A Search for Origins: Science, History and South Africa's 'Cradle of Humankind'

The ‘Cradle of Humankind’ (COH), bordering Gauteng and the NorthWest 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 nonspecialist 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 multidisciplinary approach - from a wide range of specialists - is innovative and groundbreaking.

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Contents
pp v-vii
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Map
pp viii-x
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Foreword
pp xi-xviii
- By Phillip V Tobias, Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

PART 1 - Introduction: Africa is Seldom What It Seems
pp 1-8
- By Philip Bonner, Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and holds a National Research Foundation Chair in Social Sciences.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 1 - White South Africa and the South Africanisation of Science: Humankind or Kinds of Humans?
pp 9-22
- By Saul Dubow, Professor of History at Sussex University in England. He is Chair of the Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

PART 2 - Introduction: Fossils and Genes: A New Anthropology of Evolution
pp 23-27
- By Trefor Jenkins, Appointed the first Professor of Human Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 2 - A History of South African Palaeoanthropology
pp 28-49
- By Kevin Kuykendall, Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Sheffield., Goran Štrkalj, Senior Lecturer in the School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 3 - Fossil Hominids of the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
pp 50-77
- By Kevin Kuykendall, Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 4 - Unravelling the History of Modern Humans in Southern Africa: The Contribution of Genetic Studies
pp 78-90
- By Himla Soodyall, Principal Medical Scientist/Associate Professor in the Division of Human Genetics at the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg., Trefor Jenkins, Appointed the first Professor of Human Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 5 - Fossil Plants from the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
pp 91-102
- By Marion Bamford, Associate Professor in the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

PART 3 - Introduction: The Emerging Stone Age
pp 103-109
- By Amanda Esterhuysen, Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and Director of the Archaeological Resource Development Project, through which she has had a long association with Sterkfontein.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 6 - The Earlier Stone Age
pp 110-121
- By Amanda Esterhuysen, Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and Director of the Archaeological Resource Development Project, through which she has had a long association with Sterkfontein.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 7 - The Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age
pp 122-135
- By Lyn Wadley, Professor of Archaeology in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 8 - Rock Engravings in the Magaliesberg Valley
pp 136-140
- By David Pearce, Researcher in the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

PART 4 - Introduction: The Myth of the Vacant Land
pp 141-147
- By Philip Bonner, Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and holds a National Research Foundation Chair in Social Sciences.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 9 - The Early Iron Age at Broederstroom and Around the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
pp 148-161
- By Thomas N Huffman, Professor of Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 10 - Tswana History in the Bankenveld
pp 162-179
- By Simon Hall, Senior lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 11 - The Early Boer Republics: Changing Political Forces in the ‘Cradle of Humankind’, 1830s to 1890s
pp 180-200
- By Jane Carruthers, Associate Professor in the Department of History, University of South Africa, Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

PART 5 - Introduction: The Racial Paradox: Sterkfontein, Smuts and Segregation
pp 201-205
- By Philip Bonner, Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and holds a National Research Foundation Chair in Social Sciences.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 12 - The Legacy of Gold
pp 206-215
- By Philip Bonner, Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and holds a National Research Foundation Chair in Social Sciences.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 13 - The Story of Sterkfontein Since 1895
pp 216-231
- By Phillip V Tobias, Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 14 - The South African War of 1899–1902 in the ‘Cradle of Humankind’
pp 232-247
- By Vincent Carruthers, The director of a management and environmental consulting practice.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Chapter 15 - White South Africa's ‘Weak Sons’: Poor Whites and the Hartbeespoort Dam
pp 248-274
- By Tim Clynick, Independent public policy research executive.
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Epilogue: Voice of Politics, Voice of Science: Politics and Science After 1945
pp 275-278
- By Philip Bonner, Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and holds a National Research Foundation Chair in Social Sciences., Amanda Esterhuysen, Lecturer in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and Director of the Archaeological Resource Development Project, through which she has had a long association with Sterkfontein., Trefor Jenkins, Appointed the first Professor of Human Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Notes, references and recommended reading
pp 279-293
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Notes on contributors
pp 294-295
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Acknowledgements
pp 296-297
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Index
pp 298-313
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

A Search for Origins

Science, History and South Africa's 'Cradle of Humankind'

Book description

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information