Raymond Dart
0 Followers
Recent papers in Raymond Dart
"The Late Miocene and Early Pliocene hominin fossil record confi rms Africa as the birthplace of humanity. Raymond Dart ’s announcement of the first species of ‘ape-man’ in the journal Nature (Dart, 1925 ) forever changed our perceptions... more
"The Late Miocene and Early Pliocene hominin fossil record confi rms Africa as the birthplace of humanity. Raymond Dart ’s announcement of the first species of ‘ape-man’ in the journal Nature (Dart, 1925 ) forever changed our perceptions of Africa’s place in the ‘human story’ and fi rmly established the field of African palaeoanthropology. We palaeoanthropologists, past, present and future, owe a significant debt to Dart’s discovery and his recognition of its importance. But Dart’s work was just the beginning of a long and proud legacy of excavation and research in southern Africa, and new discoveries continue to confirm the importance of this region to our understanding of human evolution. The African Genesis symposium, held at the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa between 8 and 14 January 2006, celebrated the 80th anniversary of Dart’s publication of the Taung child and the 80th birthday of a remarkable man, Professor Phillip V. Tobias. Tobias
continued the tradition established by his mentor Dart, and his mentor before him: a long line of mentors and students stretching back more than 500 years (Ungar and Tobias, Chapter 2). Tobias, in turn, continues to collaborate with colleagues and former students on a variety of new perspectives on the fossil hominin material (e.g. Lockwood and Tobias, 2002 ; Holloway et al. , 2004 ; Curnoe and Tobias, 2006 ; Moggi-Cecci et al. , 2006 ). His commitment to education and scientific rigour established a strong foundation for our scholarly community. Phillip Tobias’s contributions encompass the systematic study of all aspects
of human evolution and he continues to inspire students and colleagues worldwide. In his role of palaeoanthropologist, he described new fossil discoveries (Leakey et al. , 1964 ; Hughes and Tobias, 1977 ), headed the excavation programme at Sterkfontein for many years and studied deposits of Sterkfontein,such as the Silberberg Grotto in which Ron Clarke would later discover a near -complete Australopithecus skeleton (Tobias, 1979 ; Clarke and Tobias, 1995 ). Tobias’s seminal publications include two monographs on the comparative
morphology and evolutionary signifi cance of two hominin taxa,
Australopithecus boisei and the enigmatic Homo habilis from Bed 1 Olduvai Gorge , Tanzania (Tobias, 1967 , 1991 ). The African Genesis conference and this subsequent volume outline the major developments since Dart’s announcement and description of Taung and gauge the consensus between various subdisciplines concerning the broader issues of hominin emergence in our ancestral homeland. This chapter reviews
and summarises the main topics linking the contributions in this volume. These are loosely grouped into four parts: (I) the search for origins, whether these be in the earliest African Miocene deposits, in new excavations or in the new interpretation of previously studied hominin assemblages ( Chapters 3 – 7 ); (II)
hominin cranial, postcranial and dental morphology ( Chapters 8 – 16 ); (III) the processes of modern human origins and dispersals ( Chapters 17 – 21 ) and (IV) faunal context of hominin discoveries and the inferences about the evolution of human behaviour through time ( Chapters 22 – 27). At the end of the volume overview, I discuss the other signifi cant discoveries
of the last two decades that have helped to change our perspectives of our science and our origins."
continued the tradition established by his mentor Dart, and his mentor before him: a long line of mentors and students stretching back more than 500 years (Ungar and Tobias, Chapter 2). Tobias, in turn, continues to collaborate with colleagues and former students on a variety of new perspectives on the fossil hominin material (e.g. Lockwood and Tobias, 2002 ; Holloway et al. , 2004 ; Curnoe and Tobias, 2006 ; Moggi-Cecci et al. , 2006 ). His commitment to education and scientific rigour established a strong foundation for our scholarly community. Phillip Tobias’s contributions encompass the systematic study of all aspects
of human evolution and he continues to inspire students and colleagues worldwide. In his role of palaeoanthropologist, he described new fossil discoveries (Leakey et al. , 1964 ; Hughes and Tobias, 1977 ), headed the excavation programme at Sterkfontein for many years and studied deposits of Sterkfontein,such as the Silberberg Grotto in which Ron Clarke would later discover a near -complete Australopithecus skeleton (Tobias, 1979 ; Clarke and Tobias, 1995 ). Tobias’s seminal publications include two monographs on the comparative
morphology and evolutionary signifi cance of two hominin taxa,
Australopithecus boisei and the enigmatic Homo habilis from Bed 1 Olduvai Gorge , Tanzania (Tobias, 1967 , 1991 ). The African Genesis conference and this subsequent volume outline the major developments since Dart’s announcement and description of Taung and gauge the consensus between various subdisciplines concerning the broader issues of hominin emergence in our ancestral homeland. This chapter reviews
and summarises the main topics linking the contributions in this volume. These are loosely grouped into four parts: (I) the search for origins, whether these be in the earliest African Miocene deposits, in new excavations or in the new interpretation of previously studied hominin assemblages ( Chapters 3 – 7 ); (II)
hominin cranial, postcranial and dental morphology ( Chapters 8 – 16 ); (III) the processes of modern human origins and dispersals ( Chapters 17 – 21 ) and (IV) faunal context of hominin discoveries and the inferences about the evolution of human behaviour through time ( Chapters 22 – 27). At the end of the volume overview, I discuss the other signifi cant discoveries
of the last two decades that have helped to change our perspectives of our science and our origins."
The article begins by asking what purpose is served by music in Stanley Kubrick’s later films - It muses loosely over the role played by music in ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’, then points out how Kubrick ceased hiring... more
The article begins by asking what purpose is served by music in Stanley Kubrick’s later films
- It muses loosely over the role played by music in ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’, then points out how Kubrick ceased hiring cinema composers after making ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, then introduces some implications of his using classical and contemporary music in that film.
- It briefly recounts how Kubrick came to make the film, his contact with Arthur C. Clarke, what project Clarke was working on, and the then current state of the space race; then speeds quickly over their collaboration in writing the screenplay, and the making of the film, followed by a short summary of the plot.
- It points to the overt influence of Marshall McLuhan’s ideas on key aspects of the film's plot, especially McLuhan’s contemporaneous arguments about evolution and technology, and technology-human interfaces, showing where and how McLuhan's theories connect with issues in the plot.
- It discusses how Kubrick's film presents a vision of the future that is non-military, and space travel and exploration is corporatised. Clarke rejected this, and gave a very different view in his novel, making the mission a military expedition.
- In light of this, it considers Kubrick’s earlier fatalistic films with military themes, ‘Paths of Glory’ and ‘Dr Strangelove’, suggesting that Kubrick was pressing a significant point in eliminating military involvement in space exploration—by removing the military the film was future-affirming.
- It discusses the ‘killer ape’ theory which became popular across anthropology, psychology and archeology in the 1950s and early 1960s, highlighting the then accepted theories of Konrad Lorenz and Raymond Dart (ideas now discredited); it shows that Kubrick and Clarke learned about Dart’s ideas of violence, human evolution and cognition when researching the ‘Dawn of Man’ sequence (it identifies which book they picked up the theory from), and then built the film around the 'killer ape' theory.
- The article returns to the original puzzle about the purpose served by music. Going over the music used in certain passages of the film, it shows how Kubrick used music symbolically. It further concludes that alert intellectually informed audiences of the mid 1960s would perceive the use of Richard Strauss’s music at key points in the film as bringing to the fore the well-known theories about humanity of Nietzsche, McLuhan and Dart.
- It muses loosely over the role played by music in ‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’, then points out how Kubrick ceased hiring cinema composers after making ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, then introduces some implications of his using classical and contemporary music in that film.
- It briefly recounts how Kubrick came to make the film, his contact with Arthur C. Clarke, what project Clarke was working on, and the then current state of the space race; then speeds quickly over their collaboration in writing the screenplay, and the making of the film, followed by a short summary of the plot.
- It points to the overt influence of Marshall McLuhan’s ideas on key aspects of the film's plot, especially McLuhan’s contemporaneous arguments about evolution and technology, and technology-human interfaces, showing where and how McLuhan's theories connect with issues in the plot.
- It discusses how Kubrick's film presents a vision of the future that is non-military, and space travel and exploration is corporatised. Clarke rejected this, and gave a very different view in his novel, making the mission a military expedition.
- In light of this, it considers Kubrick’s earlier fatalistic films with military themes, ‘Paths of Glory’ and ‘Dr Strangelove’, suggesting that Kubrick was pressing a significant point in eliminating military involvement in space exploration—by removing the military the film was future-affirming.
- It discusses the ‘killer ape’ theory which became popular across anthropology, psychology and archeology in the 1950s and early 1960s, highlighting the then accepted theories of Konrad Lorenz and Raymond Dart (ideas now discredited); it shows that Kubrick and Clarke learned about Dart’s ideas of violence, human evolution and cognition when researching the ‘Dawn of Man’ sequence (it identifies which book they picked up the theory from), and then built the film around the 'killer ape' theory.
- The article returns to the original puzzle about the purpose served by music. Going over the music used in certain passages of the film, it shows how Kubrick used music symbolically. It further concludes that alert intellectually informed audiences of the mid 1960s would perceive the use of Richard Strauss’s music at key points in the film as bringing to the fore the well-known theories about humanity of Nietzsche, McLuhan and Dart.