The Rise of Humans: Great Scientific Debates

by John Hawks

Lectures, Professor John Hawks combine fossil and genetic information to test hypotheses about human prehistory.

Your Guide to Human Evolutionary History

What makes The Rise of Humans so unique is the approach Professor Hawks brings toward explaining the field's hottest debates. One of the first paleoanthropologists to study fossil evidence and genetic information together in order to test hypotheses about human prehistory, Professor Hawks is adept at looking at human origins not just with one lens, but with two.

He has traveled around the world to examine delicate skeletal remains and pore over the complex results of genetic testing. His research and scholarship on human evolutionary history has been featured in a variety of publications, including Science, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Slate, and Journal of Human Evolution.

But more than that, Professor Hawks has crafted a course that demonstrates the passion and excitement involved in the field of paleoanthropology. With his engaging lecturing style and his use of fossil finds taken from his personal collection, Professor Hawks will capture your attention and show you all the drama and excitement to be found in eavesdropping on the latest debates about human evolutionary history.

Genres: Science, History, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Evolution, Biology

13 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Dr. John Hawks is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he has taught courses ranging from biological anthropology to brain evolution since 2002. He earned his B.S. in Anthropology from Kansas State University and M.S. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan.

A series of 24 lectures titled "The Rise of Humans: Great Scientific Debates" by John Hawks has been published by The Teaching Company, The Great Courses.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speaking of the hyoid bone...this course is not for everyone, yet everyone should be interested in the substance of the course...it's about us, after all.
This is a course in Paleoanthropology, tracing the origins of Homo sapiens back nearly 7 million years in Africa, and is a college-level survey course that requires a bit of background and a willingness to research for yourself outside the video and guidebook.
Dr Hawks, for me, represents the newest generation of scientists, looking to merge different disciplines to solve some of the 'debates' of the older generations of scientist.
OK, back to the review. For those considering purchasing, please get a video version...unless you are listening with an internet connection close at hand (Hawks has an excellent blog and several YouTube discussions). I usually prefer audio...but you need to see this stuff.
You should have some background understanding of biology, geology (especially the law of superposition), chemistry, geography and anthropology...it's not that you have to be an expert, just aware. This is probably considered as an upper-level survey course that needs some introduction...Barbara King's course (on The Great Courses) is probably a good one (almost always on sale).
There are a lot of names...you will forget them, just like the names of all your classmates taking Anthro 101 your freshman year. But you will remember the progression from simple primate to cave-art makers to farmers with the ability to grow the makings of a crude beer. And keep in mind how quickly (geologically speaking) all this happened.
Highly recommended course...I've watched it twice, as well as read most of Hawks' blogs (which up-dates many lecture points) and YouTube videos. Pretty soon you'll be well on your way to getting that junior paleoanthropologist ring you've always wanted. Get it on sale during TGC's half-off promo (have I mentioned that before?)

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most fascinating and wonderful things I've listened to on Audible. Still being fairly new to the field of paleoanthropology myself, this course really put the major discoveries and the active debates of the field into a big-picture perspective that was easy to understand and really exciting (having a biology and geology background myself). It also came out quite recently, so the science is pretty much up to date at this point in time.

There were many profound takeaways. My favorite was the idea that culture and medical technology--human choice--is potentially the biggest evolutionary force on human populations today. In my view, that is a very powerful statement.

I loved this course. This is a great listen for someone to wet their pallet and see if this is something they would like to focus on in their college studies and life career. It lays out a broad scope of work being done in this field, and it has made me thirsty for more!

[Cookie M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent lecture series from The Great Courses. This one coincidentally managed to touch on several items of current event interest while I was listening. Just today there was an item in the news that stated that Americans are becoming shorter rather than taller. If this is true, Professor Hawks has a possible reason for that. It might simply be that shorter people are having more children than taller people.

The series starts with life at the beginning of planet earth and progresses through our non human and almost human ancestors and cousins and works up to us.

I believe that most people could understand and learn from this course and would find it as exciting as I did.

[James Biser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic series of lectures about the social and evolutionary changes of people as they move forward in time. It is a great education for every reader anxious to learn more about humans.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating presentation of debates within paleoanthropology and paleoarcheology about interpreting the fossil record, the role of molecular studies, and the varied genus known as human.

[Brett Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This course does an excellent job of explaining how the integration of various fields of science and lines of evidence in the study of human origins has progressed. Early on, most paleoanthropologists came from the field of anatomy. They studied how the human skeleton compares with those of other primates and ancient fossil remains. Archaeologists also explored how the stones and animal bones left by ancient people implied their behavioral patterns. Today, microscopic features of bone, teeth, and ancient soils preserve evidence of ancient foods, growth rates, and cultural practices. Advanced chemistry and genetics of ancient skeletons now provide a window into the biology and long-lost human behaviors of our ancestors, extending far beyond the skeleton, tool use, and settlements. These lectures also provide a lot of “how we know what we know,” detailing the step-by-step changes in biochemistry —particularly in bone and body structure —that constitute human evolution. Since I have the audio version of this series, I found an Anatomage Table of human anatomy at the local university very useful. It was exceedingly creepy and helped me see how the human skeleton came to be in its current state. The series addresses more than just biology; it also includes human dispersion, behavior, and language, which was particularly interesting for how we communicate, with intricacies I never would have thought of. Really cool.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times, I was leaning towards 3 stars with this one. From start to finish, it was a great series on paleontology, but I had one fairly and one substantially petty gripe with it. The fairly petty gripe is that Prof. Hawks talks more of process of getting to what we understand now than what we actually understand now. "At first we thought this. And then we thought this. But then we thought this" is the model for several lectures. To me, it's a bit like having to see someone show their work on a math problem. Good for them, not so entertaining to me.

My very petty gripe (on my part) is a pronunciation. You know how some people just can't stand the word "moist" for some reason? Well, I discovered that I have a strong dislike to the word "neanderthal" when pronounced without an H sound. I realize this is the German pronunciation, and perhaps a German professor speaking English would have made it more tolerable, but very American John Hawks using that word at least 500 times with that pronunciation really got on my nerves. Yes, it's petty. No, it did not ultimately effect my rating.

The best part of this book to me are the last few lectures leading to language, pigmentation and other genetic changes, art, and agriculture.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed how the subtitle of "Great Scientific Debates" played out in this lecture series. Each lecture presents the historical context of a discovery or discoveries and examines the theories that were developed as a result. It is an interesting way of learning about these topics, and even for matters that are fairly settled on way or another, it makes clear that different interpretations may have validity and that the current state of knowledge may likewise be subject to revision in the future as new evidence is discovered.

The lectures are generally ordered according to hominid evolution, starting with our most ancient ancestors or relatives and moving closer. An interesting effect is that this leads to something of an inversion in regards to the historical context of various debates: many older finds were found relatively recently and debates about them are being discussed even now, while some of our most recent relatives, neanderthals, were discovered at the very beginning of European anthropology and the debates that surround them are some of the oldest.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I stuck with this. The first couple lectures, addressing human origins 5 million years ago or more, were very science-y to me and a little hard to follow. But I understood more with each subsequent lecture. I like how Hawks used individual cases to tell the broader story of how our knowledge evolves through debates and personalities, and how we can make deductions about the evolution of language and culture from limited archeological evidence. Hawks particular area of expertise is in linking genetics to paleontology, especially regarding our connections to neanderthals, and this is the most fascinating part of the series for me. I'll go back and read this one again.

[Kirill Igumenshchev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series of lecture. Way better than the book sapience. It's pretty dense so I still didn't know who was the first. But you can look in the PDF or Wikipedia. There were a lot of interesting details on scientific methods, such as, molecular signatures. I also liked the detail description of tools. The lecturers present well all sides of debatable arguments. The book really helps to have a better understanding of a work of an archeologist and the puzzles they solve and how flimsy and at the same time concrete the arguments and conclusions are.

[M.W. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Rise of Humans: Great Scientific Debates with Professor John Hawks receives four stars from me due to the excellent information and clarity of the issues.

I found this to be excellent. Hawks gets better as the lectures go on, and his enthusiasm comes through each of the lectures. Each lecture is begun with a question in which scientist were either resolving or had been resolved. He explains the questions and the implications in good easy to understand language. If you, like me, are interested in Human evolution this is a great series to get.

[Abdul Alhazred · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best entries from Great Courses. As an active researcher in the field he has a lot to say on the debates in the field and is one of the key proponents of an alternative to the out of Africa model, which is usually treated as a closed subject despite more and interesting evidence to the contrary. He handled the historical context of the field in a speedy overview, and covered the latest findings, it’s hard to ask for more.

[Øyvind Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject matter is super fascinating to me, I think the lecturer did a great job of molding very complex science into something that's understandable for a layman such as myself. However, I must admit there were some chapters where I was a little stumped by all the mitochondria and hyoid bones and what have you but all in all it was a very captivating audio book

[Feng Ouyang]

I read the first two chapters. It seems to be a specialized discussion in human evolutionary history. But I don't see the "great scientific debates" that emanate out of this particular research area. So I stopped reading.

[Enrico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every lecture is a debate that happened between anthropologists in their field. An example would be "Is this fossil a human ancestor or not?". The professor then lays out the arguments of both sides and what the resolution was and what evidence let to it.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great course in the Great Courses series. Dr. Hawks (Lecturer) was wonderful in his presentations and insights.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rise of Humans: Great Scientific Debates by John Hawks is a fun, engaging survey course on early human development. The course is organized chronologically in a scientific sense, focusing on ancient hominids before walking all the way up to modern humans. Nearly every lecture includes a debate among those who studied early humans and pre-humans. Sometimes the debate is the focal point, other times it is in a supporting role. Sometimes these debates are new, other times they are really quite old. Hawks has some useful, personal insights into a few of them, and is a very capable lecturer covering the highlights of the rest. The last few lectures feel a bit tacked on, but they weren't by any means bad. Give this a look if you're interested in the story of how humans became human.

[Troy Blackford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great! Very in-depth look at various proto-Sapiens hominims and their antecedents. Also examined how events deep in our past affect the spread of humans today, our genomes, and some highly disputed theories about all of this. The authorial voice is generously moderate as it examines these debates, presenting evidence from all sides. A very enlightening examination into a subject that should be of interest to all reasonable human beings.

[Kmorgenstern · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Prof. Hawks lays out the debates very clearly so that even someone who is not a professional in the field can follow the arguments and can gain a fairly good idea of where this branch of scientific investigation is at and how it got there - which is not always easy. However, I would say, one has to have a pretty deep interest in the subject to keep attention focused.

[Klowey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This course comprehensively covered a subject that I've wanted to learn more about for years. Very scholarly, in-depth, and fascinating.

His narration was a little odd, with pauses I had to get used to. Still, well worth it as he is one of the leading scholars in this area. I'm going to reread for sure - it's packed with information. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.

[Yasser Mohammad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and easy to follow (most of it).

[Nissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lecture series worth listening to. I learned so much about paleontology!