The Fossil Chronicles: Revolutions in Paleoanthropology

No subject provokes as much curiosity, argument, and dogma as the origin of humans. From the child who asks, “Where did I come from?” to religious leaders who maintain traditional beliefs about creation and our role in the cosmos, human origins is a topic of deep concern. Most, if not all, cultures have origin stories. So do the scientists who study human evolution, which is one reason why the academic field, known as paleoanthropology, can be particularly acrimonious. This is nothing new. In the late nineteenth century, naturalists staunchly defended their particular theories about human origins, despite contradictory finds that were beginning to accumulate in the fossil record. In this talk, I focus on two pivotal and controversial discoveries that caused revolutions in how both the public and scientists viewed human evolution, one from the 1920s and another that was unearthed less than a decade ago. Each is analyzed within its contemporary milieu, including the state of scientific knowledge about human evolution, the social undercurrents related to religious fundamentalism, and the academic politics that pervade investigations of our past (paleopolitics).

The two discoveries, the famous Taung fossil (1925) and the remains of Homo floresiensis (“Hobbit”) (2004) are compared with each other and interpreted within a wider framework that incorporates other finds, including the infamous Piltdown fraud (1912). My aim is to portray the twists, turns, competitiveness, and passions that have always characterized research on human origins.  If listeners feel some of the excitement and drama of pursuing questions about what made us human and the thrill of refining the tentative answers in light of newly discovered fossils, I will have achieved my goal.