Born In Africa: The Quest For The Origins Of Human Life

Book: Born In Africa: The Quest For The Origins Of Human Life.
Martin Meredith (Author)
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs (May 10, 2011)

Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. After a century of investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. But vital clues still remain hidden.

In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies as well as their feats of skill and endurance.

The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans. They have revealed how early technology, language ability, and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa; and they have shown how small groups of Africans spread out from Africa in an exodus sixty thousand years ago to populate the rest of the world. We have all inherited an African past.

Related: May 12, 2011. Scientists Fight To Prove Humanity 'Born In Africa'
For years, anthropologists and archeologists believed that Asia held the answers to their questions about the origins of mankind. So when a set of controversial hominid remains was discovered in Africa in the early 20th century, it took a while for scholars to accept that they may have been wrong.

In Born in Africa, author Martin Meredith details the battles, contempt and fraud of the search for the origins of human life.

Meredith tells NPR's Neal Conan that Charles Darwin was the first to speculate that mankind actually evolved in Africa...