Humanizing Human Evolution Research The Department of Anthropology’s 2024 John Ryan Memorial Lecture Monday, September 9, 4 PM. Heritage Room, Homer Babbidge Library Rm. 4118. Light refreshments served. Dr. Kathryn Ranhorn (Arizona State University and the Institute for Human Origins). Discussion moderated by Christian Tryon and Sarah Williams

For over a century paleontologists and Paleolithic archaeologists mined fossils and material cultural objects from the African continent in the name of human evolution research. Community-based participatory research is a common anthropological approach, but has rarely been applied in deep time contexts spanning 3+ million years due to perceptions about cultural discontinuity. Who decides project agendas, who is engaged, and how projects are managed remain primary challenges. How can collaborative paleoanthropology leverage deep time datasets to respond wisely to pressing challenges today? In this talk I will review three relevant areas where I am working to answer this question: 1) conservation and heritage management, 2) co-created field research, and 3) replicative art and technology making. I’ll describe my experience cultivating the Kondoa Deep History Partnership, how we are stewarding vanishing art and heritage in central Tanzania, and how I combine this work with embodied teaching pedagogy in the Ancient Technology Lab to foster a humanizing discourse in human evolution research. Humanizing Human Evolution Research.