Carleton S. Coon

The Human Revolution [and Comments and Reply]

Except for an introductory discussion of methodology, this paper is an effort at a narrative account of the evolution of our ancestors from proto-hominoid times to the earliest fully human stage.

Sapienization and Speech [and Comments and Reply]

Middle Pleistocene erectus skulls differ from ours in fifteen discrete traits, primary among which are their smaller cranial capacities, flatter and more strongly constructed braincases, larger and more anteriorly projecting faces, and inflected mastoid processes. Back to 40,000 years ago all fossil hominids are of the sapiens desing, while all those clearly older show the erectus pattern. Except for their large brains, Neandertals are of the erectus type. The sapiens differences (many of them mal-adaptive in themselves) follow directly, for biomechanical reasons, from an elongation of the pharynx and indicate full development of speech as the delivery system for laguage. The archeological record at the same time showns a worldwide change of increased tool complexity, geographical localization of desings, and increased rate of change. Faster and easier transmission of information by the vocal medium would increase culture content and would facilitate building flexible social organizations. The final step in developing vocal language would be the phonemic priciple of using meaningless sounds in meaningful combinations. This invention would transform vocalizations from calls with fixed meanings into a more flexible and rapid form of communication. Phonemic speech would spread by diffusion because all erectus would be able to use it to some degree. All populations would then select for the same vocal anatomy and consequent cranial changes that best facilitate speech behavior. This accounts for the speed of transformation and the continuity of line traits through it.

The Pleistocene Epoch and the Evolution of Man [and Comments and Reply]

THE CALABRIAN STAGE was defined by Gignoux (1913) as the last stage of the Pliocene Epoch, characterized in the Mediterranean by the presence of Arctica (Cyprina) islandica and a dozen marine mollusks previously restricted to northern waters (North Atlantic, North Sea, and Baltic Sea). Arctica islandica and the associated mollusks belong to a rather shallow facies (less than 150 m., according to Ruggieri 1965) and are supposed to have entered the Mediterranean following a general temperature decrease. In deeper-water facies, the climatic deterioration is evidenced by the sudden and widespread appearance in abundance of the northern benthonic foraminiferal species Hyalinea (Anomalina) baltica (Schroeter). Although this foraminiferal species and the molluscan species Arctica islandica are generally not found together because of their different habitats, Ruggieri (1961, 1965) established that Arctica islandica entered the Mediterranean somewhat earlier than Hyalinea baltica and distinguished a Lower Calabrian characterized by the occurrence of the former and the absence of the latter. The 18th International Geological Congress in London in 1948 removed the Calabrian stage from the Pliocene and redefined it as the first stage of the Pleistocene. Later, the General Assembly of the 7th

THE TAXONOMY OF HUMAN VARIATION

Taxonomy is the art of sorting and classifying living things. It is an art because art takes over where science leaves off, and jobs must be finished however much or little is known. I t is appropriately based on the Greek word taxis, meaning “battle order.” In combat between land troops, the most critical taxon is the sergeant; in taxonomy it is the species. Higher categories like phyla and orders are about as vulnerable as most generals, while lieutenants come and go like the names of genera in human paleontology, and subspecies are as expendable as privates. Because many professionals have defined species, and I am an amateur limited to a single genus, Homo, I can only follow the concepts and precepts of men who rattle off the binominals of horses, trilobites and sunflowers as easily as ordering breakfast. According to them, a species is a collection of animals (I know nothing about plants) that will breed together voluntarily when they get a chance, at the right time and under the proper circumstances. Except in desperation or by mistake, they will not breed with animals of other species. According to this definition, all human populations belong to one species because they are capable of producing fertile mixed offspring by breeding voluntarily. In man, however, voluntary breeding involves not only the consent of the female being bred but also that of the male partner’s wife. That is why sailors who breed freely in the South Pacific may be faithful at home. We know that this kind of differential behavior is not merely an artifact of culture unique to man because it has also been observed among other animals. For example, the wild mouflons released on Lambay Island, Ireland, in 1907, would not interbreed with the local, free-ranging domestic sheep until the last wild ewe had died. Then the wild rams interbred freely with the domestic ewes.’ But more may be learned from the case of the mouflon and the Irish sheep than a mere instance of breeding behavior. This example is also a lesson in the procedure of taxonomy. According to F. E. Zeuner, “All domestic sheep are descended either from the mouflon, the urial, or the argali. Though these are usually treated as species for the sake of convenience, they are not only extremely closely related to each other, but connected by intermediate forms.”2 Now if the mouflon (Ovis musimon), the argali (Ovis ammon) and the urial (Ovis .vignei), all wild animals, have intermediate forms, they are really either subspecies of a single species or species of a single superspecies. In this they resemble man. Ovis aries, the domestic sheep, is descended from these wild forms, from which it differs enough to merit a specific name of its own, Ovis aries. We may say, therefore, that Ovis aries is a descendant of Ovis musimon-ammonvignei. His evolution has been accelerated by human interference, involving protection and dispersion into various climates, more than by deliberate selection. Because we are more attentive to animal breeding than to human breeding, the genetic changes in sheep in 9,000 years at least equal the changes in man in more than five times that figure. And the acceleration of the selective process has had another result: the ancestral and filial species coexist. Man also evolved through selection, but the selection did not involve his wool or meat. He has been selected for his capacity to create culture and to live within

On the Origin of Races

Make more knowledge even in less time every day. You may not always spend your time and money to go abroad and get the experience and knowledge by yourself. Reading is a good alternative to do in getting this desirable knowledge and experience. You may gain many things from experiencing directly, but of course it will spend much money. So here, by reading origin of races, you can take more advantages with limited budget.

SHERWOOD WASHBURN (Ed.). Social Life of Early Man. Pp. vii, 299. Chicago: Aldine, 1962.

requirements. Some predictions on the way the total audience may split could be based on the divisions made in this book and on the attitudes toward television now forming. The future is in the hands of the first generation of people who have known television since they were born, and it is good for us to learn something about them. GILBERT SELDES Dean Annenberg School of Communications University of Pennsylvania

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as well as in internal affairs, the least government that is still effective is the best government. Anthropologists recognize five major classes of institutions: the family, the economic institution, the church, the state, and associations. All human beings are grouped in families for the reproduction and training of new human beings and for the private activities which make life worth living. Nearly every adult male at least who lives in a modern society either employs or is employed in producing, manufacturing, or trading goods and materials. Most per-