Description
| Product ID: | 9780008342838 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | First Steps |
| Subtitle: | How Walking Upright Made Us Human |
| Authors: | Author: Jeremy DeSilva |
| Page Count: | 352 |
| Subjects: | Archaeological science, methodology and techniques, Archaeological science, methodology & techniques, Human growth and development, Popular science, Evolution, Evolutionary anthropology / Human evolution, Palaeontology, Popular medicine and health, The Earth: natural history: general interest, Walking, hiking, trekking, Human growth & development, Popular science, Evolution, Early man, Palaeontology, Popular medicine & health, The Earth: natural history general, Walking, hiking, trekking |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four, legs. From an evolutionary perspective, this is an illogical development, as it slows us down. But here we are, suggesting there must have been something tremendous to gain from bipedalism. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four, legs. From an evolutionary perspective, this is an illogical development, as it slows us down. But here we are, suggesting there must have been something tremendous to gain from bipedalism.First Steps takes our ordinary, everyday walking experience and reveals how unusual and extraordinary it truly is. The seven-million-year-long journey through the origins of upright walking shows how it was in fact a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human—from our technological skills and sociality to our thirst for exploration.DeSilva uses early human evolution to explain the instinct that propels a crawling infant to toddle onto two feet, differences between how men and women tend to walk, physical costs of upright walking, including hernias, varicose veins and backache, and the challenges of childbirth imposed by a bipedal pelvis. And he theorises that upright walking may have laid the foundation for the traits of compassion, empathy and altruism that characterise our species today and helped us become the dominant species on this planet. |
| Imprint Name: | William Collins |
| Publisher Name: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2021-07-22 |
