Abstract
In this country the work of Portuguese anthropologists is not too widely known; yet it is deserving of more attention than it receives. In prehistoric archaeology and somatology, investigations are being carried on which, if not considerable in bulk, are of some importance for students of European ethnology. We therefore welcome the opportunity of directing attention to this book by Prof. Mendes Corrêa, in which the most recent discoveries and hypotheses relating to the origin and descent of man are critically discussed. Each chapter deals with some one aspect of the problem, beginning with “the animal origin of man,” and passing on to “evolution,” the evidence of palæontology, Pithecanthropus erectus, the skeletal remains of prehistoric man, anthropogenesis, and a detailed exposition of the neo-monogenistic point of view. It is interesting to note that the author, in the case of the Trinil and Piltdown remains, adheres to the view in the former that the fragment of skull is simian and the femur human, and in the latter that the cranium is human and the jaw simian. A final chapter summarises the author's views, published elsewhere, on the influence of environment in the formation of races, and reviews the problems which await elucidation by further discoveries.
Homo (Os Modernos Estudos sobre a Origem do Homem.)
Prof.
A. A. Mendes
Corrêa
By. Pp. 318. (Lisboa; Porto; Coimbra: Lumen Empresa Internacional Editora, 1921.) n.p.
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Homo (Os Modernos Estudos sobre a Origem do Homem) . Nature 110, 510 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/110510b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/110510b0