Origins - What New Discoveries Reveal About the Rmergence of Our Species and Its Possilble Future Hard back - 1977

New York: E.P.Dutton, A Division of Sequoia-Elsevier Publishing Company Inc., 1977. Fourth Printing Stated . Hard Back. Very Good/New. 8 1/4" x 9 3/4. Prentice, Ruth - Designer. 264 Pages Indexed. Ex Libris label with previous owner's name K. A. Blake filled in and also date "sep 22 1982" is stamped on front endpaper. No other marks noted. This is the April 1978 Fourth Printing. Drawing on the legacy of knowledge gathered by his parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, Richard Leakey's excavations at Lake Turkana in northern Kenya suggest that perhaps three or even more species of primitive hominids existed simultaneously in the same geographic region millions of years ago. Why "our" line-Homo - survived while others vanished is the central question of this pioneering and exciting study of human evolution. Equally important is what this new information tells us about humankind's future as well as our early history. This book disputes popular writers who argue that human conflict has always existed, because, they say, aggression is deeply rooted in our genes. Such a view has little to do with scientific facts, and Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin show that the key to the transformation of an ape-like creature into a human being was the ability to share in a complex social context. This quality of cooperation demonstrated by early man's long history of peaceful hunting and gathering - not unbridled human aggression - is the basic feature of humanity.