Ancestral Passions

The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings

Bibliographic Data

ID2579650
AuthorsChris Knight (0000-0001-8432-0658, corresponding author), Virginia Morell
Year1997
Volume3
Issue2
Pages387
Publication date1997-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3035037
OpenAlexW2055576106
LanguageEN
Citations received21

This is a biography of the first family of anthropology - Louis, Mary and Richard Leakey, whose discoveries have laid the foundations for much of our knowledge about the origins of man. The Leakeys have dominated their science. Not only did each of them make key fossil discoveries, but Louis (who argued that man did not originate on the Eurasian continent tens of thousands of years ago, but was more likely to have evolved in Africa millions of years ago) helped to establish the theoretical groundwork for the science of paleonanthropology. The biography explores the Leakeys many significant finds, as they exposed our ancestry and articulated our relationship to the other primates, especially the early hominids. It also exposes the rivals and jealousies within the family and in relation to other scientists

Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Passions · Australian Indigenous Culture and History · History · Philosophy

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