When did the genus Homo Sapiens begin? How many different progenitor species have we had? When did our evolutionary line diverge from apes? How do we discern one species of archaic humans from another? Was there only one origin location (East Africa) or were there several?
When did humans first appear in Europe and Asia? When did the first humans enter the Americas and how did they arrive? Did modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals?
When is a stone just a stone and not an ancient human tool? When are marks on an ancient animal bone the results of nature and when evidence of human activity? What drove the increased brain capacity in hominins? How reliable is our dating schema? Should we consider Native myths on par with scientific facts and allow them to shut down scientific inquiry? Should archeological artifacts be given to Native people for reburial? Can science survive “native ways of knowing” being included in scientific research? Is scientific materialism the best way to understand reality? Is “hunter-gatherers” an outdated concept? Is “civilization” much older
than generally believed? Where does scientific fact end, and speculation begin?
Questions and answers in paleoanthropology and archeology are constantly being updated. Let’s explore the latest thinking in the story of human origins and evolution.