Book dossier

Man the hunted

by Donna Hart, Donald Hart, Robert W. Sussman

"Man the Hunted argues that primates, including the earliest members of the human family, have evolved as the prey of any number of predators, including wild cats and dogs, hyenas, snakes, crocodiles, and even birds. The authors' own studies of predators on monkeys and apes are supplemented here with the observations of naturalists in the field, and with revealing interpretations of the fossil record. Eyewitness accounts of the "man the hunted" drama being played out even now give vivid evidence of its prehistoric significance." "This provocative view of human evolution suggests that the countless adaptations, from larger brains to speech, that have allowed our species to survive stem from a considerably more vulnerable position on the food chain than we might like to imagine. The myth of early humans as fearless hunters dominating the earth obscures our origins as just one of many species that had to be cautious, had to depend on other group members, had to communicate danger, and had to come to terms with being merely one cog in the complex cycle of life."--Jacket.