Book Reviews 169 warnings; to deformation and trephining; and finally to phrenology and art. The fates of the skulls of St. Bridget, Henry IV of France, Descartes, and others are fascinating but frustrating, for there are usually no references to fuller accounts. Tracking down the specimens used as illustrations is likely to be equally frustrating, and reference to the German edition is no help. The illustrations are not in the same sequence in the two editions; different views of the same skull-or is it the same?-may be used; and the legends and citations (if any) frequently differ. For example, the English edition credits the pictureof the Offnet skulls to Schultz (1912), but the German edition to Schmidt. A decorated skull is said, E.V., to be Natufian, from Wadi Mugharat and Garrod; while the German edition cites Kenyon and Jericho. For museum specimens, the name of the photographer is given, but not the catalogue number of the specimen or the name of the museum where the original may be found.

As Oakley, who wrote an introduction to the English edition, explains, the author is a pathol- ogist who for more than half a century has been concerned with the diseases of the cranium. . . .I (He retired in 1947 at the age of 66.) This undoubt- edly explains some of the errors that any anthro- pologist will spot. Other errors may be the fault of the translator. The final fault lies with the publisher, for proper editing could have made this book sci- ence. As it is, it is primarily art.

Race, Evolution, and Mankind. ROBERT L. LEHRMAN. (Science & Discovery Series.) New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1966. vi, 280 pp., 23 figures, index, suggested reading. $5.95.

Reviewed by SALLY R. BINFORD, University of California, Los Angela

This book is aimed at the layman and summarizes the major findings of recent evolutionary syntheses and applies them to the problems of human evolu- tion and race formation. I t is a clearly written, well- organized book and covers a broad range of topics. I t should be a valuable source for the interested gen- eral reader. Subjects that are especially well handled are the general processes and mechanisms of evolu- tion and the feedback between culture and biology in human evolution.

The book is weakest in presenting the substantive hdings of anthropology. For example, the discus- sion of the australopithecines contains the following statements:

These creatures can best be described as man-a es, for their bodies are nearly human, while tieir heads are still so ape-like that we refuse them ad- mission to the status of men . . . they were able to walk erect . . . [but] perhaps they went ordinarily on all fours and stood upright only to run. . . . The crucial distinction between man and ape, then, is found in the head, not the rest of the body [pp. 225-226).

The author accepts the division of man into three major races and then, of course, is left with prob- lems: there is some question whether Oceanic Negroes are related to African Negroes (p. 194). He lists 33 races based on the Coon-Garn-Birdsell taxonomy without recognizing that this classifica- tion is predicated on nine, not three, geographical races.

The book ends with a lucid analysis of race and social problems, which places a refreshing emphasis on the economic, rather than the purely psycholog- ical, causes of discrimination.

Early Skeletons from Tranquillity, California. J. LAWRENCE ANGEL. (Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Volume 2, Numher 1.) Washing- ton: Smithsonian Press, 1966. 19 pp., literature cited, 4 plates, 3 tables. $.30 (paper).

Reviezued by J. E. ANDERSON, University of Toronto

This is a report on the fragmentary remains of more then 30 individuals from a site excavated in 1939-1942 in the central San Joaquin Valley of California. I t is highly prohable that the material dates from late Pleistocene or early postglacial times. The report was worth waiting for, as it pro- vides a detailed description of the skeletons, small photographs of the skulls, comments on comparative material, and some useful suggestions on the rela- tionship between skeletal morphology and culture.

In a section devoted to ecology and health, the author illustrates how some cultural implications may be drawn from the quantitative study of patho- logical changes observed in bones and teeth. The strenuous existence of the people is reflected in the wear and tear on their intervertebral discs and liga- ments. Advanced dental wear points to a rough fibrous diet and suggests the possible favored fertil- ity of those females with the most durable teeth. Specific arthritic change in the elbow joint was a frequent occurrence and may be related to the vigorous use of the atlatl or perhaps enthusiastic seed grinding.

The comparative data presented lead to the con- clusion that the Tranquillity people closely resemble the East Asian Pleistocene proto-Mongoloids as well as modern groups from the San Joaquin Valley. Angel concludes that American populations, except in the north, evolved much more slowly in a Rlon- goloid direction than Asiatic ones perhaps because of more stable, more varied, and less stringent dietary and climatic selective pressures.

Apart from the valuable information provided on the skeleton of early American Indians, this brief report deserves to be studied as an example of meth- odology in physical anthropology. Rather than being a sterile presentation of cranial indices, this is a serious attempt to glean the maximum of biological information from an archeological population and relate it to the questions asked by archeologists.