Conference sessions

Title of the session

HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN AFRICA: PAPERS IN HONOR OF PROFESSOR FIDELIS MASAO

Session Organizer(s)

Kathryn L. Ranhorn
Assistant Professor
Arizona State University
Email: [email protected]

Delivery format

Podium

Nature of a session

Open for Contributions

Session abstract

There is no doubt that extremely significant fossil and artefact discoveries from the African continent have captured the worlds’ fascination for decades. Yet the ways that these discoveries are protected and shared with stakeholder communities is another, often untold, story. In his 40+ year career Professor Fidelis Masao has spearheaded new approaches to human evolutionary research premised on heritage for all, inclusivity, and educational training, playing a crucial role in the advancement of human evolution research in Tanzania. In this session students, collaborators, and colleagues of Professor Masao will share perspectives and lessons learned specifically focusing on how collaborative field methodologies in archaeology can enhance community wellbeing, scholarship, and heritage preservation. Considering the breadth of Masao’s work, from ethnoarchaeology to museum studies to stone artefact analyses, we invite papers centred on particular sites and communities as well as those that discuss overarching topics relevant to this theme. These topics may include how reconstructions of hominin behaviour or ancient environments can be beneficial for stakeholders today, limitations and difficulties encountered in studying and preserving the deep human past, and how the future of Paleolithic archaeological method and theory can centre African ways of knowing and knowledge production. Ultimately this session will summarize and contextualize the effects that Fidelis Masao’s career has had on the study of human evolution, and its connections to cultural heritage, both in Tanzania and around the world.