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Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings
In this fascinating and authoritative work, acclaimed science writer Virginia Morell brings to vivid life the famous and infamous Leakey family, pioneers in the field of paleoanthropology: Louis Leakey, the patriarch, who persisted through initial scientific failures and scandal-ridden divorce to achieve spectacular success in digs throughout East Africa; Mary, his second wife, who worked alongside Louis as they made their outstanding discoveries at Olduvai Gorge and elsewhere; and Richard, their son, who ascended to the top of the field in his parents’ wake, only to be threatened with both near-fatal illness and fierce professional rivalry. Morell transports us into the world of these compelling personalities, demonstrating how a small clan of highly talented and fiercely competitive people came to dominate an entire field of science and to contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the origins of humanity.
640 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
19 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Virginia Morell
16 books56 followersVirginia Morell is an acclaimed science journalist and author. A contributing correspondent for Science, she has covered evolutionary and conservation biology since 1990. A passionate lover of the natural world and a creative thinker, her reporting keeps her in close communications with leading scientists in her fields of interest. Morell is also a regular contributor to National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveler. In 2004, her National Geographic article on climate change was a finalist for Best Environmental Article from the Society of Environmental Journalists.
In addition to her journalistic work, Morell is the author of three celebrated books. The New York Times awarded a Notable Book of the Year to Ancestral Passions, her dramatic biography of the famed Leakey family and their notable findings. Blue Nile, about her journey down the Blue Nile to Sudan, was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Travel Book. And The Washington Post listed Wildlife Wars, which she co-authored with Richard Leakey, as one of their Best Books of the Year.
An accomplished public speaker, Morell spent March 2009 as a principal lecturer for National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Program on one of its exclusive, round-the-world trips. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, writer Michael McRae, a Calico cat, Nini, and a smart, six-year-old American Working Farm Collie, Buckaroo.
Read “Animal Minds”, Virginia Morell’s National Geographic cover story that explores animal intelligence, the subject of her upcoming book from Crown, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, which will be published in February 2013. Elizabeth Kolbert selected this article for the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 (Houghton Mifflin).
Published work
Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures (Crown, February 2013); Wildlife Wars, My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures (St. Martin’s Press, September 2001); Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery (National Geographic Books, June 2001); Ancestral Passions, The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings (Simon and Schuster, August 1996)
In addition to her journalistic work, Morell is the author of three celebrated books. The New York Times awarded a Notable Book of the Year to Ancestral Passions, her dramatic biography of the famed Leakey family and their notable findings. Blue Nile, about her journey down the Blue Nile to Sudan, was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Travel Book. And The Washington Post listed Wildlife Wars, which she co-authored with Richard Leakey, as one of their Best Books of the Year.
An accomplished public speaker, Morell spent March 2009 as a principal lecturer for National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Program on one of its exclusive, round-the-world trips. She lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, writer Michael McRae, a Calico cat, Nini, and a smart, six-year-old American Working Farm Collie, Buckaroo.
Read “Animal Minds”, Virginia Morell’s National Geographic cover story that explores animal intelligence, the subject of her upcoming book from Crown, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, which will be published in February 2013. Elizabeth Kolbert selected this article for the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 (Houghton Mifflin).
Published work
Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures (Crown, February 2013); Wildlife Wars, My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures (St. Martin’s Press, September 2001); Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery (National Geographic Books, June 2001); Ancestral Passions, The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings (Simon and Schuster, August 1996)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 23, 2017
“When you become a doctor,” my professor said, “you swear to do no harm. Well, now I’m a teacher, but I abide by the same rule: Do no harm. So it’s my goal, by the end of this class, that you come out with a greater interest in the subject than you had coming in. Perhaps you won’t study this professionally. But I hope, from now on, if you’re reading the newspaper and you see an article about the subject, that you will be able to read, understand, and enjoy it.”
So said my anatomy professor, Bernard Wood, on our first day of class. We were in Eastern Africa, in an isolated research facility in the Turkana Basin—found in the semi-desert of northern Kenya, part of the East African Rift, a tectonic fault-line where fossil preservation is excellent. We were learning about human anatomy to better analyze and identify hominin fossils. And Professor Wood abided by his maxim: his aim was to interest you in the subject. For, as he well knew, if students are interested enough, you hardly need to teach them.
Even though he only taught us for two weeks, he was easily one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. At the beginning of our class, he took the time to interview every one of us students individually, to better understand our interests and goals. He must have quickly realized that I was a reader, for it was not long after our interview that he pointed to this book, which sat on the tiny bookshelf of the research facility, and said, “See this? This here is a great book.” By the time he left, I was already buried in its pages.
A couple weeks later, we were going on an educational dig to look for stone tools. The lorry broke down several times on the way there—“It’s not a true trip to Africa unless the lorry breaks down,” we were told—but we finally made it. The dig was just an exercise. Using suspended string, we sectioned off little segments in the ground, and started digging, sifting, digging, sifting, examining every bit of stone that was caught by the sieve. (We didn’t find anything. But the oldest stone tools ever discovered were recently found near that very site, and by another former professor, Sonia Harmand.)
Midway through, we took a lunch break. As always, it was stiflingly hot. We ate sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, and then followed it up with digestive biscuits and canned peaches. Then, we all gathered under the nearest acacia tree, and lay down on the sandy earth.
If you have never seen an acacia tree, they are small, thorny, gnarled things, with shoots of tiny leaflets. They don't provide much shade; but some shade is better than none. So we sat there, chatting idly, until the fatigue from digging caught up with us one by one, lulling everyone to sleep—everyone, save myself. Instead, I pulled out my copy of Ancestral Passions from my backpack, and read until the hottest part of the day had passed. And as I occasionally looked up from my book at the desert sky, I reflected that on this very landscape, a dozen or so kilometers away, the Turkana Boy skeleton was unearthed by Richard Leakey’s team.
Reading this book was one of the most incredible reading experiences I’ve ever had. And this is not only because I was there in Kenya, but because Morell has written a wonderful biography. My only criticism of this book is the title, which is a weak pun. But of course that's just a trifle. This book is well-written, well-researched, and the subject is well-chosen: two generations of the extraordinary Leakey family, anthropological royalty.
The book opens with Louis Leakey, a colorful character. Louis Leakey was a rake, a womanizer, a dreamer, a schemer, an underdog, an explorer, and a scientist. He was constantly running about, starting new projects, begging here, there, and everywhere for funding, and setting off into the bush. And he was a showman. One of my favorite stories was of the time when Meave (the future wife of Richard Leaky, Louis's son) took a job in Louis Leakey's new primate research center in Nairobi. Leakey boasted that he could identify the species of any monkey by putting its leg-bone in his mouth and feeling it with his tongue, and he then preceded to demonstrate his strange talent to his nonplussed new employee.
Louis's wife Mary was, if less flamboyant, just as impressive and eccentric. If memory serves, she made the workers on her sites dig in total silence. No conversation or singing allowed. Indeed, Morell makes it clear that Mary was the better scientist of the pair. Her work on the stone tools at Olduvai, the oldest yet found at the time, is still regarded as epochal and valuable research.
When the focus shifts to their son, Richard, the story is no less interesting. We follow Richard flying over the Turkana basin in his plane (which he later crashed in, perhaps due to sabotage), looking for good places to search for fossils. We follow him into the wilderness, riding on a camel, finding million-year-old skull caps sticking out of the sand. Or perhaps he is floating down a stream in a skiff, fending off crocodiles with a paddle. Meantime, Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey drift through the story, as the aging Louis sends them out into the field, devoid of any experience or training, to do pioneering studies of the great apes.
Although the science isn't the main focus of this narrative, it is covered admirably well, especially the social aspect of research. Almost as interesting as the story of humankind's origin is the story of our knowledge of it—a story of adventure and polemic. Since the first myths ever told around a fire, humans have speculated about their origins. The question, "Where do we come from?" has so many political, religious, and social implications that it cannot be asked dispassionately. Even in academic disputes, emotions can run high. And Louis, Mary, and Richard were deeply involved in the (sometimes bitter) academic controversies of their day, as competing theories attempted to account for the scanty fossil evidence.
The problem, then as now, is that the evidence is so fractured and fragmented. The remains of most ancient hominin species can fit inside a shoe box. And since we have such paltry evidence available, we must fill up the gaps with guesswork. To use one professor's analogy, it is like trying to piece together what happened at the Olympics with only a few, scattered, grainy, black-and-white photographs. Unsurprisingly, there is therefore a great deal of controversy and quackery. And since these fossils must be found in unfrequented, remote, and sometimes dangerous stretches of wilderness, to be a paleoanthropologist you have to risk your life to acquire evidence and then draw blood to defend your theories.
In short, this book is a wonderful blend of science and adventure, of drama and history. Unfortunately, after I left Kenya, I had to leave the copy of this book there at the Leakey’s research facility. But it has been my good fortune that Ted has just shipped me his copy. Now I can leaf through it and wax nostalgic. Thanks Ted! And thanks, my good professor, for putting this book into my hands. This is a book that can surely do no harm.
So said my anatomy professor, Bernard Wood, on our first day of class. We were in Eastern Africa, in an isolated research facility in the Turkana Basin—found in the semi-desert of northern Kenya, part of the East African Rift, a tectonic fault-line where fossil preservation is excellent. We were learning about human anatomy to better analyze and identify hominin fossils. And Professor Wood abided by his maxim: his aim was to interest you in the subject. For, as he well knew, if students are interested enough, you hardly need to teach them.
Even though he only taught us for two weeks, he was easily one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. At the beginning of our class, he took the time to interview every one of us students individually, to better understand our interests and goals. He must have quickly realized that I was a reader, for it was not long after our interview that he pointed to this book, which sat on the tiny bookshelf of the research facility, and said, “See this? This here is a great book.” By the time he left, I was already buried in its pages.
A couple weeks later, we were going on an educational dig to look for stone tools. The lorry broke down several times on the way there—“It’s not a true trip to Africa unless the lorry breaks down,” we were told—but we finally made it. The dig was just an exercise. Using suspended string, we sectioned off little segments in the ground, and started digging, sifting, digging, sifting, examining every bit of stone that was caught by the sieve. (We didn’t find anything. But the oldest stone tools ever discovered were recently found near that very site, and by another former professor, Sonia Harmand.)
Midway through, we took a lunch break. As always, it was stiflingly hot. We ate sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, and then followed it up with digestive biscuits and canned peaches. Then, we all gathered under the nearest acacia tree, and lay down on the sandy earth.
If you have never seen an acacia tree, they are small, thorny, gnarled things, with shoots of tiny leaflets. They don't provide much shade; but some shade is better than none. So we sat there, chatting idly, until the fatigue from digging caught up with us one by one, lulling everyone to sleep—everyone, save myself. Instead, I pulled out my copy of Ancestral Passions from my backpack, and read until the hottest part of the day had passed. And as I occasionally looked up from my book at the desert sky, I reflected that on this very landscape, a dozen or so kilometers away, the Turkana Boy skeleton was unearthed by Richard Leakey’s team.
Reading this book was one of the most incredible reading experiences I’ve ever had. And this is not only because I was there in Kenya, but because Morell has written a wonderful biography. My only criticism of this book is the title, which is a weak pun. But of course that's just a trifle. This book is well-written, well-researched, and the subject is well-chosen: two generations of the extraordinary Leakey family, anthropological royalty.
The book opens with Louis Leakey, a colorful character. Louis Leakey was a rake, a womanizer, a dreamer, a schemer, an underdog, an explorer, and a scientist. He was constantly running about, starting new projects, begging here, there, and everywhere for funding, and setting off into the bush. And he was a showman. One of my favorite stories was of the time when Meave (the future wife of Richard Leaky, Louis's son) took a job in Louis Leakey's new primate research center in Nairobi. Leakey boasted that he could identify the species of any monkey by putting its leg-bone in his mouth and feeling it with his tongue, and he then preceded to demonstrate his strange talent to his nonplussed new employee.
Louis's wife Mary was, if less flamboyant, just as impressive and eccentric. If memory serves, she made the workers on her sites dig in total silence. No conversation or singing allowed. Indeed, Morell makes it clear that Mary was the better scientist of the pair. Her work on the stone tools at Olduvai, the oldest yet found at the time, is still regarded as epochal and valuable research.
When the focus shifts to their son, Richard, the story is no less interesting. We follow Richard flying over the Turkana basin in his plane (which he later crashed in, perhaps due to sabotage), looking for good places to search for fossils. We follow him into the wilderness, riding on a camel, finding million-year-old skull caps sticking out of the sand. Or perhaps he is floating down a stream in a skiff, fending off crocodiles with a paddle. Meantime, Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey drift through the story, as the aging Louis sends them out into the field, devoid of any experience or training, to do pioneering studies of the great apes.
Although the science isn't the main focus of this narrative, it is covered admirably well, especially the social aspect of research. Almost as interesting as the story of humankind's origin is the story of our knowledge of it—a story of adventure and polemic. Since the first myths ever told around a fire, humans have speculated about their origins. The question, "Where do we come from?" has so many political, religious, and social implications that it cannot be asked dispassionately. Even in academic disputes, emotions can run high. And Louis, Mary, and Richard were deeply involved in the (sometimes bitter) academic controversies of their day, as competing theories attempted to account for the scanty fossil evidence.
The problem, then as now, is that the evidence is so fractured and fragmented. The remains of most ancient hominin species can fit inside a shoe box. And since we have such paltry evidence available, we must fill up the gaps with guesswork. To use one professor's analogy, it is like trying to piece together what happened at the Olympics with only a few, scattered, grainy, black-and-white photographs. Unsurprisingly, there is therefore a great deal of controversy and quackery. And since these fossils must be found in unfrequented, remote, and sometimes dangerous stretches of wilderness, to be a paleoanthropologist you have to risk your life to acquire evidence and then draw blood to defend your theories.
In short, this book is a wonderful blend of science and adventure, of drama and history. Unfortunately, after I left Kenya, I had to leave the copy of this book there at the Leakey’s research facility. But it has been my good fortune that Ted has just shipped me his copy. Now I can leaf through it and wax nostalgic. Thanks Ted! And thanks, my good professor, for putting this book into my hands. This is a book that can surely do no harm.
September 18, 2014
I found this to be a really exciting read, tremendously informative about the discoveries and theories of the Leakey family regarding the origins of man. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the topic, unless your interest is very focused on the "facts" of anthropology, exclusive of the story of how those facts have been discovered. In that case you would be better served by more of a textbook style book, or, at a more elementary level, something like Bernard Wood's Human Evolution, A Very Short Introduction.
July 10, 2012
This is a special book - a perfect blend of science and biography. What is most impressive is how Morell manages to paint the Leakeys as human beings, with all their faults, familial strife, dysfunction and stubbornness, and makes you care about them as individuals. That it is set against the background of the birth of a science (Paleoanthropology) that really didn't even come of age until a few decades ago makes it even better. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years and I grabbed it to kill time until I could find something else. What a nice surprise.
June 2, 2022
One of the better professional biographies I've read, Morrell's account of the Leakey family (pere, mere et fils) is an amazing story. Lots of historical & palaeontological details are included. Morrell knows whereof she writes, so her summaries of key discoveries and important scientific events in the Leakeys' lives are done well.
July 25, 2019
I think this is the first biography I have read that is about an entire family.
Ok, maybe it doesn’t really go into depth about quite the whole family, but still, it is unusual for a biography to cover even three people in the same family. And even more unusual for such a biography to be so fascinating all the way through.
The family in question is the fossil-hunting Leakey family of, mostly, Kenya. The book features Louis Leakey, his second wife, Mary, and their second son, Richard. Of course, a lot of other people are mentioned with greater or lesser frequency, as the Leakeys organized archaeological/ anthropological digs and explorations and sponsored various kinds of primate research and other research for decades, beginning in the 1920s and continuing up to the time the book was written.
Louis Leakey was the son of missionaries to Kenya, was born in Kenya, and grew up among the Kikuyu tribe. He picked up various kinds of fossil bones around his home and got interested in fossils that way. After handling the logistics for a dinosaur hunting expedition, he went back to school in Britain to study archaeology. Before he was finished, he began organizing his own expeditions and pretty much never really stopped after that until his death.
Louis was always interested in women, especially if they were interested in hunting for fossils in Africa. He married Henrietta Wilfrida Avern in 1928, and later, shortly after their second child was born, he left her for Mary Douglas Nichol. He remained married to Mary for the rest of his life, although he had affairs with several other women through the years and they were effectively separated for much of the time. Louis and Mary had three children, Jonathan, Richard, and Phillip, all of whom participated with them in fossil hunting when they were growing up, although Richard was the only one who ultimately made it his life’s work.
They excavated sites in Olduvai Gorge, on an island in Lake Victoria, and other places. With their African fossil-hunting teams they discovered thousands of fossils of extinct animals and dozens of skulls and other bones of early hominids, many of which had to be reconstructed as they had fallen apart over the years.
Louis spent vast amounts of time fundraising as well, but for all that, it seems as if he managed to come up with only tiny amounts of money considering how famous he eventually became. Nearly all of his expeditions and other projects were run with tiny amounts of money.
In addition to the archaeology projects, Louis also launched and funded (at least for a while) several primate studies. He launched Jane Goodall in her studies of chimpanzees, Dian Fossey in her studies of mountain gorillas, and Birute Galdikas in a study of orangutangs. For years Louis ran Kenya’s National Museum, and then later Richard became director of this institution, a move that stirred up a big rivalry between him and Louis. Richard’s idea was to expand and modernize the museum and make it more of a Kenyan institution rather than a colonial one.
The book also goes into the many controversies Louis and Richard were involved in – not only with each other but with other archaeologists, particularly over the meaning and correct place on the human family tree of various kinds of fossils.
Ok, maybe it doesn’t really go into depth about quite the whole family, but still, it is unusual for a biography to cover even three people in the same family. And even more unusual for such a biography to be so fascinating all the way through.
The family in question is the fossil-hunting Leakey family of, mostly, Kenya. The book features Louis Leakey, his second wife, Mary, and their second son, Richard. Of course, a lot of other people are mentioned with greater or lesser frequency, as the Leakeys organized archaeological/ anthropological digs and explorations and sponsored various kinds of primate research and other research for decades, beginning in the 1920s and continuing up to the time the book was written.
Louis Leakey was the son of missionaries to Kenya, was born in Kenya, and grew up among the Kikuyu tribe. He picked up various kinds of fossil bones around his home and got interested in fossils that way. After handling the logistics for a dinosaur hunting expedition, he went back to school in Britain to study archaeology. Before he was finished, he began organizing his own expeditions and pretty much never really stopped after that until his death.
Louis was always interested in women, especially if they were interested in hunting for fossils in Africa. He married Henrietta Wilfrida Avern in 1928, and later, shortly after their second child was born, he left her for Mary Douglas Nichol. He remained married to Mary for the rest of his life, although he had affairs with several other women through the years and they were effectively separated for much of the time. Louis and Mary had three children, Jonathan, Richard, and Phillip, all of whom participated with them in fossil hunting when they were growing up, although Richard was the only one who ultimately made it his life’s work.
They excavated sites in Olduvai Gorge, on an island in Lake Victoria, and other places. With their African fossil-hunting teams they discovered thousands of fossils of extinct animals and dozens of skulls and other bones of early hominids, many of which had to be reconstructed as they had fallen apart over the years.
Louis spent vast amounts of time fundraising as well, but for all that, it seems as if he managed to come up with only tiny amounts of money considering how famous he eventually became. Nearly all of his expeditions and other projects were run with tiny amounts of money.
In addition to the archaeology projects, Louis also launched and funded (at least for a while) several primate studies. He launched Jane Goodall in her studies of chimpanzees, Dian Fossey in her studies of mountain gorillas, and Birute Galdikas in a study of orangutangs. For years Louis ran Kenya’s National Museum, and then later Richard became director of this institution, a move that stirred up a big rivalry between him and Louis. Richard’s idea was to expand and modernize the museum and make it more of a Kenyan institution rather than a colonial one.
The book also goes into the many controversies Louis and Richard were involved in – not only with each other but with other archaeologists, particularly over the meaning and correct place on the human family tree of various kinds of fossils.
September 21, 2014
Fascinating, captivating biography of the Leakey family, warts and all. Very readable explanations of complex scientific processes. Fascinating to learn about the professional jealousies and maneuvering to be "first" in naming hominids and controlling information about paleoanthropologic finds.
April 29, 2022
Fascinating.
Read
December 15, 2023Took me 4 months, but I fucking finished it
September 2, 2024
I learned a lot about the Leakey family and discoveries of the fossils as well as the scientific debates.
May 19, 2014
Virginia Morell's biography of the Leakey family is superb! Much of what we have learned about our own human origins is due to the life-long dedication of several generations of Leakeys working in Africa and the countless graduate students that they have mentored. It was fascinating to learn ever so much more about Louis, his long-suffering and curmudgeonly wife, Mary, and one of their sons, Richard, and his wife Meave. And even now Richard and Meave's daughter, Louise, is continuing the tradition and is conducting paleontological/anthropological expeditions of her own in Africa. What an interesting family! This was a great read.
November 8, 2015
Very detailed and engaging read. Morell tries her best to paint the Leakey's in a positive light, but their disfunction is never far below the surface. In the end there are enough facts presented to let the reader make their own opinion. Personalities aside, scientific merits aside (except Mary, she seemed to be an exceptional scientist) it would be unfair to understate the fact that Leakey's passion contributed a lot to science.........even if his science didn't. One would have to read the book (or know his story) to understand how that is possible.
April 23, 2018
A great biography of the Leakey family. I had always thought Mary was a tag-along, but she was actually more the scientist than Louis, while Louis was more the visionary and showman. The whole family was quite remarkable, although they generally didn't much like each other. They had such a wonderful occupation, but I don't think I would have liked camping for a lifetime with ticks, snakes, rhinos, and a host of diseases.
October 18, 2020
A very exciting look at the very exciting Leakey family and their myriad discoveries and myriad archeological errors.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews