the bone hunters paleoanthropologists as authors of popular science books oliver hochadel
TRANSCRIPT
The Bone Hunters
Paleoanthropologists as authors of popular science books
Oliver Hochadel
Early (Paleo-)Bestseller
• Charles Darwin Origins of Species (1859)
• Thomas Huxley Man’s Place in Nature (1863)
• Ernst Haeckel Natural History of Creation (1868)
• Charles Darwin Descent of Man (1871)
Syntheses
• Arthur Keith The Antiquity of Man (1915)
• Frederic Wood Jones Arboreal Man (1916)
• Henry Osborn Men of the Old Stone Age (1916)
• Grafton Elliot Smith The Evolution of Man (1924)
Changes after 1945
• Increasing importance of peer review / of journals
• Shift of research to East Africa
• Tales of adventure
Types of popular science books
• Adventure / personal experience
• Biographies
• Overviews (textbook-like)
• Illustrated book (coffee-table)
Richard Leakey
• „Origins“ (1977)• „The Making of Mankind“ (1981)• „Origins Reconsidered. In
Search of What Makes us Human“ (1992)
• „The Origin of Humankind“ (1994)
Donald Johanson
• „Lucy. The Beginnings of Humankind“ (1981)
• „Lucy‘s Child. The Discovery of a Human Ancestor“ (1989)
• „Ancestors. In Search of Human Origins“ (1994)
• „From Lucy to Language“ (1996)
Thesis I: Medialisation
• Popular book to polish image / Profiling/ Legitimation
• Indirect mean of Fundraising
• Increase of social capital
Writing one’s own History
• The Paleoanthropologist as Historian of own discipline / own achievements
• Attacking resp. ignoring of colleagues
Thesis II: Enlarged Battlefield
• Epistemological Uncertainty / Density of Controversies
• Theoretical Debates:
Out-of-Africa II versus Multi-Origins
• Personal Vendettas
Donald Johanson vs. Jon Kalb
Out-of-Africa-Theorie
Thesis III: Meta-Narrative
• Medium for comprehensive presentation, including speculations
• (Teleological) Narratives of Origin: evolution is geared toward the development of man