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List Price: £14.99
Our Price: £7.03
Author:
Cheikh Anta Diop
By A Cappella Books,U.S.
 detailed analysis of the racial identity of ancient Egyptians, 2008-06-23
One of the most recognized images of our generation is that of the white-skinned ancient Egyptian. This is how ancient Egyptians have been consistently portrayed in movies, documentaries and books. Diop sets out to show that this image of ancient Egyptians as white is a false one, constructed in the racist climate of the early nineteenth century by European scholars.
In the first six chapters of the book, he carefully considers the reasoning and arguments of a selection of Egyptologists and shows why their theories were wrong. He produces clear historical evidence to show that, up till the falsification of egyptian history in the nineteenth century, it was taken for granted that ancient Egyptians were black. He cites noted Greek and Roman historians and also supplies scientific evidence to back his assertion. He goes further to show that the origins of ancient Epypt actually lay in Sudan (Upper Egypt), in the heart of Black Africa, and not in Mesoptamia or Asia as claimed by European scholars.
In the second part of his book, Diop builds a strong argument for the black origins of ancient Egypt by detailing strong similarities in socio-cultural and political institutions between Egypt and the rest of Africa. He argues that all of Africa was, in fact, populated from Egypt and that, up till the coming of Europeans to sub-saharan Africa in the fifteenth century, many features of Egyptian civilization had survived in the interior in places like Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Yatenga, Cayor and Great Zimbabwe (all pre-European contact African civilizations). Therefore, the theory of "black barbarism" was infact a myth. He explains that African civilizations suffered a severe cultural reversion as a result of colonialism, which is why it is hard, today, to link African peoples to the former glories of ancient Egypt.
Diop's book is a radical but objective and very credible interpretation of historical, scientific and sociological facts and a bold attempt to provide a clearer picture of African history. Books like "Black Athena" (by Martin Bernal) and "The Destruction of Black Civilization" (by Chancellor Williams) are a good complement to this book.
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £9.99
Author:
W. Peasley
By Eye Books
An Australian reader from Surrey, England, 2008-03-25
Having recently finished this book, how do I find another book that grips the reader as well as "Last of the Nomads". The language used was realistic and not over flowery as used by some journalist/authers, the landscape and main characters were held firmly central.
It was not until I had finished the book that I began to appreciated the amount lines that had been given over to the detailed description of the journey into the desertland of Western Australia. Having travelled through Western Australia myself I can say that the auther has used the middle section of the book well to bring to the reader just how dry and isolated these two people must have been.
In conclusion, it was not only a wonderfully successful mission it must be one of the greatest love stories not yet made into a Hollywood film, or perhaps that could be seen as a good thing.
Sadly I had to wait until now to read it as I left Australia shortly before the book was published.
This book would surely get the "Non-Reader" reading.
List Price: £24.99
Our Price: £11.91
Author:
Douglas Palmer
By New Holland Publishers Ltd
Palmer at his best, 2008-01-22
For anyone interested in human evolution and the early stages of the development of human culture this book is a must.
Palmer is, as always, an enthralling and easy to follow read.
How "The Origins of Man" differs from his earlier works is that it compiles the many different aspects of scientific investigation into our origins including fossil, tools, ancient art and cultural artefacts, genetics from mitochondrial and other studies, and linguistics - to produce a trully comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge of our origins.
The book is superbly illustrated throughout, with many charts, photos, and pictographical representations which provide excellent support to the text.
The book follows a roughly chronological format of our evolution. Palmer also critically reviews at each stage the kind of evidence that is available and how reliable it is. The book is fully up to date, with details of the most recent discoveries - e.g. in the possible "common anscestor" from Chad, the controversies regarding pre-clovis sites in America, and the tantalising Flores Man.
If you like this book, then I can also recomend Palmers "Seven Million Years", which is also highly readable but concentrates more on the earlier stages of human evolution.
List Price: £10.50
Our Price: £9.96
Author:
KE Stanovich
By Chicago University Press
Partially a development from the work of Richard Dawkins, 2004-08-05
This book is largely about what psychologist Keith Stanovich sees as the disconnect in the postmodern world between "maximizing genetic fitness and maximizing the satisfaction of human desires." (p. xiii) On the one hand we have the "replicators," the genes that blindly seek only their replication. On the other hand we have the vehicle (the phenotype), i.e., "us," which carries the genes, which Stanovich believes should seek its own happiness. He sees our brain as composed of two overlapping, but sometimes divergent, systems. One, the more primitive, he calls "The Autonomous Set of Systems" (TASS) and the other he calls an "analytic system." He calls this having "two minds in one brain." The autonomous system is held on a "short leash" by the genes while the analytic system is on a longer leash; that is, TASS reacts to events in the environment almost automatically in close concert with the dictates of the replicators while the analytic system is more removed from innate drives and can analyze situations rationally and can act in terms of what is good for the vehicle rather than what promotes the replication of the genes. Note that these systems usually are in agreement and react to the environment in the same way. Threats to the well-being of the vehicle from predators and other dangers, signal the same avoidance behavior. However, sometimes there is a conflict. The example that Stanovich uses is TASS's need to flirt with the boss's wife, which might increase the replication of the genes, while the analytic system realizes that such behavior probably goes against the best interests of the vehicle (possible loss of job, etc.). Following the counsel of the rational analytic system instead of the urgings of TASS is what Stanovich calls "maximizing goal satisfaction at the level of the whole organism." (p. 64) The title of the book comes from Richard Dawkins (and indeed this book is written in partial reaction to and in concert with Dawkins's ideas) who called organisms "survival machines" and "gigantic lumbering robots" in his famous opus, The Selfish Gene (1976). Stanovich wants to free us from the dictates of those selfish genes and so has constructed a "robot's rebellion." He believes we can use our rationality (our analytic system) to override the sometimes self-destructive inclinations of the more primitive set of brain systems. Stanovich is preeminently a rationalist and believes that right thought leading to right behavior will lead to a more fulfilling and happier life for the "robots." We need to be on the long leash from the genes, not the short leash, is his idea. A strong point that Stanovich makes very well is that in the information societies of the modern world many of the talents that served us well in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness in the Pleistocene are "worthless" when (e.g.) trying to use "an international ATM machine with which you are unfamiliar" or when "arguing with your HMO about a disallowed medical procedure." (p. 124) He argues strongly that corporations and governments, through their advertizing and propaganda, have become very good at exploiting blind spots in our more primitive brain systems and getting us to do what is good for them and not necessarily good for us. I think this is correct, and that those of us who can see how the players in the modern economy are trying to use us for their benefit will avoid most of the more obvious traps and thereby increase our standard of living and presumably our chances for happiness. Stanovich devotes a chapter to criticizing evolutionary psychologists for failing "to develop the most important implication of potential mismatches between the cognitive requirements of the EEA and those of the modern world," as he carefully phrases it on page 131. Nonetheless the psychology presented here is mainly a synthesis of cognitive psychology, brain science and evolutionary psychology and as such represents the latest in our attempt to understand ourselves. He also devotes a chapter to the effects that another kind of replicator, the meme, has on our lives. I don't have the space to go into his ideas about memes and their implications, but I want to say that from my point of view the word "meme" is an approximate neologism for the word "idea." However, I think that it is a useful coinage and, like Stanovich's mind dualism, facilitates a new way of looking at and talking about how our brains work. While I think this is an extremely interesting book that goes a long way toward showing us the sort of thinking that characterizes postmodern psychology, I must point out that Stanovich's mind dualism is a construct that, while based on his interpretation of recent findings, is nonetheless just that: a construct that will be refined as time goes by and eventually overturned for a new construct. As always in science we are increasing our understanding and expanding our knowledge as we move toward a final understanding that will most likely always lie tantalizingly in the distance.
List Price: £20.99
Our Price: £13.91
Author:
Pauline Lowrie
By Nelson Thornes Ltd
Good Book, 2008-12-14
This book i feel is the only book you will need to get you through your as-level human biology course.
The book is laid out in simple terms, easy to understand and the exercises and practice style exam papers at the end of each chapter, tests your knowledge of what you have learnt which is all relevant.
I learnt a lot from this book, even paid £21 for it in WHSMITH!!!
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