Human evolution tends to be understood in terms of a development from inferior to superior, primitive to advanced, the simple to the complex. In this book Gamble attempts to dispel some of the myths and distortions that this way of perceiving the human past has produced. He looks at human prehistory and behaviour through a detailed study of global colonization and adaptation to climate and environment, and seeks to introduce a fresh approach to the causes behind this dispersal of humans. In the course of his study he presents the latest findings of prehistoric archaeology, and a critique of the attitudes of early European explorers and twentieth-century scholars to the question of human origins.