The Origin of Modern Humans and the Impact of Chronometric Dating edited by Martin Aitken, Chris Stringer and Paul Mellars, Princeton University Press, pp 248, £27.50/ $50
During the past ten years or so, there seems to have been at least one conference a year somewhere in the world devoted to the origins of modern humans, starring much the same cast of characters. The proceedings and outcomes of many of these meetings then emerge as edited volumes in which the protagonists argue endlessly about the same scraps of evidence - and always fail to convince each other of anything.
Two distinct camps have emerged. The 'out-of-Africa' supporters believe that modern humans moved out of Africa, replacing the more archaic beings they encountered, such as the Neanderthals, while the supporters of the multiregional hypothesis see a great deal of continuity between the archaic and modern populations in all areas of the ...
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