Richard E. Leakey (1944–2022)
Author of The Origin of Humankind
About the Author
Series
Works by Richard E. Leakey
Los Orígenes del hombre 2 copies
Il lungo viaggio dell'uomo 1 copy
The Origin of Human Kind 1 copy
Tracks Through Time 1 copy
Skull 1470 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Leakey, Richard E.
- Legal name
- Leakey, Richard Erskine Frere
- Other names
- Leakey, Richard
- Birthdate
- 1944-12-19
- Date of death
- 2022-01-02
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Lenana School
- Occupations
- anthropologist
politician
professor
conservationist
paleoanthropologist - Organizations
- State University of New York at Stony Brook
National Museums of Kenya
Transparency International
Turkana Basin Institute
WildlifeDirect - Awards and honors
- Fellow of the Royal Society (2007)
Hubbard Medal (1994)
Honorary Fellow, African Academy of Sciences (2020) - Relationships
- Leakey, Meave (wife)
Leakey, Louis (father)
Leakey, Mary (mother)
Leakey, Louise (daughter) - Nationality
- Kenya
- Birthplace
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Places of residence
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Place of death
- Ngong Hills, Kenya
- Burial location
- Colline le long de la vallée du Rift, Kenya
- Associated Place (for map)
- Nairobi, Kenya
Members
Reviews
This book by Richard E. Leakey and co-author Roger Lewin first published in 1978 is built around reflecting on early hominins evidence Leakey, an anthropologist and son of Louis and Mary Leakey, both also renowned in the field, encountered in the over 300 humanoid bones at Koobi Fora, on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. From the shards of bone and flakes of stone, Leakey considers an Edenic life of reciprocal altruism on page 154 of my edition:
Leakey presents the notion that our ability to care for one and other, our humanity, evolved millions of years ago along the shoreline of Lake Turkana and sites like it in Africa. He compares with our knowledge of hunter-gatherer communities, mostly in Africa and South America. Then, rather suddenly, the musing takes a right turn into identifying unfortunately typical human violence by seeing murder in the bones and considering our tool use is the seeds of our own destruction; an evolutionary dead end through inevitable nuclear war. From the penultimate page:
The ideal breeding ground for the evolutionshow more
of reciprocal altruism is in a group of long-lived, egalitarian, social animals who remain close together throughout their lives. This means that altruistic acts can be repaid over a long period of time. You would not expect this type of behavior to emerge in creatures that rarely encountered each other, through whatever circumstance; there would simply be no opportunity to have a debt to repaid…over countless generations natural selection favored the emergence of emotions that made reciprocal altruism work, emotions such as sympathy, gratitude, guilt, and moral indignation…
Leakey presents the notion that our ability to care for one and other, our humanity, evolved millions of years ago along the shoreline of Lake Turkana and sites like it in Africa. He compares with our knowledge of hunter-gatherer communities, mostly in Africa and South America. Then, rather suddenly, the musing takes a right turn into identifying unfortunately typical human violence by seeing murder in the bones and considering our tool use is the seeds of our own destruction; an evolutionary dead end through inevitable nuclear war. From the penultimate page:
A nuclear holocaust could be the means of extinction of Homo sapiens. Perhaps this is inevitable. Perhaps when Ramapithecus stood upright all those millions of years ago, it was setting off on a journey that ends in yet an other evolutionary blind alley. Many species have faced the same fate. But in our case, extinction would be entirely of our own making, the result of being intelligent enough to create the means of our own destruction but not rational enough to ensure that they are not used.show less
Leakey gives his own very personal account of his appointment to the role of Head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, his subsequent fight to preserve Kenya's reserves and eliminate corruption, and his eventual hounding from the job and triumphant return. It's all a bit of a roller coaster story, but if you take into account his tendency to say what he feels rather than what might be politic in the circumstances (which he holds to be a virtue most of the time, but also a fault every now and then) show more then this is a very readable and believable story. It is almost mandatory, however, to read this is conjunction with almost any other book that gives a wider perspective on the events of these years - 'The Fate of the Elephant' by Chadwick might be my pick. Not that Leakey is unreliable, but he writes this entirely inside his own perspective. This allows his passion to shine through, and gives the book tremendous energy, but you feel that you are being taken at a great pace down a particular path and the urge to check the map - the bigger picture - begins to niggle as the journey progresses. And it's not just conservation, but also a book about African politics, tribalism and corruption. Interestingly, one of the people who engaged my sympathy and interest is President (and dictator) Daniel arap Moi. The relationship between the democratic, but fiercely patriotic, Leakey, and the wily Moi is a fascinating backdrop to his work in conservation, and eventually politics. All in all an excellent book, highly recommended in the company of others on this subject. show less
Richard Leakey is the famous anthropologist who, back in 1984, discovered the no less famous 'Turkana Boy'; a nearly complete skeleton of a young Homo erectus having lived about 1.5 millions years ago. Using this fossil as a starting point, Richard Leakey delivers here a fascinating book of popular science, opening up a window upon palaeontology -its successes, its meanderings, its challenges. Himself coming from a prestigious family of palaeontologists (he is the son of Louis and Mary show more Leakey), in love with his job (of which he gives us to see, not without a certain sense of humour, both the highs and the lows) by focusing first on 'Turkana Boy' he goes back in fact to the roots of what make us human.
Homo erectus was indeed a turning point in our evolution, 'the messenger carrying our humanity'. As he puts it: ''to understand the origins of mankind, one has to understand Homo erectus, its anatomy, biology, behaviours.' That's precisely, then, what he purports to do in here, using the remains of 'Turkana Boy' to gather hypotheses from its way of life to its cognitive and intellectual abilities. You bet, the open and contradictory interpretations, the controversies coming with such endeavour (genetics vs anthropology...) are obviously tumultuous! Having said that, once consensus have been reached the questions being raised turn out to be crucial so as to better understand who we are. Homo erectus might have been an hominid for sure; however, he wasn't human. Chapters about consciousness, culture and language are here deeply engrossing. They, above all, open new trails that may never cease to astonish us when it comes to find out what, exactly, distinguish us from these other hominids now extinct, or, nowadays, our cousins the other great apes.
Fascinating and informative, Richard Leakey tames here the quarrels between experts knowing full well that, nevertheless, we ought to stay humble enough to admit to our own past mistakes and the extend of our current ignorance. A very good read! show less
Homo erectus was indeed a turning point in our evolution, 'the messenger carrying our humanity'. As he puts it: ''to understand the origins of mankind, one has to understand Homo erectus, its anatomy, biology, behaviours.' That's precisely, then, what he purports to do in here, using the remains of 'Turkana Boy' to gather hypotheses from its way of life to its cognitive and intellectual abilities. You bet, the open and contradictory interpretations, the controversies coming with such endeavour (genetics vs anthropology...) are obviously tumultuous! Having said that, once consensus have been reached the questions being raised turn out to be crucial so as to better understand who we are. Homo erectus might have been an hominid for sure; however, he wasn't human. Chapters about consciousness, culture and language are here deeply engrossing. They, above all, open new trails that may never cease to astonish us when it comes to find out what, exactly, distinguish us from these other hominids now extinct, or, nowadays, our cousins the other great apes.
Fascinating and informative, Richard Leakey tames here the quarrels between experts knowing full well that, nevertheless, we ought to stay humble enough to admit to our own past mistakes and the extend of our current ignorance. A very good read! show less
Richard Leakey offers here the perfect introduction to human evolution. Paleoanthropologist famous for having discovered 'Turkana Boy' (one of the most ancient hominid we know of, having lived about 1,5 million years ago) he gives us to see our own evolution through a vast panorama stretching from when we became bipeds (about 7 million years ago) to the apparition of culture during the Upper Paleolithic.
Tossing aside the (more often than not) too simplistic views of our origins, he tries to show more focus on our history from a purely physical perspective (e.g. the discoveries and importance of various fossils). He also tries to define what make us singularly human, distinguishing us from other apes (art, language, self-consciousness...). About, the dialogues between paleoanthropologists, biologists and linguists are fascinating; they show how the topics addressed remain highly debated and controversial!
Short, this book is nevertheless so full of instructive information it's enthralling at every page! Here's a highly recommended introduction to a fascinating topic. show less
Tossing aside the (more often than not) too simplistic views of our origins, he tries to show more focus on our history from a purely physical perspective (e.g. the discoveries and importance of various fossils). He also tries to define what make us singularly human, distinguishing us from other apes (art, language, self-consciousness...). About, the dialogues between paleoanthropologists, biologists and linguists are fascinating; they show how the topics addressed remain highly debated and controversial!
Short, this book is nevertheless so full of instructive information it's enthralling at every page! Here's a highly recommended introduction to a fascinating topic. show less
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- Works
- 25
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 3,709
- Popularity
- #6,829
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 33
- ISBNs
- 134
- Languages
- 15
