Publisher's Synopsis
The current ferment in evolutionary thought has passed almost unnoticed in anthropology. This book examines the evidence of primate and human evolution in the light of new evolutionary models and of advances in taxonomic theory. In the process, the author has found it necessary to resurrect, in modified form, a theory proposed as long ago as 1924, the `Nomogenesis' of Lev Berg. Dr Groves criticizes the cladistic school of taxonomy, and he adapts it in the light of theories of speciation theory in which internal processes play a major role in human evolution; the formation of new species is the main boost to evolutionary change; evolutionary novelties tend to arise in the centre of a species' distribution; and taxonomy, often looked on as mere stamp-collecting, becomes of major importance in evolutionary interpretation. The resulting picture of human (and primate) evolution is one that fits much better with the facts than the orthodox `onward and upward through adaptation' model. For this new paperback edition, the text has been brought up to date. Several new illustrations and eight short appendices have been added.
