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