Bones and Bodies: How South African Scientists Studied Race

360 Pages·2022·25.501 MB·English

by  Alan G Morris

B O N E S
AND
B O D I E S
How South African Scientists Studied Race
ALAN G. MORRIS

B O N E S
AND
B O D I E S
How South African Scientists Studied Race
ALAN G. MORRIS
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Copyright © Alan G. Morris 2022
Published edition © Wits University Press 2022
Images and figures © Copyright holders
First published 2022
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/12022027236
978-1-77614-723-6 (Paperback)
978-1-77614-724-3 (Hardback)
978-1-77614-725-0 (Web PDF)
978-1-77614-726-7 (EPUB)
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CONTENTS
A NOTE ON THE USE OF HISTORICAL TERMINOLOGY vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
LIST OF CHARACTERS WITH DATES OF BIRTH,
DEATH AND AFFILIATION xvi
SCHEMA OF TYPES xix
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1 Dr Louis Péringuey’s Well-Travelled Skeletons 11
CHAPTER 2 Boskop: The First South African Fossil Human Celebrity 39
CHAPTER 3 Matthew Drennan and the Scottish
Influence in Cape Town 65
CHAPTER 4 The Age of Racial Typology in South Africa 108
CHAPTER 5 Raymond Dart’s Complicated Legacy 144
CHAPTER 6 Ronald Singer, Phillip Tobias and the
‘New Physical Anthropology’ 191
CHAPTER 7 Physical Anthropology and the Administration
of Apartheid 247
CHAPTER 8 The Politics of Racial Classification in
Modern South Africa 275
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 297
INDEX 325
v

A NOTE ON THE USE OF HISTORICAL
TERMINOLOGY
The terminology describing South African peoples has changed
dramatically over the years. Modern usage has tried, where pos-
sible, to choose language that is acceptable to the descendant com-
munities themselves, as many of the earlier terms are now considered
insulting at best and virulently racist at worst.
Which modern terminology is most appropriate? This is indeed
a difficult question as some names are acceptable in one location or
context, but not in another. I have tried to use as a guide the nomen-
clature of southern African people as proposed at the June 1971 Royal
Society of South Africa meeting (Jenkins and Tobias 1977). This
meeting suggested that separate terminology be used for discussions
of biology, language and culture/economy. Wherever possible, I have
tried to use names based on languages spoken by modern or historical
populations. Linguistic terms have a major advantage in that they are
often ethnically based and self-defined, but they do not always overlap
with biological origin. People speaking languages from entirely
different families can have strong biological relationships and vice
versa. Although the old racial categories of ‘Caucasoid’, ‘Mongoloid’
and ‘Negroid’ are considered to have limited value in categorising
biology, I have still used the terms ‘South African Negro’ and ‘Khoesan’,
as they gather people into two biological clusters; the former being
linguistically related Bantu-speaking populations, while the latter is
vii
BONES AND BODIES
made up of people speaking languages from at least three completely
different families, yet sharing significant biological similarity.
I have not replaced old terms with their modern equivalents where
the results of earlier research are presented, as the modern and older
terms are not always interchangeable. For example, Khoekhoen today
is accepted as an ethnic term referring to people who are culturally
defined as speaking a Khoe language (Jones 2003), but a century ago
the term ‘Hottentot’ had both biological and political meanings, often
referring to people of mixed genetic and cultural heritage. It is thus
important that when reporting on the early research we use the terms
as those researchers did, only bringing the terminology into modern
form when we are summarising the early research in relation to what
we know today.
Therefore, much of the early terminology is retained in this book
as it was used in the research that is being discussed. Where terms are
no longer acceptable, the historical use is marked by the employment
of quotation marks, not to emphasise the validity of the terms, but
as a convention to show that the terms today are problematic. This
includes both ethnic and racial terms.
viii