A Search for Origins

Lyn Wadley, Phillip V. Tobias, Goran Strkalj, Himla Soodyall, David Pearce, Kevin Kuykendall, Thomas N. Huffman, Simon Hall, Saul Dubow, Tim Clynick, Vincent Carruthers, Jane Carruthers, Marion Bamford, Trefor Jenkins, Amanda Esterhuysen, Phillip Bonner

Description

Research based on fossils found in South Africa’s ‘Cradle of Humankind’ (bordering Gauteng and the North-West Province) as well as signs of early human habitation in the area, 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 ‘Cradle of Humankind’, and of the important human and animal fossils that have been discovered there, for a non-specialist audience. It is the first systematic account of the wider history of the Cradle and surrounding area, and spans the evolution of early plant and animal life, human development and recent and colonial history. A Search for Origins places the scientific advances that have been made against the intellectual and political background out of which they emerged. This approach situates the Cradle within a recognisable South African context, rendering it a great deal more meaningful for both South African visitors and international tourists. The multi-disciplinary approach – from a wide range of specialists – is innovative and ground-breaking.
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

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Archaeology
• General officer
• Anthropology
• General

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776142309
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

A S EARCH
FOR
O RIGINS

Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
2001
http://witspress.wits.ac.za
Entire publication © Wits University Press 2007
Foreword, introductions and chapters © individual authors 2007
First published 2007
ISBN 978-1-86814-418-1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holders.
Edited by Karen Press
Picture edit by Sally Gaule
Layout and design by Abdul Amien , Cape Town, South Africa
Printed and bound by Paarl Print , Paarl, South Africa
C ONTENTS 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

FOREWORD
THE DEEP ROOTS OF HISTORY AND PREHISTORY AROUND STERKFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA
Phillip V Tobias
The need for this book has arisen from the listing as a World Heritage Site of the Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and the Environs – popularly though not entirely accurately called the ‘Cradle of Humankind’! The World Heritage Centre falls under UNESCO, that is, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. So, to understand the roots of this book, it is necessary to explore South Africa’s relations with UNESCO and the events leading up to the listing of this country’s first World Heritage Site in 1999.
Although South Africa was a founder member of UNESCO in 1946, it saw fit to withdraw from the Organisation in 1956, when the apartheid policies of the Union government were rising to a crescendo of racial intolerance and discrimination. With the perspective of hindsight, there is no doubt that it was UNESCO’s vigorous programme against racism that was the cardinal factor in South Africa’s decision to withdraw from the Organisation. A resolution adopted at the Fourth General Conference of UNESCO in 1949 called on the director-general, Dr Jaime Torres-Bodet, an esteemed Mexican poet, to (1) collect scientific materials concerning problems of race; (2) give wide diffusion to the scientific information collected; and (3) prepare an educational campaign based on this information. UNESCO in its early years embarked on the preparation of two sets of important publications, The Race Question in Modern Science and The Race Question in Modern Thought. Collectively these books constituted a scholarly and powerful indictment of racism (or racialism, as it was then still called). They were published less than a decade after the horrors that had been perpetrated during the Second World War in the name of race.
Torres-Bodet convened a Committee of Experts on Race Problems. These individuals were drawn from the fields of physical anthropology, sociology, social psychology and ethnology. Their deliberations led to the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race (Paris, July 1950). This First Statement on Race opened with the ringing affirmation: ‘Scientists have reached general agreement in recognising that mankind is one: that all men belong to the same species, Homo sapiens .’ The statement went through several subsequent revisions, the Second Statement appearing in Paris in June 1951; the Third in Moscow in August 1964 (when I was invited by the World Health Organisation to be its representative on the Committee – my own book entitled The Meaning of Race having been published in Johannesburg in 1961, to be followed by a revised and enlarged second edition in 1972); and the Fourth Statement produced by a Committee of Experts on Race and Racial Prejudice in Paris in September 1967. Towards the end of the century there was a move for a further revision in the light of newer research, and once more I was involved in these discussions.
The 1950 and 1951 Statements on Race affirmed concepts diametrically opposed to the beliefs and policies of the South African apartheid government, which had come to power in 1948. The latter could not tolerate its citizens being exposed to such ‘subversive’, ‘communistic’ and ‘liberalistic’ information as was emanating from UNESCO. The Union of South Africa’s ‘complaints against UNESCO’ included (1) UNESCO’s race policies; (2) various requests by UNESCO to send missions to the Union; (3) ‘misrepresentation of the Union’s policy’ in UNESCO pamphlets; and (4) a ‘negligible return’ received from the Union’s financial contribution. There were protracted negotiations. Then South Africa’s ambassador in Paris gave notice on 31 December 1956 of his government’s intention to withdraw from the Organisation. This fateful decision took South Africa out into obscurantist and Stygian isolation – and there the country remained for close on forty years.
Among the UNESCO programmes to which South Africa was thereby denied access was the World Heritage Centre and the listing in it of sites, natural and cultural, deemed to be of outstanding universal value. That initiative was adopted by UNESCO in 1972. By the time President Nelson Mandela’s democratic government took South Africa back into UNESCO, some 500 sites around the world had been listed, but alas, pitifully few in Africa and none in South Africa.
By 1994 I had been in charge of the excavation of the Sterkfontein cave for close on thirty years. During this time my assistants and I (especially Alun Hughes, David Molepole, Nkwane Molefe, Stephen Motsumi, Isaac Makhele, Hendrik Dingiswayo, Solomon Seshoene and, latterly, Ronald Clarke, Abel Molepole and Lucas Sekowe) had extracted many tens of thousands of vertebrate fossils. These were mainly of mammals, but also of birds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as fossil plants. A remarkable group among the mammalian fossils was that of fossil primates, comprising essentially cercopithecoids (baboons and monkeys) and hominids (members of the family of humankind). The hominids were especially significant. They fell into two or three species, mostly into Australopithecus africanus to which the ‘Taung child’ belonged. These Sterkfontein hominids extended in time from about 3.3 million years ago to less than 1 million years ago. Most excitingly, with hundreds of individuals represented, palaeoanthropologists for the first time were able to identify males and females, infants, children, adolescents and adults, within the same species. We were able to study fossil populations and not merely single individuals, as was the case when the child skull from Taung came into Raymond Dart’s hands in 1924. All told, if we included the Sterkfontein hominids in the Transvaal Museum, which Robert Broom and John Robinson had recovered, and the six hundred in the Wits Medical School’s Anatomy Department, which I and my team over the last forty years had brought to light, Sterkfontein had given an unequalled stockpile of over seven hundred fossil hominid specimens from this single cave alone. In its yield of fossil hominid specimens it is the world’s individually richest cave site.
Because of this unprecedented plethora of specimens, I took steps in the early 1990s to apply for the Sterkfontein caves to be listed as a World Heritage Site. The government had enacted legislation for the proper procedures and a national committee had come into being under Makgolo Makgolo. A visit by a representative of the World Heritage Centre led to our recognising that listing should not be sought for Sterkfontein alone. As Swartkrans was individually the second richest site and as Kromdraai was historically the first site to yield another type of ape-man, the robust species, and moreover, as there were at least another ten fossil-bearing sites in the vicinity, most of which had yielded hominid remains, the entire area embracing all of these caves – and others that might come to light later – should be considered as a composite ‘site’, under a single all-encompassing title. After much mapping, describing, photographing and surveying, our application, with a veritable barrow-load of supporting documents, was lodged at the Centre in Paris on 30 June 1998. There followed nearly eighteen months of visits and inspections before the Centre was satisfied that the a