Search for Origins

Trefor Jenkins was appointed the first Professor of Human Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1975, and has done research into the genetic relationships between living peoples, as well as training and mentoring a large number of clinical geneticists, molecular geneticists and genetic counsellors.Phil Bonner was Professor of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he held the National Research Foundation (NRF) Chair in Local Histories and Present Realities.Amanda Esterhuysen is Associate Professor in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

• Foreword Phillip Tobias; Part 1; Introduction Philip Bonner Africa is seldom what it seems; Chapter 1 Saul Dubow The South Africanisation of Science (working title); Part 2; Introduction Trefor Jenkins Fossils and genes: A new anthropology of evolution; Chapter 2 Kevin Kuykendall/Goran Strkalj A history of South African palaeoanthropology; Chapter 3 Kevin Kuykendall Fossil hominids of the Cradle of Humankind; Chapter 4 Himla Soodyall/Trefor Jenkins Unravelling the history of modern humans in southern Africa: The contribution of genetic studies; Chapter 5 Marion Bamford Fossil plants from the Cradle of Humankind; Part 3; Introduction Amanda Esterhuysen The Emerging Stone Age; Chapter 6 Amanda Esterhuysen The Earlier Stone Age; Chapter 7 Lynn Wadley The Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age; Chapter 8 David Pearce Rock engravings in the Magaliesberg Valley; Part 4; Introduction Philip Bonner The myth of the vacant land; Chapter 9 Tom Huffman The Early Iron Age at Broederstroom and around the Cradle of Humankind; Chapter 10 Simon Hall Tswana history in the Bankenveld; Chapter 11 Jane Carruthers Early Boer republics: Changing political forces in the Cradle of Humankind, 1830s to 1890s; Part 5; Introduction Philip Bonner The racial paradox - Sterkfontein, Smuts and segregation; Chapter 12 Philip Bonner The legacy of gold; Chapter 13 Phillip V. Tobias The story of Sterkfontein, 1895-1947; Chapter 14 Vincent Carruthers The Anglo-Boer War in the Cradle of Humankind; Chapter 15 Tim Clynick White South Africa's 'weak sons': Poor whites and the Hartebeespoort Dam; Epilogue Bonner/ Esterhuysen.