ABSTRACT
The limitations and flaws of palaeoanthropology and archaeology are reconsidered in the light of the observations made in this volume. An example cited for illustration is the lack of agreement on how to distinguish conclusively and irrefutably between chipped stone implements and similar-looking eoliths or geofacts, which has remained unresolved for nearly two centuries. Therefore, a crucial index applied in Pleistocene archaeology lacks ultimate dependability. Of particular interest are the effects the auto-domestication theory has on our understanding of the human past. The narrative it presents involves the clarification of virtually all the factors that make us ‘modern humans’: our neoteny and relative gracility, our susceptibility to thousands of detrimental and neurogenerative conditions, brain atrophy and other effects of the domestication syndrome, loss of oestrus, the proliferation of our exogrammic universe, the introduction of the menopause and our unique sexual selection regimen – all of which have never been explained before. They are all clarified in this book.
