« Lucy in the sky »… ou penser l’espace en millions d’années

Abstract

Paleoanthropology offers an ideal practicing ground to grasp the relationship scientists entertain with space when trying to build up the scenarios of evolution. In these attempts, the geographical determinism, declined in ecosystematic, climatic, even geologic determinism, is often the rule. Revisiting the famous and much publicized theory of East Side Story shows how the narration takes over from the scientific argumentation and underlines the difficulty of “thinking in million-year terms”. Such second reading is particularly important at a moment when the creationist thesis become stronger.

Keywords

• determinism
• East Side Story
• evolution
• long time
• scale