Studying human origins: disciplinary history and epistemology.

Studying human origins: disciplinary history and epistemology. RAYMOND CORBEY & WIL See WinBatch. ROEBROEKS (ed.). Studying human origins:disciplinary history and epistemology, viii+174 pages, i figure, 3tables. 2001. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; 90-5356-464-0hardback. Drs CORBEY & ROEBROEKS introduce 10 essays which exposeprinciples that have shaped thinking on the Palaeolithic. Theycontribute one on biological anthropology Biological anthropology, or physical anthropology is a branch of anthropology that studies the mechanisms of biological evolution, genetic inheritance, human adaptability and variation, primatology, primate morphology, and the fossil record of human evolution. while M. Cartmill considerstaxonomy and D. Van Reybrouck, with an eye on the Bible, considers howthe boundary between people and animals has been drawn. R. Dennell takesthe opportunity to assess mid 20th-century geographical assumptions. H.de Regt and G.A. Clark muse on epistemology, R.G. Delisle on`Adaptationism Adaptationism is a set of methods in the evolutionary sciences for distinguishing the products of adaptation from traits that arise through other processes. It is employed in fields such as ethology and evolutionary psychology that are concerned with identifying adaptations. v. cladism' (cf. `Archaeology evolving', pp.253-6, below), and W. Stoczkowski and P.J. Bowler on intellectualhistory, the latter with particular attention to ideology. T. Murraycontributes as a historian of archaeology. B. Theunissen adds an`epilogue', concluding that while `the scientist cannot afford tobecome overwhelmed by ... doubt, a modicum of historically inspiredreflexivity is ... needed' (p. 151).