Interrogating Human Origins: Decolonisation and the Deep Human Past

Description

Interrogating Human Origins encourages new critical engagements with the study of human origins, broadening the range of approaches to bring in postcolonial theories, and begin to explore the decolonisation of this complex topic. The collection of chapters presented in this volume creates spaces for expansion of critical and unexpected conversations about human origins research. Authors from a variety of disciplines and research backgrounds, many of whom have strayed beyond their usual disciplinary boundaries to offer their unique perspectives, all circle around the big questions of what it means to be and become human. Embracing and encouraging diversity is a recognition of the deep complexities of human existence in the past and the present, and it is vital to critical scholarship on this topic. This book constitutes a starting point for increased interrogation of the important and wide-ranging field of research into human origins. It will be of interest to scholars across multiple disciplines, and particularly to those seeking to understand our ancient past through a more diverse lens. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations List of contributors Acknowledgements SECTION 1: Introduction 1. Interrogating and decolonising the deep human past Introduction Research, knowledge and the postcolonial critique Archaeology and the postcolonial critique Postcolonial approaches and human origins Critiques of human origins Archaeology, human origins, and the end of humanity Structure of the volume References SECTION 2: Definition of the human and its colonial legacy 2. IMHO: Inventing modern human origins IDK: introducing defined knowledge LOL: language or language-as-we-know-it WTF: writing true fiction NSFW: new synthesis for ‘where-to-next?’ Acknowledgments Notes References 3. Modern ontologies of the ‘more-than-animal’ human: Provincialising humanism for the present day Introduction: figuring the human ‘The peculiar distinction of the erect attitude’: George Cuvier and the discovery of the great apes ‘A distinct order of being’: evolutionism and Alfred Wallace in colonial context ‘Only humans can reach for the stars’: geo-engineering and human exceptionality today Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References 4. Colonialism and narratives of human origins in Asia and Africa Introduction: the ‘othering’ of Asia and Africa The emergence and construction of human origins narratives in colonial Asia and Africa Nineteenth- and twentieth-century studies of the bodies of living peoples: models for ‘primitive’ ancestors Transition to the current narrative of human origins: lingering effects of the colonial past Orientalism, Afrocentrism, and the practice of palaeoanthropology today A way forward: reimagining a new narrative of human origins Notes References 5. Primordialising Aboriginal Australians: Colonialist tropes and Eurocentric views on behavioural markers of modern humans Introduction Degeneration and out-of-Africa Diffusionism and stone axes Conclusion Acknowledgments References SECTION 3: Representation, temporality and narratives of human origins 6. Old flames: Rekindling ideas of fire, humanity and representation through creative art practice Introduction Fire and art Archaeological illustrations and the representation of human origins Creative practice in archaeology and heritage research Fire, photography and Yesterday’s Hearth Stoking the flames: abstraction and the chemigram process Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References 7. Orientalism and origins: The search for firsts in the ‘Cradle of Civilisation’ Introduction Critiques of the cradle The search for firsts Region as relic Conclusion: rocking the cradle Notes References 8. The beast without: Becoming human in the science fiction of H. G. Wells Introduction H. G. Wells, scientific romances, scientific journalism, and human origins, 1896–1901 Palaeolithic archaeology and anthropology in the last half of the fin de siècle decade The literary context of the last half of the fin de siècle decade Conclusion References 9. The temporality of humanity and the colonial landscape of the deep human past Introduction The temporality of modernity and humanity: social and historical perspectives The temporality of colonialism The barbarian and the primitive: time and archaeology The colonial temporality of the deep human past Conclusions References SECTION 4: National, political and historical dimensions of human origins 10. The Far West from the Far East: Decolonisation and human origins in East Asia: the legacy of 1937 and 1948 Introduction The world of 1937 Palaeoanthropology in 1937 The world of 1948 The study of human origins in 1948 Movius and his synthesis of 1948 Weidenreich and multi-regional evolution Multi-regionalism with Chinese characteristics The post-1948 legacy Discussion: where we are now Concluding comments Notes Acknowledgements References 11. Interpretative shifts in understanding the prehistoric settlement of the Indian Subcontinent: Comparing Western and Indian historical perspectives Introduction Lower Palaeolithic colonisations The Indian Middle Palaeolithic: indigenous, introduced or both? The enigmatic ‘Upper Palaeolithic’ and early Mesolithic phases Discussion and conclusions Acknowledgements References 12. Our earliest ancestors: Human and non-human primates of North America My place in this story Introduction Decolonising minds and Western constructs of the past Our earliest ancestors Changing paradigms of human evolution Early people in Turtle Island (the Americas) Nationalistic, historical and politicalised discourses of the human past Eyes wide open or eyes wide shut Conclusion References 13. ‘If we are all African, then I am nothing’: Hominin evolution and the politics of identity in South Africa Introduction Part I: two responses Part II: a history Part III: discussion Conclusion Notes References SECTION 5: The construction of genetic facts 14. Naming the sacred ancestors: Taxonomic reification and Pleistocene genomic narratives Introduction Taxa and pseudo-taxa in human evolution Race as genetic apophenia The human boundary Neoliberal recreational genomics Very ancient DNA Conclusion Notes References 15. Traditional owner participation in genetic research: A researcher perspective Introduction The fieldwork for a genomic history of Aboriginal Australia Contentious issues with the research Conclusion Notes Acknowledgements References Index