Tobias in Conversation

Phillip V. Tobias is Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School and Fellow of the Royal Society (London). His international achievements include: Charles Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award; Anisfield-Wolf Award in Race Relations; Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (USA); Commander, National Order of Merit of France and Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy.The book, written in the first person, is based on a collection of interviews with Tobias conducted and recorded over a period of six years. Topics include 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 SA in 1966; Tobias' political activism and medical ethics; and his personal philosophy concerning religion and evolution.