Like a lot of areas of human endeavour, it’s the people and politics which dominate the field. Through the fierce arguments between great paleoanthroplogists like Richard Leakey and Donald Johansson, the theories on our human ancestors will emerge. Through studying this unit, you will learn about the first humans, from australopithecines to Homo sapiens. But it is far from facts set in concrete – this is where the hypotheses fight it out.