|
|
Re: JOHANSEN ON PBS
Mark Fagan (71640.2463@CompuServe.COM)
24 Jul 1995 05:58:09 GMT
To get the name dropping over quickly, I only met Don Johanson
once, at an AAPA meeting in Niagra Falls in 1980. During a brief
conversation over a beer, with Tim White (who I'd met before, when
he was looking the U. of Chicago over for a possible job - I was a
grad student there at the time), I found him willing to listen and
not overbearing or a snob, at least as far as I dared to say
anything to these guys!
Professional scientists are many things: people first, of course,
and so subject to all the same virtues and failings everybody is.
They are researchers: a mix of hunter, philosopher, pilgrim and
lots else. Beggars: they have to raise money to do their science.
Showmen: they have to raise money, interest people in what they
do and teach.
So what DJ does in a PBS special may not completely reflect either
his true personality or the full range of his thought.
For the latter, books are much better as there is much more room to
really get into a topic. If you read Johanson's popular books, you
find that he gives plenty of attention to the Leakey's, both as
praise and criticism. He worked with Louis when young, but as
often happened, when he started to have opinions of his own and
began to produce hominid finds of his own, a rift developed between
them. Everything you said about DJ is equally applicable to them.
|