From the evocation of Bronislaw Malinowsky's maiden voyage to Melanesia, to the re-evocation of Joseph Conrad’s ascent into the “Heart of Darkness”, the unfolding and phantasmagoria of the ten essays by Remo Guidieri that make up this volume unfold between the foundation of modern anthropology and the birth of the clash of cultures in the reflection of the consciousness of the West. At the end of the collection, Guidieri himself reconstructs and discusses his own intellectual adventure in conversations with the book’s editor, Andrea Borsari.

Remo Guidieri is a member of the ethnology laboratory at the University of Nanterre (Paris X) where he teaches Anthropology of Beliefs and Aesthetics. He has carried out ethnological missions in the Eastern Pacific (Melanesia) and Western Pacific (Polynesia). Author of "The Way of the Dead" (Adephi, 1988), "Toys. Showcases and Ventures of the Playful Tool' (Medusa Editions, 2000), 'Matisse's Farewell' (Medusa Editions, 2002), 'Shadows. On the Cult of the Dead in Malekula, Eastern Melanesia" (Medusa Editions, 2005).

The scientific community has begun to question one of the pillars of modern thought: Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. If it is a slow, continuous process whereby one species gradually changes to a new one, as Darwin believed, why are there missing links in the fossil record? Based on their detailed research, two eminent palaeontologists, Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould concluded that a species, once evolved, rarely undergoes change and that the evolution of a new species occurs only periodically, in relatively rapid bursts. Strutture del tempo by Niles Eldredge (the article he wrote with S. J. Gould in 1976 is appended) is the most complete and compelling exposition of what has been called the 'theory of punctuated equilibria', known in Italy only through a few elementary and popular essays.
Niles Eldredge was born in Brooklyn in 1943, is a paleontologist and curator of the invertebrate collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Together with Stephen J. Gould he developed the theory of punctuated equilibria, one of the most original in contemporary Darwinism. His most recent books include Strutture del tempo (Hopefulmonster, 1991) and l canarino del minatore (Sperling & Kupfer, 1994). For Einaudi he published Ripensare Darwin. Il dibattito alla Tavola Alta dell'evoluzione ("Biblioteca Einaudi", 1999), La vita in bilico ("Einaudi Tascabili", 2000) and Perché lo facciamo ("Gli struzzi", 2005).