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Although the human condition can also be considered in metaphysical, ideological or ontological terms, in this book it is examined from a purely scientific perspective: what has occurred in the evolution of our species that led to the emergence of such a remarkable primate? In reviewing the limited empirical evidence we have about our distant past, some favored interpretations are replaced with hitherto unexplored alternatives. The relatively recent reduction of human brain size and physical robusticity, loss of estrus, development of neoteny and of numerous deleterious or maladaptive genetic syndromes, including neurodegenerative illnesses, are all attributed to one cause: the rise of culturally mediated behavior, including deliberate mate choice based on cultural constructs. This shift, introduced roughly 40,000 years ago, replaced both natural selection and genetic drift with the laws of domestication. Homo sapiens sapiens is thus the product of his own but unintended self-domestication. This revolutionary new hypothesis solves several conundrums in paleoanthropology, neuroscience and the cognitive sciences. But in a broader perspective, it also explains how the contradictions, tensions and enigmas of human existence came into existence and can be rationally accounted for. The Human Condition, therefore, strives to explain the very origins and characteristics of what it means to be human. About the Author Robert G. Bednarik, born in Vienna but an Australian since 1970, contradicts norms. He has undertaken numerous expeditions crossing the sea on rafts built with stone tools, but he cannot swim; he has produced 1165 academic publications, including many books, but has no formal education; he edits three scientific journals and two series of monographs, but not in his native language. As a complete autodidact, he regards himself as ignorant as did Socrates. Consequently his principal interest is the origin of the human ability to create constructs of reality, and in a wide variety of fields providing supplementary information in that quest.

Economics. --- Philosophy. --- Sociology. --- Technology. --- Human evolution --- Cognition and culture --- Social evolution --- Behavior evolution --- Anthropology, Prehistoric --- Antiquities, Prehistoric --- Biology --- Behavioral Sciences --- Genetic Processes --- Culture --- Biological Processes --- Mental Processes --- Genetics --- Behavioral Disciplines and Activities --- Biological Phenomena --- Anthropology, Cultural --- Genetic Phenomena --- Biological Science Disciplines --- Psychological Phenomena and Processes --- Anthropology --- Psychiatry and Psychology --- Phenomena and Processes --- Natural Science Disciplines --- Social Sciences --- Disciplines and Occupations --- Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena --- Sociobiology --- Genetics, Behavioral --- Biological Evolution --- Cognition --- Cultural Evolution --- Sociology & Social History --- Health & Biological Sciences --- Evolution --- Physical Anthropology --- Social Change --- Social ecology. --- Ecology, Social --- Environment, Human --- Human ecology (Social sciences) --- Human environment --- Life sciences. --- Evolutionary biology. --- Life Sciences. --- Evolutionary Biology. --- Social sciences --- Evolution (Biology). --- Animal evolution --- Animals --- Biological evolution --- Darwinism --- Evolutionary biology --- Evolutionary science --- Origin of species --- Biological fitness --- Homoplasy --- Natural selection --- Phylogeny

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This book examines systematically both the theoretical and practical issues that have characterized the discipline over the past two centuries. Some of the historically most consequential mistakes in archaeology are dissected and explained, together with the effects of the related controversies.

Paleolithic period. --- Archaeology. --- Paleontology

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Archaeology. --- Geology, Stratigraphic

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Rock mechanics. --- Earth sciences. --- Rocks --- Erosion. --- Tribology. --- Geology. --- Archaeology. --- Fracture.