Anthropologist alum explains human history
In a lecture last Thursday night, a local paleoanthropologist and KU alumnus featured his cultural and anthropologic findings in Africa, and shared his insight on the curiosity we as a species often have of our own existence and how humans have evolved into what we are today. Paleoanthropology, a fusion of the disciplines of paleontology and anthropology, aims to discover the ancient history of humans by studying prehistoric artifacts and human remains.
The lecture was held at Schaeffer Auditorium. Titled “In the Shadow of the Mountain of God,” it featured Jim Brett, a paleoanthropologist from the Pennsylvania Institute for Conservation Education (PICE). After graduating from KU with the class of 1961, he accumulated extensive experience in conservation and paleoanthropology. He was the director of the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in nearby Orwigsburg. He has also gone on countless expeditions to Africa since 1980.
“It’s always very important for me to come back here,” Brett said just before the lecture. “I always have the desire to come back here and it’s very exciting to come back as an alumnus.”
Just before Brett took the podium, President F. Javier Cevallos introduced the man he referred to as his friend, and added cordial words about KU’s partnership with PICE and its sponsorship of the lecture.
“We are delighted that KU can partner with this organization,” Cevallos said to the crowd. “And I was very honored when my friend, Jim Brett, asked me to have the lecture here.”
This set the stage for Brett, as he spent the next hour delving into stories, pictures, and recollections of his African experiences, accompanied by a slide show. His first slide was of a Tanzanian volcano named Oldoinyo Lengai, which overlooks the ancestral grounds of the Massai ethnic group that he would later describe. This sacred mountain was the inspiration for the program’s title.
He then showed a quote by cultural historian Thomas Berry, “To tell the story of anything, you must tell the story of everything,” which helped preface his detailed and comprehensive lecture.
Africa seemingly made the biggest impact on Brett, and has helped paleoanthropologists understand where our ancestors’ first steps were taken. He recalled a visit to Lake Natron in Tanzania, where he found human footprints of the Bushman indigenous people that were impressed into stone and thought to have been dated nearly 200,000 years. In a trip to another Tanzanian lake, he discovered a small tool, an old grinding stone used by the indigenous population at the time, which is thought to be nearly 250,000 years old.
He mentioned the 18 known predecessors to current humankind, which he detailed through pictures that showed gradually evolving specimens that looked more and more like humans. He also mentioned the ancestral correlation with chimpanzees, and how we likely derived from their existence. But perhaps most engaging were the numerous slides he showed of the indigenous people and the tribes he encountered.
“To be able to take people to Africa and introduce them to the ecosystem and the indigenous people is special,” Brett said of his trips with fellow conservationists to the continent. He said “it means so much to me to have been here through thick and thin,” regarding his time spent essentially uncovering human history.
These slides showed indigenous people huddled around campfires, hunting food, and spending time together.
“We are all kin. We are all related. And we are all African under the skin. We all have a part of togetherness,” Brett added.
The lecture concluded with an ensemble by musicians, including some KU students, performing interpretations of sounds commonly heard through Africa: the sound of rain, which was made by rapidly patting the tops of thighs, and the dialectic clicks used in the language of many tribes. The ensemble finished with a powerful song about Africa that grandly embodied its history, roots, and tradition.
About 150 people came to hear Brett speak. For $50, people had the opportunity to attend a wine and cheese reception with Brett just prior to the lecture, but for the presentation itself, tickets were $5 for students and $15 for adults who pre-registered ($25 at the door).
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