Madison Paige
Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874601, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2019 Apr 23;41(2):19. doi: 10.1007/s40656-019-0258-x.
The fossilized primate skull known as the Taungs Baby, discovered in South Africa, was put forward in 1925 as a controversial 'missing link' between humans and apes. This essay examines the controversy generated by the fossil, with a focus on practice and the circulation of material objects. Viewing the Taungs story from this perspective provides a new outlook on debates, one that suggests that attention to the importance of place, particularly the ways that specific localities shape scientific practices, is crucial to understanding such controversies. During the 1920s, the fossil itself did not move or circulate from its South African location, a fact that raised methodological concerns in understanding its significance and drew immense criticism from a range of experts. Examining the criticisms regarding the fossil's failure to circulate draws attention to the importance of centers of accumulation in the analysis of hominid fossils. Diverging from existing histories that primarily emphasize the role of theory in paleoanthropological debates, then, this article argues that scientific practice played an important role in the Taungs fossil controversy. Examining this dimension of the debates has broader implications for revealing the underlying imperial assumptions that guided hominid paleontology during the early twentieth century.
1925年，在南非发现的被称为“汤恩幼儿”的灵长类动物头骨化石，被作为人类与猿类之间有争议的“缺失环节”提了出来。本文考察了这块化石引发的争议，重点关注实践和实物的流通。从这个角度审视汤恩的故事，为相关辩论提供了一个新视角，这表明关注地点的重要性，尤其是特定地点塑造科学实践的方式，对于理解此类争议至关重要。在20世纪20年代，这块化石本身并没有从其南非的发现地转移或流通，这一事实在理解其意义方面引发了方法论上的担忧，并招致了一系列专家的严厉批评。审视关于这块化石未能流通的批评，会让人注意到在人类化石分析中积累中心的重要性。与现有主要强调理论在古人类学辩论中作用的历史不同，本文认为科学实践在汤恩化石争议中发挥了重要作用。审视辩论的这一方面对于揭示20世纪初指导人类古生物学的潜在帝国假设具有更广泛的意义。
