title: Human tools of the European tertiary? Artefacts, brains and minds in evolutionist reasoning, 1870-1920.
abstract: This essay explores evolutionary reasoning and notions of progress at the turn of the twentieth century by focusing on the various interpretations used to understand eoliths. These 'dawn' (Greek eos) 'stones' (Greek lithos) were contested objects and I focus on three geographic episodes in which they were used to support scientific, and sometimes socially inspired, accounts of human origins. Particular attention is paid to the work of Gabriel de Mortillet (1821-98), James Reid Moir (1879-1944) and Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935).
authors.affiliation: SNSF-Professorship for the History of Science and Science Studies, University of Zurich, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland. msommer@fsw.uzh.ch
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain; D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans