Abstract
South African physical anthropology has followed a strange pathway divorced from its sister field of sociocultural anthropology. Physical anthropology was a research subject in the museums and medical schools which focused heavily on the nature of racial types. Its practitioners believed that it was a pure science which should not concern itself with ‘unscientific’ political issues. The separation of social and physical anthropology and the emphasis on typology were only broken in the 1970s, but this came too late for the subject to meaningfully engage in the sociopolitical development of the country either in support or in rejection of apartheid. There was a resurgence of self-defined ethnicity after the first democratic election in 1994. This was driven by claims for land by those dispossessed during apartheid but most specifically amongst the Khoesan descendants who were disposed of their land and culture in the Colonial period. The new heritage legislation of 1999 has been developed particularly to deal with these issues of claims for heritage, and very precise controls have been placed over the excavation of human remains. Although facilitating reburial is a central plank in the new legislation, physical anthropology continues to be an important academic subject that is helping to provide knowledge about the past peoples in South Africa’s ancient heritage.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cox, G., J. Sealy, C. Schrire, and A.G. Morris. 2001. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotrophic analyses of the underclass at the colonial Cape of Good Hope in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. World Archaeology 33(1): 73–97.
Crais, C., and P. Scully. 2009. Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Dubow, S. 1995. Illicit union: Scientific racism in modern South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Galloway, A. 1959. The skeletal remains of bambandyanalo. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Gordon, R. 1988. Apartheid’s anthropologists: The genealogy of Afrikaner anthropology. American Ethnologist 15(3): 535–553.
Kuper, A. 1983. Anthropology and anthropologists, 2nd ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Morris, A. G. 1987. The Reflection of the collector: San and Khoi skeletons in museum collections. South African Archaeological Bulletin 42(145): 12–22.
Morris, A. G. 1992. A master catalogue: Holocene human skeletons from South Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
Morris, A. G. 2005. Measure by measure: The history of race and typology in South African physical anthropology. In Voyages in science: Essays by South African anatomists in honour of Phillip V. Tobias 80th birthday, ed. G. Štrkalj, N. Pather and B. Kramer, 121–140. Pretoria: Content Solutions.
Morris, A. G. 2009. Archaeological and Palaeoanthropological highlights in South African Science. In The state of science in South Africa, pp. 241–260. Pretoria: Academy of Science of South Africa.
Morris, A. G. 2011. Missing and murdered: a personal adventure in forensic anthropology. Cape Town: Zebra Press.
Morris, A. G. 2012. Biological anthropology at the southern tip of Africa: Carrying European baggage in an African context. Current Anthropology 53(S5): S152–S160.
Morris, A. G., and M. Steyn. 2012. Palaeopathological studies in South Africa: a history. In A history of palaeopathology, ed. Jane Buiskstra, and Charlotte Roberts, 235–242. Oxford: Oxford University.
Mosothwane, M.N. 2010. Foragers among farmers in the iron age of Botswana? Dietary evidence from stable isotopes. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand.
National Heritage Council. 2011. Position paper on a proposed policy framework on the repatriation of heritage resources. January 2011. Pretoria: National Heritage Council.
Nienaber, W.C., and M. Steyn. 2011. Republic of South Africa. In Physical anthropology and legislation: European perspectives and beyond, ed. Nicholas Márquez-Grant, and Linda Fibiger, 501–512. New York: Routledge.
Nienaber, W.C., N. Keough, M. Steyn, and J.H. Meiring. 2008. Reburial of the Mapungubwe human remains: an overview of process and procedure. South African Archaeological Bulletin 63: 164–175.
Sealy, J. 2003. Managing collections of human remains in South African museums and universities: Ethical policy-making and scientific value. South African Journal of Science 99: 238–239.
Sealy, J.C., A.G. Morris, R. Armstrong, A. Markell, and C. Schrire. 1993. An historic skeleton from the slave lodge at Vergelegen. Historical Archaeology in the Western Cape, South African Archaeological Society, Goodwin Series 7: 84–91.
Sharp, J.S. 1981. The roots and development of Volkekunde in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies 8(1): 16–36.
Steyn, M. 1997. A reassessment of the human skeletons from K2 and Mapungubwe (South Africa). South African Archaeological Bulletin 52: 14–20.
Steyn, M. 2007. The Mapungubwe gold burials revisited. South African Archaeological Bulletin 62: 140–146.
Steyn, M., S. Miller, W.C. Nienaber, and M. Loots. 1998. Two gold burials from Thulamela. South African Archaeological Bulletin 53: 73–85.
Steyn, M., A.G. Morris, M.N. Mosothwane, W.C. Nienaber and G.J.R. Maat. 2013. Opening the cupboard: lessons in biology and history from African skeletons. In Skeletal identity of past populations: Origins, sexual dimorphism and health, ed. M. Steyn and M.N. Mosothwane. South African Archaeological Bulletin, Goodwin Series, 11: 1–5.
Summers, R.F.H. 1975. A history of the South African museum: 1825–1975. Cape Town: Balkema.
Tobias, P.V. 1985. History of physical anthropology in Southern Africa. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 28: 1–52.
Tobias, P.V. 1990. The role of R. B. Thomson and E. P. Stibbe–brief heralds of the science of anatomy in South Africa. Part I. R.B. Thomson. South African Medical Journal 78(6):330-335.
Tobias, P.V. 2002. Saartje Baartman: her life, her remains, and the negotiations for their repatriation from France to South Africa. South African Journal of Science 98(3/4): 107–108.
Van der Merwe, N.J., J.F. Thackeray, J.A. Lee-Thorp, and J. Luyt. 2003. The carbon isotope ecology and diet of Australopithecus africanus at Sterkfontein, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 44: 581–597.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Morris, A.G. (2014). Controversies About the Study of Human Remains in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In: O’Donnabhain, B., Lozada, M. (eds) Archaeological Human Remains. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06370-6_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06370-6_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06369-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06370-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)