Darwin’s Hunch: Science, Race and the Search for Human Origins

Christa Kuljian, Research Associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, will present this talk.

Scientific research is often shaped by the prevailing social and political context at the time. This is especially true for the search for human origins. Kuljian recounts the colonial practice in Europe, the US and South Africa of collecting human skeletons and cataloguing them into racial types, in the hope that they would provide clues to human evolution. She sheds light on how, during apartheid, the concept of racial classification mirrored the way in which many scientists thought about race and human evolution. In more recent years, the field has been shaped by a more open and diverse approach. Kuljian examines current developments in the search for human origins, and uncovers stories that shed new light on the past.

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