of science in the region. In particular, his Cape focus, while justified, leaves much to be done on
other parts of South Africa.S IMONPOOLEY
University of Oxford
ANN GIBBONS
,
The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors.
New York:
Knopf, 2007. Pp. ix+303. ISBN 1-4000-7696-X. $14.95 (paperback).
doi:10.1017/S0007087409002155
The dramatic hominid fossil finds of the last half-century have stimulated interest in the history of
palaeoanthropology. Thus far historians have tended either to trace the discovery of various
hominid fossils or the debates that have arisen between competing theories of how humans
evolved over time. Ann Gibbons’s book does these things too, but she also engages a number of
other issues of central importance both in contemporary palaeoanthropology and in the history
and sociology of science.
Gibbons is a science journalist who has ‘covered’ Africa and so has got to know a number of
the scientists working there. As a result, she brings to her book a great deal of personal knowledge
of the events described. She concentrates on the efforts of several key groups of researchers who,
over the last thirty years, have conducted excavations searching for the earliest human ancestors.
In order to situate this research in its historical context, she opens with several chapters providing
a general overview of developments in palaeoanthropology during the early and mid-twentieth
century. Inevitably these chapters amount to a somewhat Whiggish account emphasizing just
those events which prepared the way for the problems constituting her central subjects.
Much of the book consists of a detailed and interesting discussion of the research of Richard
Leakey’s team at Koobi Fora in Kenya, Tim White’s team in the Middle Awash in Ethiopia,
Michel Brunet’s team in Chad, and Martin Pickford and Brigitte Senut in the Tungen Hills in
Kenya. Gibbons provides a thorough account of their discoveries of new hominid fossils and of
the competing interpretations of these fossils. She also analyses the role that research in molecular
anthropology has increasingly come to play in theorizing about human evolution. One of the
strengths of the book is the extent to which it shows how important the interdisciplinary coop-
eration between geologists, palaeontologists, anatomists, archaeologists and scientists of a variety
of other kinds has become in modern palaeoanthropology.
Where Gibbons differs from many others who have studied the history of this science is in her
attention to the sociological aspects of human origins research. She recognizes that there are
multiple layers of social, political and personal factors that contribute to the debates that abound
after the discovery of any new fossil hominid. Many of the stories Gibbons tells recount the
personal and professional disagreements among palaeoanthropologists, offering a fascinating
glimpse into the dynamics of a specific scientific community. Even more interesting from a
sociological and historical perspective, however, are her discussions of the international politics
of palaeoanthropological research. Gibbons describes the procedures by which teams of primarily
American and European scientists, supported by universities or other institutions, gain access to
excavation sites and obtain the necessary permits from national governments in Africa to search
for fossils. She also describes how African governments have replaced lax policies with more
rigorous ones as they have come to recognize the value of their prehistoric fossils and artefacts in
both economic and national heritage terms. At the same time, she discusses the extremely com-
petitive nature of human origins research and the manoeuvring that researchers and institutions
employ in order to obtain permits to excavate.
Within the discipline of palaeoanthropology itself, issues of ethical research practices and
appropriate professional behaviour have become important questions in the face of con-
tentious relationships between research groups. Gibbons outlines recent debates among
154
Book reviews
palaeoanthropologists about who should have authority and access to excavation sites and who
should have the right to exercise professional or institutional power within the discipline. She
notes that opposing groups of researchers defend their views on these issues on the basis of very
different conceptions of how the politics of science should work and also the kind of training and
education required in order for a researcher to be allowed to conduct excavations. Disagreements
along these lines have direct implications for the way palaeoanthropology has developed a pro-
fessional identity and sets of accepted research practices over the last half-century.
The detailed history of the discoveries and debates over recent African hominid fossils and the
unusual attention paid to broader social and political factors in palaeoanthropology are the
primary strengths of The First Human. However, Gibbons’s experience as a journalist affects the
way she approaches and handles the material in the book, which often results in a lack of his-
torical context when examining specific events or issues. She gives prominence to the discovery of
hominid specimens and does not offer sufficient discussion of the anthropological or biological
theories that are critical to the interpretation of these fossils. The references for much of the
material that is discussed are not as extensive as one would demand from a scholarly work, and
Gibbons does not situate her subject within the context of other scholarly literature on the history
of palaeoanthropology. However, historians of science will find much of interest in this work,
and the general reader will be treated to an informative account of an important area of con-
temporary science.
MATTHEW R. GOODRUM
Virginia Tech
Book reviews
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...and I am Sid Harth