Childhood and Human Evolution (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780932776334)

In this accessible and groundbreaking work, Friedrich Kipp shows that childhood and youth--an extended period of nurture and protection from the struggle for existence--have been, and will continue to be, a necessary condition for human evolution. His observations confirm our intuitive feeling that this prolonged phase of human life holds the promise of our future.

Kipp's comparative study of the juvenile stage in animals and humans also sheds surprising new light on the process of human evolution and our relation to the animal primates. In their earliest developmental stage, animals--and the animal primates in particular--display characteristics reminiscent of human children. However these more universal, humanlike characteristics are quickly lost as the animals adapt to specific ecological conditions. The animals' early closeness to the human form and their developmental trajectory away from the human suggests that the main trunk of the evolutionary tree is intimately associated with human evolution.

CONTENTS:

I. INTRODUCTION
II. POSTNATAL DEVELOPMENT IN MAMMALS
1. Chronology
2. What Makes Early Independence Possible?
3. Behavioral Plasticity in Young Animals

III. HUMAN CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
1. Characteristic Features of Postnatal Development
Standing and learning to walk
The use of the hand
The ossification of the skull and the growth of the brain
Dentition processes
Sexual maturity and the adolescent growth spurt
2. The Meaning and Significance of Prolonged Youth
3. Human Plasticity

IV. MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE HEAD
1. Distinguishing Human and Mammalian Structural Types
The structural type of the mammalian skull
The structural type of the human head
2. The Morphology of the Simian Head and its Ontogeny
The form of the simian head in early childhood
3. Conditions for the Development of the Human Head and Human Brain

V. CARE OF THE YOUNG AND
THE EVOLUTION OF THE CEREBRUM

VI. PROTECTION FROM THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE IN HUMAN EVOLUTION

VII. LOVE AND CARING

VIII. HUMAN EVOLUTION RECONSIDERED
1. The Form of the Head
2. Cerebralization
3. The Position of the Foramen Magnum
4. Changes in the Structure of the Hand
5. The Larynx and its Appendages
6. Psychological Findings

IX. THE FOSSIL EVIDENCE - A SURVEY
1. Homo Sapiens Fossils
2. Homo Neandertalensis
3. Steinheim Man
4. Homo Erectus
5. Australopithicus and Paranthropus
6. Other Fossils from the Tertiary
7. The Form of the Head in Fossil Hominid Children

X. PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF UPRIGHT POSTURE

XI. VOICE AND SPEECH
1. Mammal Vocalization
2. The Free Use of the Voice in the Human Being
3. The Organs of the Mouth in the Service of Language

XII. HUMAN BEINGS TEACH THEIR ORGANS

CONCLUSION
Bibliography
About the Author
A Related Book