Fifty years after the discovery of Lucy, it’s time to ‘decolonise paleoanthropology’ says leading Ethiopian fossil expert – podcast

On November 24 1974, renowned American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted “a piece of elbow with humanlike anatomy” poking out of a rocky hillside in northern Ethiopia. It was the first fossil of a partial skeleton belonging to “Lucy”, an ancient female hominin who took the story of human evolution back beyond 3 million years for the first time.

This autumn also marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the “Taung child”, a fossilised skull in South Africa that was key in our understanding that ancient humans first evolved in Africa – something we take now take for granted.

Yet, despite largely centring on the African continent as the “cradle of mankind”, the narrative of hominin fossil discovery is striking for its lack of African scientists. In this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, and in a Q&A for our Insights series, leading Ethiopian paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selaisse explains why the story of ancient human origins is so western-centric, and why this needs to change.

Haile-Selassie says that many of the fossils that made western scientists famous were actually discovered by local Africans, who were only acknowledged at the end of a scientific publication:

For a long time, African scholars were never part of telling the human story; nor could they – and indeed, me – actively participate in the analysis of the fossils they found. Up to the 1990s, long after Lucy was found, we were only present in the form of labourers and fossil hunters.

Haile-Selassie is now director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University in the US. In the decades after Lucy’s discovery, he was responsible for some of the most remarkable ancient human fossil finds in his home country of Ethiopia, including that of Ardipithecus kadabba in 1997. He recalls that memorable moment:

Part of the jaw was just lying there on the surface. Deep inside, something immediately told me I had found the earliest human ancestor – more than 5 million years old. The thought made me go numb for a few seconds … Literally, no hominin fossils from that age had ever been discovered before.

Schoolchildren inspect the fossilised skeleton of Lucy, on display at the National Museum of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
Xinhua/Alamy Stock Photo

But Haile-Selassie warns that for research to continue unearthing such important fossils in Ethiopia and across Africa, a major change in the support for African institutions and scientists is needed – in order to “decolonise paleoanthropology”:

[To make] progress in the future, African paleosciences has to be one of the agenda items that we need to talk about. Without that, we just can’t continue making progress in Ethiopia or in Tanzania or in Kenya or in South Africa, right? It cannot be dominated like the old days by foreign researchers.

Such increased support, he says, could lead to important discoveries in parts of Africa that, to date, have not yielded ancient hominin fossils:

There are so many areas in Africa that haven’t been explored … Now, people are thinking about exploring West Africa for human ancestors. They might end up finding fossils in there as well … And that’s why we need to have a firm foundation established, so the next generation [of African scientists] doesn’t have to deal with the lack of infrastructure that we [faced].

On the other hand, Haile-Selassie warns that lack of western investment in African institutions could lead to restrictions being imposed on future exploration. He suggests countries in Africa may “make their antiquity flows tighter” in terms of who is allowed to research there in future.

Listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast to hear an interview with Yohannes Haile-Selaisse by Mike Herd, Insights editor at The Conversation.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

You can find us on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via e-mail. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s free daily e-mail here.

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Fear, hope and the economy: what is motivating Americans as they decide who to vote for – podcast

Amid deep political polarization and extreme campaign rhetoric, the U.S. presidential election on November 5 is likely to be decided by a small number of voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. But why is it so close?

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, Naomi Schalit, senior politics editor at the The Conversation U.S., speaks to Jesse Rhodes, associate professor of political science at UMass Amherst, who has been surveying Americans on the issues that matter to them, and their concerns as the election approaches.

Jesse Rhodes says it’s easy to be flabbergasted that the 2024 U.S. presidential election is shaping up to be so close.

“Donald Trump has been so extreme, had been involved in an insurrection against the federal government in 2020 and is making fairly authoritarian remarks during the campaign.”

But initial results from the latest round of the UMass Amherst poll, which Rhodes co-directs, show, he says, that many Americans seem to be treating this as a “pretty normal election” with good arguments for both sides. Its latest poll, conducted by YouGov, was a survey of 1,500 Americans and took place between Oct. 11 and Oct. 16, 2024.

“Something that we’re seeing and I think helps explain the tightness of this election cycle is just how important the economy is in Americans’ perceptions … and that they trust Donald Trump more on the economy than they do Kamala Harris.”

The poll found supermajorities perceive both the state of the economy and their own economic situation as being fair or poor, and 54% of respondents said they believed Trump is better suited to handling the economy and making it grow.

Motivated by fear and hope

The UMass Amherst poll asked respondents to imagine a Trump or Harris victory, and then asked them to choose from a range of emotions, including fear, hope, relief, anger, disappointment and pride. Rhodes notes:

“When we ask how people would feel if Trump won, the dominant emotion would be disappointment, at 40%, but followed very closely by fear at 39% … If Kamala Harris wins, the predominant emotion with 41% is relief … About a third, 33% of respondents, say that they would experience fear if Harris wins.”

The survey also showed 42% of Americans say they would feel hope if Harris won, compared to 37% feeling hopeful if Trump won.

Kamala Harris ends a campaign rally at the Ellipse in Washington D.C.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

The results also show a big gender gap in perceptions of the candidates. Around 50% of the men surveyed and 43% of women said they planned to vote for Trump. In comparison, 44% of men said they intended to vote for Harris, and 50% of women. Rhodes said:

“It’s almost a mirror image there, which reflects a longstanding dynamic in our politics where women are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates, men are more likely to vote for Republican candidates. This also reflects the context in which reproductive rights and reproductive health issues are very salient.”

To listen to the full interview with Jesse Rhodes, listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Disclosure statement: Jesse Rhodes receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and Demos.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Katie Flood with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Michelle Macklem, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.

Newsclips in this episode from CBS Boston, PBS NewsHour, Global News, CBS News, AlJazeera English, BBC News, The Telegraph, Washington Post, ABC News, CBS News Face the Nation, CNN, NBC News, CBS, The Times and The Sunday Times and The Guardian.

You can find us on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s free daily email here.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. Läs mer…