Lieberman Human Body

The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease offers an evolutionary commentary on human health, arguing that we have failed to prevent preventable diseases because we fail to identify human evolution as a major factor. By definition, evolution is "the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth" (Lieberman, 19). Lieberman argues that evaluating why we get sick is essential for preventing and treating diseases. He proposes the mismatch hypothesis which argues that "the answer to why so many humans are now getting sick to once rare illnesses is that many of our body 's features were adaptive in environments for which we evolved but

Lieberman formats his book in three distinct sections: Part 1-3. The first section, 'Apes and Humans ', broadly focuses on the pre-Neolithic hominin by particularly focusing on bipedalism, our large brains, and our ability to store excess energy. I find that I am more knowledgeably persuaded by the first section of the book, mainly with it being the section that I am least familiar with. This section is strategically written to allow the reader to have a full understanding of the major transitions in evolving from apes into modern humans. Lieberman uses detailed figures and examples of how humans have transitioned from our first modern ancestors, apes, into modern homo-sapiens. He notes that "the evolutionary family tree shows that humans are more closely related to the two species of chimpanzees, common chimps, and pygmy chimps" (Lieberman, 28-29). For example, Figure 1 describes an "evolutionary tree of humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas" (Lieberman, 29). In this figure, Lieberman allows the reader to illustrate and compare the last common ancestor of chimps and humans. I find using figures are important especially when targeting a non-scholar or adolescent audience. This section is