Readers of BJHS will be familiar with the translation of Claudine Cohen's The Fate of the Mammoth, which explored the mythology surrounding this iconic extinct creature. The title of her book on human origins is a nice play on words: the popular belief is that we became human when our ape ancestors climbed down out of the trees, while evolutionists have traditionally represented the process by phylogenetic trees purporting to show the relationships between the various ape and hominid species. This is a comprehensive survey of debates on the topic, but it is more than a conventional historical account. The first part includes details of the latest scientific developments and is designed to highlight the impact of the genetic techniques which have revolutionized thinking on the relationship between modern Homo sapiens and our recently extinct cousins. Changing perceptions of the degree to which we are related to the Neanderthals are outlined in detail and there is a whole chapter on the Denisovians, the species known only from the remains of its mitochondrial DNA. The modern debates are woven into an analysis of how the shape of the phylogenetic tree has been transformed, becoming steadily more ‘bushy’ and showing ever less evidence of a ‘main line’ leading toward ourselves as the ultimate goal of the process. Cohen also explains why palaeo-anthropologists have followed taxonomists in abandoning the tree model in favour of cladograms that denote degrees of resemblance without presuming to identify lines of descent.

The rest of the book follows a more standard historical format, offering surveys of how perceptions of various evolutionary models have changed through time. Misia Landau's thesis that the theories of hominization proposed since Darwin's time have a narrative structure analogous to folk tales and adventure stories is used to argue that these are far more than abstract phylogenetic connections. There are chapters on the decline of racist assumptions, changing ideas about the significance of skull capacity and shape, the role played by women, and the problems centred on the origin of language and the development of cultures. All contribute to emphasize the decline of a linear model of development and the roles played by ideological concerns at every point in time. There are some interesting comparisons of the different concerns shown by Continental and English-speaking scholars. These are necessarily fairly broad-brush surveys, but they are comprehensive and sophisticated. If it were translated, this would be a very useful introduction for anyone teaching a history of ideas on human origins.