The Origin of Man and of his Superstitions

Abstract

ONE of the legacies left by the Darwinian controversy has been an intense interest in the highly speculative questions centring round the transition that took place from our semi-human to our human ancestry. The subject has an intense fascination for many, and they will find ample room for the exercise of their imagination while reading the mass of material brought together by the author in support of his hypothesis. He assumes that our early ancestors were large anthropoid apes which took to hunting and a more carnivorous diet, and thus changed profoundly their “former, peaceable, frugivorous habit.” Thus there was a selection of those qualities most 'effective for hunting game. Some of the Primates used unwrought weapons, co-operated in defence, and could communicate with each other—e.g. the early hunters went in packs, and thus resembled wolves; indeed, man “became at first a sort of wolf-ape.”

The Origin of Man and of his Superstitions.

By Carveth Read. Pp. xii + 350. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1920.) 18s. net.