Darwin's Hunch: Science, Race and the Search for Human Origins

Darwin’s Hunch: Science, Race and the Search for Human Origins

Christa Kuljian

Jacana. R330

It is deeply ironic and equally tragic that the fossil record and DNA testing prove that all of humankind has a shared ancestry and heritage that began in South Africa – where for decades politicians were wedded to an ideology of racial difference and white superiority. Kuljian’s excellent book examines the search for human origins in South Africa and the context that tainted it; how the beliefs of individual scientists, and the times in which they lived, shaped the narrative; how the race narrative changed over time and what this means for the understanding of what it means to be human. As an author at the height of her skills with a science education, Kuljian fluently traces the race thinking that blighted science for centuries and suggests new ways of discovery that could be inclusive of all.