What is it about some fossils that enable them to take on a life beyond the bones? Why is it that some not only withstand scientific scrutiny but become a part of us on a level that transcends their value as scientific artifacts of our human heritage? Lydia Pyne explains this phenomenon of fossil celebrity in Seven Skeletons, examining the story of human evolution through fossils that have established a solid hold on our hearts and minds as well as human history. From page one, Pyne provides a lens that explores the historical beginnings of the modern human evolution narrative while also capturing the birth of the field of paleoanthropology—both of which have grown in scope and complexity over the last century.
Pyne illustrates through the complex history of each discovery that “bones are mute,” therefore we construct the knowledge that surrounds them, and they become situated in our...
University of California Press