In this post, we will see the book The Origin of Man by M. F. Nesturkh. About the bookThe primary purpose of this book is to provide readers with concrete facts, drawn from present-day biology, to serve as proofs in thematerialist theory of anthropogenesis. These include the most importantinformation on the living anthropoid apes necessary to make a correctstudy of the fossil remains of their extinct ancestors, to find amongthem the immediate precursors of man and to discover the main featuresof their palaeobiology.The second task which the author has set himself is to outline themore significant stages in the development of fossil man.The third task is to explain the anthropological viewpoint of theway in which fossil man developed, using for this purpose the labourtheory of anthropogenesis, and also to criticize the idealist conceptsof the formation of man and the races of mankind.The book was translated from the Russian by George H. Hanna and was first published by Foreign Languages Publishing House in 1959.ContentsPreface 5PART ONETHE DARWIN AND OTHER HYPOTHESES CONCERNINGANTHROPOGENESISChapter One. DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN1. Anthropogenesis Before Darwin2. Darwin on the Evolution of the Animal Kingdom3. Darwin's Genealogy of ManChapter Two. THE ANTHROPOID APES AND THEIR ORIGIN1. Living Anthropoids2. Extinct Anthropoids Chapter Three. CRITICISM OF THE LATER HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF MAN1. Religious Explanations of Anthropogenesis2. The Tarsier Hypothesis3. Some Simian Hypotheses4. Osborne's Hypothesis5. Weidenreich's Hypothesis of AnthropogenesisPART TWOPHYSICAL PECULIARITIES OF THE HUMAN BODY AND THEEMERGENCE OF MANChapter One. THE ROLE OF WORK AND ERECT LOCOMOTION IN ANTHROPOGENESIS1. The Role of Work2. Methods of Locomotion of the Great Apes3. The Weight of the Body and the Centre of Gravity in Man and the Apes 4. The Inferior Extremities5. The Pelvis, Spine and Thorax6. The Superior Extremities7. The Proportions of the Body and Asymmetry 8. The Skull Chapter Two. THE BRAIN AND HIGHER NERVOUS ACTIVITY IN MAN AND THE APES1. The Brain and Analysers of Man and the Apes2. Development of the Peripheral Regions of the Analysers 3. Higher Nervous Activity in Monkeys 4. The Second Signalling System-the Distinguishing Feature or HumanThoughtChapter Three. THE HERD INSTINCf IN MONKEYS AND RUDIMENTARY FORMS OF LABOUR1. The Herd Instinct in Monkeys2. Inceptual Forms of Labour PART THREEPALAEANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA ON THE MAKING OF MANChapter One. THE FIRST STAGE: THE EARLIEST MEN (PITHECANTHROPI)1. The Java Pithecanthropus 2. The Sinanthropus3. The Heidelberg ManChapter Two. THE SECOND STAGE: EARLY MEN (PALAEANTHROPI)1. The Ice Age2. Neanderthalers and Their Physical Type3. Neanderthalers on U.S.S.R. Territory4. The Palestine Neanderthalers5. Primitive Man's Way of Life6. The Development of Fossil Man's BrainChapter Three. MODERN MAN (NEANTHROPUS)1. Upper Palaeolithic Man2. False Hypotheses Concerning the Origin of Modem Man and TheirCriticism 3. The Races of Mankind4. Science Against Racism Bibliography