BRITAIN 



LAKE DISTRICT 



WALK 



June 6-16, 1994 



There is no better way to become ac- 

 quainted with the English countryside 

 than on foot, and no more beautiful place 

 in Britain than the Lake District. This 



summer, a small group of participants will join an American Museum 



naturalist to explore the fells, wood- 

 lands and lakes of the exquisite Lake 

 District, a region long associated with 

 many of Britian's finest poets and art- 

 ists. Using a delightful old coaching 

 inn as our base, we will take daily 

 walks in the countryside to discover 

 the beauty and rich history of Britain's 

 most alluring region. Join us as we 

 explore the enchanting Lake District. 



American 

 Museum of 

 Natural 

 History 



Discovery Tours 



Central Park West at 79th St. 



New York, NY 10024-5192 



Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or 



(212) 769-5700 in NYS 



AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



ANCIENT 

 TURKEY 



By Private Steam Train 

 May 31 - June 12, 1994 



With exotic cities, magnificent landscapes and innumerable remnants of 

 glorious ancient civilizations, Turkey is one of the most exciting destina- 

 tions in the world. This spring, join the 

 American Museum aboard a refurbished 

 steam train as we explore this ancient 

 land. Highlights include the fabled city 

 of Istanbul, Turkey's capital, Ankara, the 

 ancient sites of Ephesus, Pergamum, 

 Heirapolis and Aphrodisia, and the 

 bizarre formations and underground 

 cities of Cappadocia. Join us for an 

 extraordinary adventure through the 

 Turkish countryside by steam train. 



American 

 Museum of 

 Natural 

 \>wrmii History 



Discovery Tours 



Central Park West at 79th St. 



New York, NY 10024 



Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or 



(212) 769-5700 in NYS 



ries). Newspaper and science magazines 

 invariably present multiregionalism as the 

 orthodox, or expected, view, and out of 

 Africa (or any other single place) as the 

 surprising new kid on the block. 



But this assessment is ass-backwards by 

 any standard rendering of evolutionary 

 theory (divorced from the distortions that 

 intrude upon us whenever we consider 

 something so close to us as human ances- 

 try). Origin in a single place is the expec- 

 tation of ordinary evolutionary theory, and 

 utterly unsurprising. Species are unitary 

 populations of organisms that split off 

 from their ancestral populations in a hm- 

 ited part of the parental range. Species 

 arise as historical entities in particular 

 places and then spread, if successful, as far 

 as their adaptations and ecological propen- 

 sities allow. Rats and pigeons live all over 

 ihe world, just as humans do. Yet we are 

 not tempted to argue that rats evolved in 

 parallel on all continents simultaneously. 

 We suppose that, like most species, they 

 arose in a single region and then spread 

 out. Why, then, does origin in a single 

 place surprise us when we, rather than pi- 

 geons, represent the subject? Why do we 

 devise an entirely idiosyncratic and un- 

 usual multiregional hypothesis, and then 

 proclaim it orthodox and expected? 



I can only suppose that we want to seg- 

 regate humans off as something special. 

 We wish to see our evolution, particularly 

 the late expansion of our brain to current 

 size, as an event of more than merely local 

 significance. We do not wish to view our 

 global triumph as so fortuitously depen- 

 dent upon the contingent history of a small 

 African population; we would rather con- 

 ceive our exalted intellect as so generally 

 advantageous that all populations, in all 

 places, must move in adaptive unison to- 

 ward the same desired state. 



I must try to understand the contrast of 

 public surprise with my personal expecta- 

 tion for these three disparate stories by 

 seeking a difference in worldviews, or 

 general models of reaUty, between me and 

 most of thee. Under what common para- 

 digm, rejected by me, does a shorter Cam- 

 brian explosion, a lack of lockstep evolu- 

 tion between flowering plants and insects, 

 and a single place of origin for Homo sapi- 

 ens, seem so surprising? I can only ob- 

 serve that all three contraries — a more 

 leisurely origin for anatomical designs, a 

 coordinated evolution of coadapted 

 groups, and an intercontinental origin of 

 our most valued features — fit well with a 

 more stately, predictable, and comforting 

 view of life's history than I can see in the 



22 Natural History 2/94 



