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The Krapina Neandertals: A Comprehensive, Centennial, Illustrated Bibliography
468
Book Reviews / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 467e469
The Krapina Neandertals: A Comprehensive, Centennial, Illustrated Bibliography By David W. Frayer (2006). Zagreb: Croatian Natural History Museum, 220 pages (CD-ROM), ISBN 953-6645-30-0. Since the work of Dragutin Gorganovic´-Kramberger, beginning more than a century ago and spanning several decades, the fossil human, faunal and archaeological material from Krapina, Croatia, has been central to the study of Neandertals and to European paleoanthropology. This large and varied assemblage has been examined extensively and has provided unique insight into various aspects of Neandertal biology and behavior, such as the patterns of temporal, geographic, ontogenetic and individual anatomical variation; the levels of stress and trauma sustained by Neandertal populations; their paleodemography; and possible cannibalistic behavior. In addition to being the subject of primary description and analysis, the Krapina Neandertal remains are a valuable component of comparative samples, be they cranial, dental or postcranial. The vast impact of the Krapina assemblage on paleoanthropology is brought home in full force by David Frayer’s new volume ‘‘The Krapina Neandertals: A Comprehensive, Centennial, Illustrated Bibliography.’’ As the title indicates, the volume is a complete bibliographical reference of works about or including Krapina material. It was compiled as a testimony to the site’s importance for paleoanthropological research and was planned to be part of the centennial celebration of the site. Originally intended to appear in 1999, the centenary year of Krapina’s discovery, this exhaustive bibliography took longer to assemble than initially thought. Not surprising, considering the final number of works referenced: 3058 publications by 1628 authors, spanning the time period from 1899 to 2004 and written in as many as twenty languages. The volume is organized in alphabetical chapters and is illustrated by photographs of authors with multiple contributions. Works listed include books, scientific journal articles, masters’ and doctoral dissertations, and published abstracts of conference presentations. Newspaper articles and online publications are also referenced but not listed exhaustively. A companion CD-ROM contains the entire book in PDF format, as well as several additional files. The most useful of these is an interactive version of the bibliography, which can be used as a downloadable electronic reference resource. This file is illustrated more extensively than the printed and PDF versions, with further photographs of authors as well as photographs and scans of historically relevant documents, objects and important Krapina specimens. Also included on the CD are lists of the masters’ and doctoral dissertations citing Krapina, files containing statistics about the publications referenced in the book, and two interesting PowerPoint presentations. The first of these shows the impressive array of Gorganovic´-Kramberger’s academic certificates and awards. The second is the annotated digital archive of the Krapina collection visitors’ log book for the period from 1964 until 2004. Aside from providing a very useful reference resource in both hard copy and electronic format, the ‘‘Krapina Neandertals’’ bibliography is valuable for its testimony to the
contributions of a host of scholars, foremost among them Gorganovic´-Kramberger. It is remarkable for giving a sense of historical continuity, rendered tangible and personal with the use of photographs and scanned archives, and for uniting in a single (long!) list researchers from across the field of paleoanthropology and its related disciplines. David Frayer has fully attained his goal of documenting Krapina’s importance and impact on our field. And if his bibliography is any indication, this volume will certainly not be the last word written about the site. Katerina Harvati Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.12.002
Our Inner Ape. A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are By Frans de Waal (2005). New York: Riverhead Books (Penguin), 274 pp., $24.95, ISBN 1-57322-312-3. Along with Jane Goodall, Frans de Waal is arguably the leading popularizer of primatology, at least in the arena of single-authored books. Starting with Chimpanzee Politics in 1982, the Dutch ethologist has produced six such volumes based on his studies of the behavior of monkeys and apes in captivity. Now comes the seventh, with an uncharacteristically immodest and ambitious subtitle. This one clearly aims for the whole enchilada! As always, de Waal reflects cleverly and insightfully on the results of comparative research done by himself, his students, and colleagues in behavioral primatology. Using telling examples as well as summarized experimental and observational findings, he draws comparisons and poses extrapolations. There are timely references to current events, and allusions to classical (Don Giovanni) and popular (Star Trek) culture. He is an avowed devotee of the anecdote (n ¼ 1 event), despite the obvious pitfalls of overgeneralizing from what may be anomalous cases. Popular writing demands elegant simplicity, and de Waal is a master of summing up a complicated study in a brief paragraph and then extracting the gist of the findings in a memorable sentence. However, this sometimes leads to stereotypes, caricatures, simplistic dichotomies, and even cliche´s, e.g., ‘‘Bonobos make love, not war. They’re the hippies of the primate world’’ (p. 30). On the other hand, although de Waal is often accused of anthropomorphism, he always backs up his inferences with behavioral data. And, most impressively, he is not afraid to tackle politically incorrect (sex differences) or sensitive (Abu Ghraib) topics. This approach includes strong criticism of the American media’s treatment of violence.
Book Reviews / Journal of Human Evolution 52 (2007) 467e469
The Krapina Neandertals: A Comprehensive, Centennial, Illustrated Bibliography By David W. Frayer (2006). Zagreb: Croatian Natural History Museum, 220 pages (CD-ROM), ISBN 953-6645-30-0. Since the work of Dragutin Gorganovic´-Kramberger, beginning more than a century ago and spanning several decades, the fossil human, faunal and archaeological material from Krapina, Croatia, has been central to the study of Neandertals and to European paleoanthropology. This large and varied assemblage has been examined extensively and has provided unique insight into various aspects of Neandertal biology and behavior, such as the patterns of temporal, geographic, ontogenetic and individual anatomical variation; the levels of stress and trauma sustained by Neandertal populations; their paleodemography; and possible cannibalistic behavior. In addition to being the subject of primary description and analysis, the Krapina Neandertal remains are a valuable component of comparative samples, be they cranial, dental or postcranial. The vast impact of the Krapina assemblage on paleoanthropology is brought home in full force by David Frayer’s new volume ‘‘The Krapina Neandertals: A Comprehensive, Centennial, Illustrated Bibliography.’’ As the title indicates, the volume is a complete bibliographical reference of works about or including Krapina material. It was compiled as a testimony to the site’s importance for paleoanthropological research and was planned to be part of the centennial celebration of the site. Originally intended to appear in 1999, the centenary year of Krapina’s discovery, this exhaustive bibliography took longer to assemble than initially thought. Not surprising, considering the final number of works referenced: 3058 publications by 1628 authors, spanning the time period from 1899 to 2004 and written in as many as twenty languages. The volume is organized in alphabetical chapters and is illustrated by photographs of authors with multiple contributions. Works listed include books, scientific journal articles, masters’ and doctoral dissertations, and published abstracts of conference presentations. Newspaper articles and online publications are also referenced but not listed exhaustively. A companion CD-ROM contains the entire book in PDF format, as well as several additional files. The most useful of these is an interactive version of the bibliography, which can be used as a downloadable electronic reference resource. This file is illustrated more extensively than the printed and PDF versions, with further photographs of authors as well as photographs and scans of historically relevant documents, objects and important Krapina specimens. Also included on the CD are lists of the masters’ and doctoral dissertations citing Krapina, files containing statistics about the publications referenced in the book, and two interesting PowerPoint presentations. The first of these shows the impressive array of Gorganovic´-Kramberger’s academic certificates and awards. The second is the annotated digital archive of the Krapina collection visitors’ log book for the period from 1964 until 2004. Aside from providing a very useful reference resource in both hard copy and electronic format, the ‘‘Krapina Neandertals’’ bibliography is valuable for its testimony to the
contributions of a host of scholars, foremost among them Gorganovic´-Kramberger. It is remarkable for giving a sense of historical continuity, rendered tangible and personal with the use of photographs and scanned archives, and for uniting in a single (long!) list researchers from across the field of paleoanthropology and its related disciplines. David Frayer has fully attained his goal of documenting Krapina’s importance and impact on our field. And if his bibliography is any indication, this volume will certainly not be the last word written about the site. Katerina Harvati Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig 04103, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.12.002
Our Inner Ape. A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are By Frans de Waal (2005). New York: Riverhead Books (Penguin), 274 pp., $24.95, ISBN 1-57322-312-3. Along with Jane Goodall, Frans de Waal is arguably the leading popularizer of primatology, at least in the arena of single-authored books. Starting with Chimpanzee Politics in 1982, the Dutch ethologist has produced six such volumes based on his studies of the behavior of monkeys and apes in captivity. Now comes the seventh, with an uncharacteristically immodest and ambitious subtitle. This one clearly aims for the whole enchilada! As always, de Waal reflects cleverly and insightfully on the results of comparative research done by himself, his students, and colleagues in behavioral primatology. Using telling examples as well as summarized experimental and observational findings, he draws comparisons and poses extrapolations. There are timely references to current events, and allusions to classical (Don Giovanni) and popular (Star Trek) culture. He is an avowed devotee of the anecdote (n ¼ 1 event), despite the obvious pitfalls of overgeneralizing from what may be anomalous cases. Popular writing demands elegant simplicity, and de Waal is a master of summing up a complicated study in a brief paragraph and then extracting the gist of the findings in a memorable sentence. However, this sometimes leads to stereotypes, caricatures, simplistic dichotomies, and even cliche´s, e.g., ‘‘Bonobos make love, not war. They’re the hippies of the primate world’’ (p. 30). On the other hand, although de Waal is often accused of anthropomorphism, he always backs up his inferences with behavioral data. And, most impressively, he is not afraid to tackle politically incorrect (sex differences) or sensitive (Abu Ghraib) topics. This approach includes strong criticism of the American media’s treatment of violence.