Un-Othering Paleoanthropology: A Bioarchaeology of Human Ancestors

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Historically, paleoanthropology has been largely separated from other anthropological disciplines. However, the history of the discipline overlaps with the birth of both archaeology and biological anthropology, often sharing paradigms and scientific toolkits. These disciplines emerged from the desire to better understand and define humanity and the human past. How we define “human” is contentious, and species outside of our own, Homo sapiens sapiens, have historically been “Othered”. We consider the history of paleoanthropology as a discipline which emerged alongside Enlightenment paradigms and still carries the burden of that origin. Here, we argue that paleoanthropology is inextricably linked in methodology, paradigm, and disciplinary history to a four-fields anthropological approach. We provide a review of theory in ethnogenesis and archaeological methods and present existing examples of a synthesis between paleoanthropology and archaeological disciplines. We propose a critical evaluation of paleoanthropology as bioarchaeology of human ancestors and provide visions for paleoanthropological futurisms. This includes the application and incorporation of archaeological and bioarchaeological methods and theory to paleoanthropology, including such principles as the bioarchaeology of care and osteobiography. Our objective is to un-Other paleoanthropology and its subjects, re-investigating the humanity of human relatives. This presentation will include photographs of hominin skeletal remains. ***This presentation will include images of human remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53511