In the 1890s, Swiss naturalists Fritz and Paul Sarasin discovered the Toálas in Sulawesi, a people described as very primitive by settlers and indigenous communities alike. However, numerous detours and encounters were necessary for the Sarasin to recognize them as the remains of a primitive population. Thus, in looking at the stages that led them to identify the Toálas as primitive, one can understand how an object becomes scientifically meaningful. Drawing on this case study, I examine the distinct roles played in this identification process by working hypotheses, by the scholars’ experience, and by research practices, that is, by the local and disciplinary contingencies of discovery, as well as by the traits of the discovered object itself. I thus aim at showing how varied contingencies, once associated with certain physical characteristics, have contributed to materializing a research hypothesis in the form of an autochtonous people in Sulawesi.