The History of Human Origins Research and its Place in the History of Science: Research Problems and Historiography

Abstract

Palaeoanthropology is a relatively recent science when its history is compared to that of other natural sciences, but it has grown to become a prominent field of study that has produced many remarkable discoveries and important theories. It has constructed a professional identity and formed its own institutions, while still retaining close links with other natural and social sciences. Most significantly, it has revolutionized our understanding of human origins and prehistoric human culture. This paper is a historiographical study of recent scholarship in the history of palaeoanthropology and other sciences involved in human origins research that will attempt to outline some prospective new areas of enquiry as well as some promising ways of examining that history. Historically palaeoanthropology grew out of a number of different sciences and today it still encompasses a range of problems and sub-disciplines, and therefore in this paper I include within its scope human evolution, hominid palaeontology, and prehistoric archaeology, while acknowledging other fields that have contributed to the study of human origins. Indeed, examining this conception of palaeoanthropol-ogy is one of my objectives.

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