THE SINGING NEANDERTHALS. The origins of music, language, mind and body. Steven Mithen. 272pp. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Pounds 20. - 0 297 64317 7.
THE HUNT FOR THE DAWN MONKEY, Unearthing the origins of monkeys, apes and humans. Chris Beard. 348pp. University of California Press. $27.50; distributed in the UK by Wiley. Pounds 17.95. - 0 520 23369 7.
Stanley I. Greenspan and Stuart G. Shanker THE FIRST IDEA. How symbols, language, and intelligence evolved from our primate ancestors to modern humans.
503pp. Cambridge: Da Capo/Perseus. Pounds 18.99 - 0 7382 0680 6.
Barbara J. King THE DYNAMIC DANCE. Nonvocal communication in African great apes. 283pp. Harvard University Press. Pounds 19.95. - (US $29.95). - 0 674
01515 0.
HOMINID ADAPTATIONS AND EXTINCTIONS. David W. Cameron. 260pp. University of New South Wales Press. $89.95; distributed in the UK by Eurospan. Pounds 43.50. - 0
86840 716 X.
Who we are, and how we came to be that way, are two of the most central questions we can ever ask. In their different ways, all five of these books seek to answer these questions. In The Singing Neanderthals, the archaeologist Steven Mithen asks why it is that humans are so musical, while in The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey Chris Beard delves back into the remote origins of the primate family in the aftermath of the dinosaurs' demise. Stanley I. Greenspan (a psychiatrist) and Stuart G. Shanker (a philosopher) argue, in The First Idea, that we can only really answer these questions by focusing on our emotions.
