BOOKS

Lost in Evolution

Lost in Evolution

Exploring Humanity’s Path in Asia

Kawabata Hiroto
Technical advisor Kaifu Yousuke
Translated by Dana Lewis

Japan Library series
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Science

¥2,800 + tax

ISBN 9784866581330
210 mm x 148 mm / 200 pp. / March 2020

A book that will change how you think about humanity.

Even as societies are beset with turmoil over insignificant human differences such a skin color, Homo sapiens are broadly homogeneous. We’re all basically the same. What’s more, we’re the only human species alive. Yet it has not always been that way. Eons ago, there were many different species many different places. Not only the Peking Man and Cro-Magnons that school textbooks talk about but many more. It was, so to speak, “a world of diversity.” Now it is just us. How did this happen? Who were these people? Where did they live? And how did such species diversity end up being just Homo sapiens? With an unequaled focus on events in Asia, this exciting work takes you along on the exploration and the research to answer these questions. Providing new information and new insights, it is a thoughtful look at humanity’s evolutionary background.

KAWABATA Hiroto
Kawabata Hiroto worked as a science reporter for the Nippon TV news dept before going independent in 1997, after graduated from the University of Tokyo College of Arts and Sciences.

KAIFU Yousuke
Kaifu Yousuke is currently group head for the Division of Human Evolution, Department of Anthropology, at Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science, and leads the hands-on project to reenact the voyage to Japan 30,000 years ago.

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Science

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥2,800 + tax
ISBN 9784866581330
210 mm x 148 mm / 200 pp. / March 2020

eBook
ISBN 9784866581552 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866581668 (PDF)

Introduction / Prologue: Uncovering Homo erectus in Asia / 1. Overview of Human Evolution / 2. The Java Story / 3. Where It Happens: Putting Science to Work on Java Man / 4. Grand Entrance from an Island Cave / 5. Big News from the Basin / 6. Up from Taiwan’s Ocean Floor / 7. Lost in Evolution / Acknowledgements / From the Technical Advisor / Primary References / Figure credits / Index

"Early man may not have fought the dinosaurs, but the two struggle today for space on bookshelves and in popular imagination. Dinosaurs had been winning. Lost in Evolution has Homo erectus fighting back."

Peter Gordon
Asian Review of Books

ホモ・サピエンスの出現以前、地球には多様な「人類」がいた。しかし彼らは滅び、いまは「我々」しかいない。なぜ我々は我々だけなのか。答えを追い続けた著者が人類進化学の第一人者に導かれて出合った衝撃の仮説とは。

川端裕人
文筆家。1964年兵庫県明石市生まれ、千葉市育ち。東京大学教養学部卒業。日本テレビ報道局で科学報道に従事し、1997年よりフリーランス。

海部陽介
人類進化学者。1969年東京都生まれ。東京大学大学院理学系研究科博士課程中退。理学博士。国立科学博物館人類研究部人類史研究グループ長。「3万年前の航海 徹底再現プロジェクト」代表。アジアの人類化石に精通し、ジャワ原人やフローレス原人の研究によって第九回(平成二四年度)日本学術振興会賞を受賞。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

我々はなぜ我々だけなのか:アジアから消えた多様な「人類」たち

川端裕人 著、海部陽介 監修

講談社 刊

2017/12/14