The ‘Cradle of Humankind’ (COH), bordering Gauteng and the North-West Province, was declared a World Heritage Site for the wealth of the human and animal fossils found there. Research based on fossils found in the area as well as signs of early human habitation have shed new light on the evolution of humankind and on the significant role that southern Africa played in the development of modern humans. A Search for Origins aims to provide an overview of the history of the COH, and of the important discoveries that have been made there, for a non-specialist audience. A number of general accounts have been written which have concentrated on the palaeontological discoveries made there. No systematic account written by specialists in their disciplines has, however, been published about the wider history of the COH and surrounding areas. In particular, no overview spanning the evolution of early plant and animal life, human development and recent and colonial history as reflected in discoveries linked to the COH, has been attempted. This edited volume frames the scientific advances that have been made in the COH against the intellectual and political background out of which they emerged. The multi-disciplinary approach – from a wide range of specialists – is innovative and ground-breaking.
Cuprins
FOREWORD
Phillip V Tobias
Part 1
Introduction Africa is seldom what it seems
Philip Bonner
Chapter 1 White South Africa and the South Africanisation of science: Humankind or kinds of humans?
Saul Dubow
Part 2
Introduction Fossils and genes: A new anthropology of evolution
Trefor Jenkins
Chapter 2 A history of South African palaeoanthropology
Kevin Kuykendall and Goran Sˇtrkalj
Chapter 3 Fossil hominids of the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
Kevin Kuykendall
Chapter 4 Unravelling the history of modern humans in southern Africa:
The contribution of genetic studies
Himla Soodyall and Trefor Jenkins
Chapter 5 Fossil plants from the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
Marion Bamford
Part 3
Introduction The Emerging Stone Age
Amanda Esterhuysen
Chapter 6 The Earlier Stone Age
Amanda Esterhuysen
Chapter 7 The Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age
Lyn Wadley
Chapter 8 Rock engravings in the Magaliesberg Valley
David Pearce
Part 4
Introduction The myth of the vacant land
Philip Bonner
Chapter 9 The Early Iron Age at Broederstroom and around
the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
Thomas N Huffman
Chapter 10 Tswana history in the Bankenveld
Simon Hall
Chapter 11 The early Boer republics: Changing political forces in the ‘Cradle of Humankind’, 1830s to 1890s
Jane Carruthers
Part 5
Introduction The racial paradox: Sterkfontein, Smuts and segregation
Philip Bonner
Chapter 12 The legacy of gold
Philip Bonner
Chapter 13 The story of Sterkfontein since 1895
Phillip V Tobias
Chapter 14 The SOUTH AFRICAN War OF 1899–1902 in the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
Vincent Carruthers
Chapter 15 White South Africa’s ‘weak sons’: Poor whites and the Hartbeespoort Dam
Tim Clynick
Epilogue Voice of politics, voice of science: Politics and science after 1945
Philip Bonner, Amanda Esterhuysen and Trefor Jenkins
Notes, references and recommended reading
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
Index
Despre autor
Lyn Wadley is Professor of Archaeology in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
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