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Human Biogeography by Alexander H. Harcourt

Article  in  The Quarterly Review of Biology · March 2013

DOI: 10.1086/669306

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 The Quarterly Review of Biology
A review of Alexander H. Harcourt's Human Biogeography
--Manuscript Draft--

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Full Title: A review of Alexander H. Harcourt's Human Biogeography

Article Type: Invited Book Review

Corresponding Author: William Banks, PhD

CNRS - UMR 5199-PACEA
Talence, FRANCE

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Corresponding Author's Institution: CNRS - UMR 5199-PACEA

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First Author: William Banks, PhD

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Book Review
Click here to download Book Review: Harcourt_review_final.doc

A review of Alexander H. Harcourt's Human Biogeography

In his recently published work Human Biogeography (University of California Press, 2012),
Harcourt addresses a highly complex topic—how and why our species is distributed around the
globe. This is no easy task because to study such patterns effectively one must not only work
with an immense body of data but also effectively employ theories and methods from both
Anthropology and Biogeography. This explicit linking of these two disciplines is the strong point
of the book, and Harcourt performs this task extremely well by making effective selections of
pertinent physiological, linguistic, and spatial data. His focus on culture and the important role it
plays in the distribution of populations and their adaptations to diverse environments is highly
appropriate. A point highlighted by the fact that our species is marked by a relatively low degree
of genetic diversity. He also takes the reader through our lineage's complex evolutionary history
and its relationship to past climatic variability. His coverage of hominin evolution, migration, and
climate change serves to demonstrate that it is difficult to establish clear-cut relationships
between them. However, rather than focusing simply on climate change, in my opinion it would
be useful to investigate these past evolutionary events from an ecological perspective. By doing
so, one could potentially determine if distinct events in hominin evolution were characterized by
ecological niche conservatism or whether niche shifts played a role. Such an approach could
allow us to identify consistent trends or common mechanisms, if they exist, and tease apart the
differential influences of biology and behavior. This critique aside, I think Harcourt achieves his
objective of bridging the gap between Biogeography and Anthropology, and Human
Biogeography represents a valuable contribution to the complex science that links biology,
ecology and culture in an attempt to understand where and why humans do what they do.

William E. Banks a,b

a
CNRS, UMR 5199–PACEA, Université Bordeaux 1, Bâtiment B18, Avenue des Facultés,
33405 Talence, France

b
Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd, Dyche Hall, Lawrence KS
66045-7562

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