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Alan G. Morris critically examines the history of evolutionary anthropology in South Africa, uncovering the often racist philosophical motivations of these physical anthropology researchers and the discipline itself
South Africa is famed for its contribution to the study of human evolution. In Bones and Bodies Alan G. Morris takes us back over the past century of anthropological discovery in South Africa and uncovers the stories of the individual scientists and how they contributed to our knowledge of the peoples of southern Africa, both ancient and modern. Not all of this history is one which we should feel comfortable with, as much of the earlier anthropological studies have been tainted with the tarred brush of race science. Morris critically examines the work of Raymond Dart, Thomas Dreyer, Matthew Drennan, and Robert Broom who all described their fossil discoveries with the mirror of racist interpretation, as well as the life and times in which they worked.
Morris also considers how modern anthropology tried to rid itself of the stigma of these early racist accounts. In the 1960s and 1970s, Ronald Singer and Phillip Tobias introduced modern methods into the discipline that jettisoned much of what the public wished to believe about race and human evolution. Modern methods in physical anthropology rely on sophisticated mathematics and molecular genetics but are difficult to translate and sometimes fail to challenge preconceived assumptions.
In an age where the authority of the expert and empirical science is questioned, this book shows the battle facing modern anthropology in how to explain science in a context that seems to be at odds with life experience. In this highly accessible insider account, Morris examines the philosophical motivations of these researchers and the discipline itself. Much of the material draws on old correspondence and interviews as well as from published resources.
Contents
List of Illustrations
A Note on the Use of Historical Terminology
Acknowledgements
List of Characters with Dates of Birth, Death and Affiliation
Schema of Types
Introduction
Chapter 1 Dr Louis Péringuey's Well-Travelled Skeletons
Chapter 2 Boskop: The First South African Fossil Human Celebrity
Chapter 3 Matthew Drennan and the Scottish Influence in Cape Town
Chapter 4 The Age of Racial Typology in South Africa
Chapter 5 Raymond Dart's Complicated Legacy
Chapter 6 Ronald Singer, Phillip Tobias and the 'New Physical Anthropology'
Chapter 7 Physical Anthropology and the Administration of Apartheid
Chapter 8 The Politics of Racial Classification in Modern South Africa
Select Bibliography
Index
