H. Ekkehard Wolff, University of Leipzig: Chair of African Languages & Linguistics will deliver a FREE Darwin lecture on ‘The Human Journey out of Africa – a perspective from language studies’   on Thursday March 11, 2010.

This lecture takes issue with the ‘Out-of-Africa’ theory of the origin of MODERN (WO)MAN from a linguistic point of view by raising questions which ‘serious’ (mainstream) linguistics has always avoided to address, largely because they exceed the reach of established methods of historical-comparative linguistics. Based on combined recent evidence from climatology, archeology, paleoanthropology, biology (human genetics) challenging food for thought may eventually lead to revisions of ‘received wisdom’ among contemporary linguists. The lecture will raise a number of far-reaching questions from a linguistic vantage point without, however, being able to provide any final answers which, rather, still await focused interdisciplinary research involving Human Genetics as much as Linguistics, among others.

The Darwin series is a project of the AGEI in partnership with the Department of Human Genetics, University of Cape Town and funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy.

• Date: Thursday 11 March
• Time: 5:30pm for 6:00pm
• Venue: New Learning Centre, Health Sciences Campus, University of Cape Town, Medical Faculty, Anzio Road, Observatory.
• RSVP: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 021 557 0246