Vol. 6 No. 2 (2013): Aesthetics and Evolutionism: Requirements, Perspectives, Issues
Articles

Light Has Been Thrown (on Human Origins): a Brief History of Palaeoanthropology, with Notes on the "Punctuated" Origin of Homo Sapiens

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  • Giorgio Manzi,
  • Fabio Di Vincenzo
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Aisthesis-13767

Published 2013-12-29

Keywords

  • evolutionary aesthetics,
  • human evolution,
  • palaeoanthropology,
  • phylogenetic trees

How to Cite

Manzi, G., & Di Vincenzo, F. (2013). Light Has Been Thrown (on Human Origins): a Brief History of Palaeoanthropology, with Notes on the "Punctuated" Origin of Homo Sapiens. Aisthesis. Pratiche, Linguaggi E Saperi dell’estetico, 6(2), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.13128/Aisthesis-13767
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Abstract

“Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history”: this was the single line that Charles Darwin devoted to human evolution in the Origin of Species (1859). At present, there is a number of extinct species, which we understand  to be related to human evolution, demonstrating that the Darwin’s prediction was correct: light has been thrown, indeed. Moreover, the science of human origin (or palaeoanthropology) appears to be able to shed much light not only on the natural history of humankind, but also on mechanisms and patterns of "evolution" as a general phenomenon. This is of special interest when we focus on data and hypotheses concerning the origin of our own species, Homo sapiens.
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