BOOKSHELF

Natural History, Sept, 2000

Extinct Humans, by Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey H. Schwartz (Nevraumont/Westview Press, 2000; $50)

In a new look at the fossil record of human evolution (augumented by numerous photographs), two anthropologists show convincing evidence for the existence of fifteen kinds of humans and near-humans that once walked the earth--many of them, surprisingly, at the same time and in the same places.

Voodoo Science: The Road From Foolishness to Fraud, by Robert L. Park (Oxford University Press, 2000; $25)

Physicist Park debunks some foolish and fraudulent scientific claims, such as magnetic deficiency syndrome, cold fusion, and free energy. (Also check out Park's weekly electronic newsletter at www.aps.org/WIN/.)

LEAP, by Terry Tempest Williams (Pantheon Books, 2000; $25)

Williams, a passionate advocate for the natural world, takes the reader on an improbable and lyrical pilgrimage through the landscape of Hieronymus Bosch's enigmatic painting The Garden of Delights. As she contemplates the fifteenth-century triptych, she reflects on nature, contemporary life, and her Mormon upbringing.

Bananas: An American History, by Virginia Scott Jenkins (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000; $16.95)

One of our country's most popular and inexpensive fruits--the banana--comes from a herbaceous plant (not a tree) that can grow to a height of thirty feet, is endemic to the rainforests of Southeast Asia, and may have been cultivated as early as 1000 B.C.

Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La From the Himalayas to Hollywood, by Orville Schell (Metropolitan/Holt, 2000; $26)

Schell, a China expert and dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, recounts the tangled history of Western encounters with Tibet. He is particularly vivid on the subject of Hollywood's skewed portrait of a country that is occupied by China and whose leader, the Dalai Lama, is in exile.

The Muse of History and the Science of Culture, by Robert L. Carneiro (Kluwer/ Plenum, 2000; $37.50)

American Museum of Natural History anthropologist Carneiro, in a thoughtful and thought-provoking treatise on the nature of history (from "great man" and racial theories to theological, philosophical, and anthropological views), proposes some scientific "laws" of cultural development.

The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature, by Geoffrey F. Miller (Doubleday, 2000; $27.50)

Why do we sing, write poetry, tell jokes, believe in fairness, and invent fantastic myths? According to evolutionary psychologist Miller, our capacities for art, morality, language, and creativity evolved by sexual selection--that is, because of competition for sexual partners.

The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World, by Patricia Tyson Stroud (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000; $34.95)

Napoleon's nephew, ornithologist Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, came to the United States in 1823 at the age of twenty. During his five-year sojourn, he became closely associated with the Philadelphia group of naturalists that included William Bartram, Thomas Say, and John James Audubon.

The books in "Natural Selections" can usually be purchased in the Museum Shop, (212) 769-5150, or via the Museum's Web site, www.amnh.org.