Science, philosophy of humanity subject of museum lecture
LLyn De Danaan
MOSES LAKE — Scientific discovery and its impact on the philosophical questions of humanity will be the subject of a lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center.
Anthropologist LLyn De Danaan will talk about “What it Means to Be Human: What we Know About our Ancient Predecessors.” Admission is free.
De Danaan said her lecture will focus on anthropological and archaeological discoveries made over the last 20 to 30 years, along with recent biological research into the origins of humanity. She will be “asking how the discoveries of the past 20 or 30 years have altered our conception of what it means to be human.”
The story of the human trip around the world has changed as new discoveries are made, but it always starts in Africa. It also starts with an apparent evolutionary dead-end known as Neanderthals.
New discoveries show that Neanderthals left Africa earlier than scientists thought and may have spread a little further than scientists thought. Neanderthals may have buried their dead and learned how to build things, such as cutting stone fragments and arranging them into rings, which scientists thought was beyond their societal capabilities.
Scientists sequenced Neanderthal DNA in 2013; they found it was very close to human DNA.
The idea of more advanced Neanderthal culture and a close biological relationship changes – or could change – the way humans think about themselves, De Danaan said.
“It is a philosophical question as much as a ‘physical/material’ question,” she wrote. “With genetic research, the question becomes even more complex.” De Danaan will outline the discoveries about Neanderthals and the theories about them, “and how we might think about ourselves differently knowing we are related.”
De Denaan said the anthropological record is a way for humans to know more about themselves. “Thinking about being human is part of thinking about our place in the big story of history. Since I want people to think about what discoveries mean, I’m not going to provide an answer. In the true spirit of the humanities, I want people to ruminate.”
De Denaan also is an author, filmmaker and photographer. She was on the faculty of Evergreen State College.