why 'Cro-Magnon' survived and Neanderthals didn't. It's an interesting idea, and I really wish it had worked better than it did.
The book is lush with climate and geographic description and explanation, and it felt close to palaeontology works (non-human) I've read in approach - assuming as a start point that evolutionary adaptation happens in response to specific environments. It was very helpful for gaining a greater understanding of the climate of prehistory.
This is a welcome change from "we evolved to hunt and gather and have teh sex". But partly, it isn't all totally convincing. This is, in part, that a core premise - that contact between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon was limited and had no impact on our genetic development - is looking very shaky from evidence found since this book was published. Ironically, the same findings actually strengthen one of Finlayson's key contentions - that the story of modern humans' origins is more complex than just "we migrated out of Africa in a couple of waves".
One thing that drove me particularly nuts, however, was the euro-centrist approach. Despite extensive discussion of the cave art in Europe, for example, he fails to even mention Australian cave art's existence. It's hard not suspect that this is in part, because his thesis that key evolutionary progress was enabled by specific conditions in Central Asia doesn't well explain why humans are so similar across Australasia, Africa and the descendants of those who migrated out towards Europe. Finlayson tends to explain this by referring to the great opportunities posed by the "open and empty" Australian continent when the first people arrived, but that's not explained any further (nor why it was more open or empty than anywhere else). It left me wanting very badly to read a book examining the journey and genetic evidence of any peoples not part of the Europe/Central Asia/Americas wave.
Finlayson writes engagingly, and interestingly enough, comes across as very likeable. I think I would enjoy his other works on areas he is expert in, and which may not be trying so hard to work. This one just didn't entirely come off for me.
The book is lush with climate and geographic description and explanation, and it felt close to palaeontology works (non-human) I've read in approach - assuming as a start point that evolutionary adaptation happens in response to specific environments. It was very helpful for gaining a greater understanding of the climate of prehistory.
This is a welcome change from "we evolved to hunt and gather and have teh sex". But partly, it isn't all totally convincing. This is, in part, that a core premise - that contact between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon was limited and had no impact on our genetic development - is looking very shaky from evidence found since this book was published. Ironically, the same findings actually strengthen one of Finlayson's key contentions - that the story of modern humans' origins is more complex than just "we migrated out of Africa in a couple of waves".
One thing that drove me particularly nuts, however, was the euro-centrist approach. Despite extensive discussion of the cave art in Europe, for example, he fails to even mention Australian cave art's existence. It's hard not suspect that this is in part, because his thesis that key evolutionary progress was enabled by specific conditions in Central Asia doesn't well explain why humans are so similar across Australasia, Africa and the descendants of those who migrated out towards Europe. Finlayson tends to explain this by referring to the great opportunities posed by the "open and empty" Australian continent when the first people arrived, but that's not explained any further (nor why it was more open or empty than anywhere else). It left me wanting very badly to read a book examining the journey and genetic evidence of any peoples not part of the Europe/Central Asia/Americas wave.
Finlayson writes engagingly, and interestingly enough, comes across as very likeable. I think I would enjoy his other works on areas he is expert in, and which may not be trying so hard to work. This one just didn't entirely come off for me.