In this post, we will see the book The Origin of Man by M. F. Nesturkh.

About the book

The primary purpose of this book is to provide readers with concrete
facts, drawn from present-day biology, to serve as proofs in the
materialist theory of anthropogenesis. These include the most important
information on the living anthropoid apes necessary to make a correct
study of the fossil remains of their extinct ancestors, to find among
them the immediate precursors of man and to discover the main features
of their palaeobiology.

The second task which the author has set himself is to outline the
more significant stages in the development of fossil man.

The third task is to explain the anthropological viewpoint of the
way in which fossil man developed, using for this purpose the labour
theory of anthropogenesis, and also to criticize the idealist concepts
of 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.

PDF | Cover | Bookmarked | OCR

The Internet Archive Link

Contents
Preface 5

PART ONE

THE DARWIN AND OTHER HYPOTHESES CONCERNING
ANTHROPOGENESIS

Chapter One. DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN

1. Anthropogenesis Before Darwin
2. Darwin on the Evolution of the Animal Kingdom
3. Darwin’s Genealogy of Man

Chapter Two. THE ANTHROPOID APES AND THEIR ORIGIN

1. Living Anthropoids
2. Extinct Anthropoids

Chapter Three. CRITICISM OF THE LATER HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF MAN

1. Religious Explanations of Anthropogenesis
2. The Tarsier Hypothesis
3. Some Simian Hypotheses
4. Osborne’s Hypothesis
5. Weidenreich’s Hypothesis of Anthropogenesis

PART TWO
PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES OF THE HUMAN BODY AND THE
EMERGENCE OF MAN

Chapter One. THE ROLE OF WORK AND ERECT LOCOMOTION IN ANTHROPOGENESIS

1. The Role of Work
2. Methods of Locomotion of the Great Apes
3. The Weight of the Body and the Centre of Gravity in Man and the Apes
4. The Inferior Extremities
5. The Pelvis, Spine and Thorax
6. The Superior Extremities
7. The Proportions of the Body and Asymmetry
8. The Skull

Chapter Two. THE BRAIN AND HIGHER NERVOUS ACTIVITY IN MAN AND THE APES

1. The Brain and Analysers of Man and the Apes
2. Development of the Peripheral Regions of the Analysers
3. Higher Nervous Activity in Monkeys
4. The Second Signalling System-the Distinguishing Feature or Human
Thought

Chapter Three. THE HERD INSTINCf IN MONKEYS AND RUDIMENTARY FORMS OF LABOUR

1. The Herd Instinct in Monkeys
2. Inceptual Forms of Labour

PART THREE
PALAEANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA ON THE MAKING OF MAN

Chapter One. THE FIRST STAGE: THE EARLIEST MEN (PITHECANTHROPI)

1. The Java Pithecanthropus
2. The Sinanthropus
3. The Heidelberg Man

Chapter Two. THE SECOND STAGE: EARLY MEN (PALAEANTHROPI)

1. The Ice Age
2. Neanderthalers and Their Physical Type
3. Neanderthalers on U.S.S.R. Territory
4. The Palestine Neanderthalers
5. Primitive Man’s Way of Life
6. The Development of Fossil Man’s Brain

Chapter Three. MODERN MAN (NEANTHROPUS)
1. Upper Palaeolithic Man
2. False Hypotheses Concerning the Origin of Modem Man and Their
Criticism
3. The Races of Mankind
4. Science Against Racism

Bibliography