Decolonizing paleoanthropology with ASU expert Haile-Selassie

Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Director of ASU’s Institute of Human Origins and a leading Ethiopian fossil expert, said it’s time to decolonize paleoanthropology.

Haile-Selassie joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss an issue he believes has been ignored far too long in the paleoanthropology world and what can be done to address it.

The story of ancient human origins has been, according to Haile-Selassie, too Western-centric in it’s focus. One example is 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.

Increasing support for African-born paleontologists, Haile-Selassie said, 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,” Haile-Selassie said. “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].”

“Ethiopia calls itself the land of origin and they have been building laboratories for Anthropology and now we have so many who are trained at President HD level and they are in the future for this. And we want to see other African countries to join us with all the resources that they have,” said Haile-Selassie regarding his hope for the future of Paleoanthropology in Ethiopia and other African countries.