Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter 27 — The Bones We Inherited

A Relational Anthropologist’s Guide to Human Origins (Without the Primatologists)

Human origins research is the subfield where anthropology’s deepest wounds and most profound transformations sit side by side. It is a lineage built on bones, on bodies, on classification, on hierarchy — and eventually, on the slow, painful unlearning of those very logics.

This chapter reads the major figures of physical anthropology and paleoanthropology through the relational lens and the Four F’s:

Friend — Who moved toward understanding, humility, or relational truth
Foe — Who reinforced hierarchy, race science, or control
Food — Who nourished the field with insight, method, or correction
Fornicate — Who incited, inspired, or sparked desire to rethink the human story

This is the chapter where we confront the discipline’s inheritance — and begin to understand why Relational Anthropology and Survivor Literacy are not optional add-ons, but the missing organs that make the whole body intelligible.

THE RACE THEORISTS & EARLY PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Friend: No — father of racial typology
Foe: Absolutely — invented the “Caucasian” category
Food: He systematized skull comparison
Fornicate: No

Relational verdict:
A foundational architect of harm. Necessary to understand; not kin.

Aleš Hrdlička

Friend: No — eugenics, racial classification
Foe: Yes — gatekeeper of American physical anthropology
Food: Built institutions, but with exclusionary logic
Fornicate: No

Relational verdict:
A major obstacle. His legacy is a wound the field still carries.

Earnest Hooton

Friend: No — criminology, racial typology
Foe: Yes — deeply committed to biological determinism
Food: Trained many students (for better or worse)
Fornicate: No

Relational verdict:
Another architect of hierarchy. A cautionary ancestor.

Franz Boas (yes, he belongs here too)

Friend: Yes — dismantled scientific racism
Foe: Rarely
Food: His immigrant head-shape study shattered racial essentialism
Fornicate: Yes — his courage inspires

Relational verdict:
The first major rupture in race science. A relational ancestor in a hostile field.

THE FOSSIL HUNTERS & EARLY PALEOANTHROPOLOGISTS

Raymond Dart

Friend: Sometimes — recognized Australopithecus
Foe: Sometimes — “killer ape” hypothesis
Food: Brought Africa to the center of human origins
Fornicate: Yes — his discoveries incite curiosity

Relational verdict:
A mixed figure. Brilliant, but trapped in violent evolutionary narratives.

Louis Leakey

Friend: Yes — Africa as cradle of humanity
Foe: Sometimes — patriarchal, territorial
Food: He nourished the field with fossils and mentorship
Fornicate: Yes — his discoveries shaped the field

Relational verdict:
A complicated ancestor. Visionary, flawed, foundational.

Mary Leakey

Friend: Yes — meticulous, relational with evidence
Foe: Rarely
Food: She brought rigor, precision, and the Laetoli footprints
Fornicate: Yes — her work inspires awe

Relational verdict:
A quiet relational ancestor. Her work speaks without ego.

Donald Johanson

Friend: Yes — Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis
Foe: Sometimes — competitive, territorial
Food: He fed the field with a clear evolutionary sequence
Fornicate: Yes — Lucy is irresistible

Relational verdict:
A major contributor with a complicated relational posture.

Tim White

Friend: Yes — Ardipithecus, careful interpretation
Foe: Sometimes — abrasive, gatekeeping
Food: He nourished the field with deep-time clarity
Fornicate: Yes — Ardi changed everything

Relational verdict:
A brilliant but difficult ally.

THE SYNTHESIZERS & REVISIONISTS

Sherwood Washburn

Friend: Yes — “New Physical Anthropology”
Foe: Rarely
Food: He brought evolution, behavior, and biology together
Fornicate: Yes — his synthesis inspires

Relational verdict:
A turning point. He moved the field toward relational thinking.

Milford Wolpoff

Friend: Yes — multiregionalism as anti-essentialist
Foe: Sometimes — controversial interpretations
Food: He fed the field with debate
Fornicate: Yes — his challenges spark fire

Relational verdict:
A provocateur who destabilized simplistic narratives.

Robert Foley

Friend: Yes — evolutionary ecology
Foe: No
Food: He nourishes with integrative models
Fornicate: Yes — his frameworks inspire

Relational verdict:
A modern relational ally.

Chris Stringer

Friend: Yes — Out of Africa, genetic evidence
Foe: Rarely
Food: He brings clarity and synthesis
Fornicate: Yes — his models are elegant

Relational verdict:
A key architect of the modern human origins narrative.

Carleton Coon

Friend: No — racial hierarchy
Foe: Absolutely — segregationist logic
Food: None
Fornicate: No

Relational verdict:
A harmful figure whose work must be confronted, not celebrated.

C. Loring Brace

Friend: Yes — anti-race, clinal variation
Foe: No
Food: He nourished the field with anti-racist science
Fornicate: Yes — his clarity inspires

Relational verdict:
A crucial corrective voice.

Richard Leakey

Friend: Yes — conservation, anti-racism, public science
Foe: Rarely
Food: He nourished the field with synthesis and accessibility
Fornicate: Yes — his vision inspires

Relational verdict:
A modern ancestor of relational paleoanthropology.