The Human Condition
Although the human condition can also be considered in metaphysical, ideological or ontological terms, in this book it is examined from a purely scientific perspective: what has occurred in the evolution of our species that led to the emergence of such a
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Robert G. Bednarik
The Human Condition
Foreword by Dean Falk
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Robert G. Bednarik International Federation of Rock Art Organisations Caulfield South, VIC 3162 Australia [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-9352-6 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-9353-3 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9353-3 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011930515 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
This book is dedicated to my teachers, the gurda mirdanha, men of the highest degree, in the Pilbara in northwestern Australia, who consented gracefully to introducing this benighted walybala to their wisdom.
Foreword
Robert Bednarik is a renowned expert in archeology and prehistoric art whose ideas are synthetic, grounded solidly in science, and informed by a world perspective. He does not mince words when it comes to critiquing the field of Pleistocene archeology, or its diffusionist myth that modern humanity “developed in one privileged region of the world, and spread from there through a people incapable of interbreeding with any others.” As I read The Human Condition, I occasionally found myself chuckling, and at other times gasping and thinking, “Did he really say that?” Who better than Bednarik to propose an iconoclastic hypothesis about human evolution as a replacement for the model that has dominated the field for decades? That’s just what he has done in this book, which he predicts will be vigorously criticized by Anglo-American Pleistocene archeologists. I suspect that he is right. But, then, Bednarik did not write it for these specialists. Instead, he is targeting other kinds of scientists, and anyone who is fascinated with the question of how humans evolved to become what they are today. With seven succinct chapters, The Human Condition is relatively short and engaging. It opens with a discussion of the history and philosophy of science that focuses on Pleistocene archeology. The author observes that this subfield has traditionally relied largely on tool types that are represented cross-culturally, rather than on more dynamic cultural customs that can shed light on the emergence of human
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