The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack: and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution

by Ian Tattersall

Overview

In his new book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of "human exceptionalism" in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career—from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman—Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus.

The book's title refers to the 1856 discovery of a clearly very old skull cap in Germany's Neander Valley. The possessor had a brain as large as a modern human, but a heavy low braincase with a prominent brow ridge. Scientists tried hard to explain away the inconvenient possibility that this was not actually our direct relative. One extreme interpretation suggested that the preserved leg bones were curved by both rickets, and by a life on horseback. The pain of the unfortunate individual's affliction had caused him to chronically furrow his brow in agony, leading to the excessive development of bone above the eye sockets.

The subsequent history of human evolutionary studies is full of similarly fanciful interpretations. With tact and humor, Tattersall concludes that we are not the perfected products of natural processes, but instead the result of substantial doses of random happenstance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137278890
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/09/2015
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

IAN TATTERSALL is Curator Emeritus in the Division of Anthropology of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The author of many books, including the widely praised Masters of the Planet, he is often interviewed about human evolution in the media and speaks around the world. He is the winner of numerous awards, and lives in Greenwich Village.

Table of Contents

Preface
Prologue: Lemurs and the Delights of Fieldwork
Chapter 1: Humankind's Place in Nature
Chapter 2: People Get a Fossil Record
Chapter 3: Neanderthals and Man-Apes
Chapter 4: The Synthesis and Handy Man
Chapter 5: Evolutionary Refinements
Chapter 6: The Gilded Age
Chapter 7: Meanwhile, Back at the Museum . . .
Chapter 8: Turkana, the Afar, and Dmanisi
Chapter 9: Molecules and Midgets
Chapter 10: Neanderthals, DNA, and Creativity
Epilogue: Why Does It Matter How We Evolved?
Notes and Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

04/06/2015
Paleoanthropologist Tattersall (Masters of the Planet), now retired from the American Museum of Natural History, attempts to accomplish two related goals in this relatively brief book: summarizing the history of his field and exploring the nature of epistemology within the discipline, highlighting the role he and the AMNH played in developing the field. The history he provides is abbreviated and does not add much to what has previously been written. Readers expecting a detailed survey of hominid fossils and their evolutionary relationship to one another will have to look elsewhere. Tattersall’s excursion into how paleoanthropologists work and think is far richer. He takes on a host of intellectual problems that have befuddled the field and thereby illuminates the nature of scientific progress. He explains that the Piltdown hoax taught scientists how important it is “to examine our preconceived beliefs,” and he focuses on the importance of using objective data rather than subjective impressions, even when the latter come from experts. When many of the early hypotheses of human evolution were formed, he asserts, “salesmanship was at a greater premium than rigorous reasoning.” Throughout, Tattersall reminds readers of the pitfalls of believing in human exceptionalism, noting that “we are no exception to Nature’s rules.” (June)

Publishers Weekly

An opinionated, authoritative, and delightfully provocative account of efforts to make sense of human fossil discoveries.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Though "a very personal account," this is superb science history.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Highlights the controversial ideas and colorful personalities that have shaped paleoanthropology and given rise to our current understanding of how we became human.” —Scientific American

“Out­lines the history of thought on human evolution clearly and insightfully...an interesting critical evaluation of how palaeoanthropology has developed.” —Nature

“Traces the contingencies, false starts, and diversity of opinions that have characterized the intellectual history of paleoanthropology from Darwin to today...History, Tattersall reminds us, defines who we think we are.” —Science

“One of the most engaging and thought-provoking books on human evolution of recent times.” —Simon Underdown, Times Higher Education

From the Publisher

★ 2015-03-11
Despite his 2012 history of Homo sapiens, Masters of the Planet, Tattersall, curator emeritus in the anthropology division of the American Museum of Natural History, revisits the subject from another angle, with equally superb results. In the earlier work, the author painted human evolution with a broad brush. Rewinding the tape, he delivers a history of the evidence itself (until recently, the majority of the evidence consisted of bones) and how paleoanthropologists interpreted it—mostly according to received wisdom, a terrible technique long discarded by other sciences. Examining early Neanderthal bones, those who believed these represented something new were drowned out by those who didn't: most famously, a leading pathologist who insisted that this was a modern man with a skeleton distorted by rickets, arthritis, and a lifetime of horseback riding—the Rickety Cossack of the title. Proceeding forward, Tattersall mixes biographies, anecdotes (many about himself), discoveries, and fierce controversies as researchers tried to shoehorn each new finding into the currently fashionable theory of human evolution. "Nineteenth century scientists preferred to see a good Darwinian progression from apelike ancestor to modern human," writes the author. Their 20th-century descendants were slow to accept that evolution in all nonhuman life is less a linear trudge to perfection than a messy bush that produces a diversity of species. Readers will share Tattersall's pleasure at the changes he witnessed on entering the profession in the 1970s, when cladistics (a biological classification system), molecular genetics, and DNA analysis delivered an avalanche of fresh information, a new view of our relation to other species, living and extinct, and plenty of controversies. An opinionated, authoritative, and delightfully provocative account of efforts to make sense of human fossil discoveries.

Kirkus Reviews