Tobias in Conversation: Genes, Fossils and Anthropology

Tobias in Conversation invites the reader to embark on a journey beyond time, often far beyond a human lifetime into the past, a journey through the life and work of Professor Phillip Tobias. It is based on a collection of interviews with the internationally acclaimed scientist, conducted and recorded over a period of six years. Tobias is first and foremost a human anatomist, and an important theme is his astonishingly broad-based approach to the teaching of anatomy. Other interviews range across such topics as research into the physical anthropology of living peoples; studies of mammalian chromosomes; an invitation from Louis and Mary Leakey to describe all the hominid fossils they discovered; the identification, description and naming of Homo habilis; re-opening of the Sterkfontein fossil site in 1966; Tobias’s political activism and medical ethics; and his personal philosophy concerning religion and evolution.