Article ID: CBB001210165

Welcome to the Twilight Zone: A Forgotten Early Phase of Human Evolutionary Studies (2012)

unapi

The field of paleoanthropology arose out of a strange and unacknowledged early phase of development prior to about the 1930s. It is often assumed that a key pillar of the discipline, the unity of humankind -- the notion that humans are clearly separated phylogenetically (genealogically) from other non-human primates -- was widely accepted from the inception of paleoanthropology around 1860. However, a final consensus on this fundamental question only appeared later on in the 20th century. This paper will focus on two key areas of disagreement, which reveal the unsettled state of this question during this early period: the question of uncertainty with respect to the number, identity and boundary of primate species (including humans) which prevailed in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries; and the matter of uncertainty with respect to the nature of the phylogenetic relationships among the various human populations and the other primate species which prevailed between 1864 and 1931. Consideration of these matters reveals that the modern research structure that paleoanthropologists take for granted today is much more recent than believed.

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Authors & Contributors
Schmalzer, Sigrid
Delisle, Richard G.
Zwart, Hub
Gundling, TJ
Peeters, Susan
White, Mark J.
Concepts
Human evolution
Paleoanthropology
Human paleontology
Definition of human; human nature
Discipline formation
Physical anthropology
Time Periods
20th century, early
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
21st century
Places
China
Great Britain
Guinea
East Asia
Catalonia (Spain)
United States
Institutions
Pastoría (Institut Pasteur of French Guinea)
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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