We need inclusive science of human origins where all voice counts – especially those of (black) women

Palaeoanthropology – the study of human origins – might seem far removed from the everyday struggles of contemporary life. But the questions it asks are profound: Who are we? Where do we come from? What makes us human?

Those questions are not neutral. They’ve been answered, historically, by a small, privileged subset of people – mostly white men from the Global North, often working in former colonial territories.

And their answers have too often echoed the hierarchies of the societies they came from, casting Europe as the pinnacle of evolution, Africa as primitive, and women and people of colour as peripheral.

I came to palaeoanthropology as a white woman from the US, passionate about science and determined to do meaningful work. When I first came to SA in 1995, just one year after the end of apartheid, I was stepping into a field deeply shaped by colonial history and scientific racism.

Overtime, I learnt more about how human origins research in Africa had long involved the extraction of both fossils and knowledge, with little benefit or recognition for the people and communities where that work took place.

I learnt how indigenous people had been studied, displayed, even dissected – reduced to specimens in the name of “science.” I learnt that women, especially black women, remained drastically underrepresented in the field and I experienced toxic gender dynamics.

Palaeoanthropology has a serious problem with sexism. Research has revealed a high prevalence of harassment and discrimination in the field, particularly targeting women and junior researchers.

As someone who faced sexual harassment during my own postgraduate years, I later found myself helping lead the effort to hold a prominent academic accountable. That experience was painful, and transformative. It made clear to me just how entrenched the systems of power and exclusion in our field really are.

In 2020, I co-authored a paper with Sheela Athreya tracing how colonialism shaped the foundations of human origins research in Asia and Africa. We showed how early scientists used evolutionary narratives to naturalise racial hierarchies, treating African and Asian fossils, and people, as evidence of primitiveness, and reinforcing the idea that modernity was European. Those narratives didn’t just reflect colonial attitudes; they helped produce and legitimise them.

Too often, African scholars are still marginalised in African palaeoanthropology. Research is conducted through “helicopter” practices – where foreign teams fly in, collect data, and leave – with little local involvement or investment. Opportunities for women of colour are limited by both structural inequalities and hostile environments.

We need an inclusive, feminist palaeoanthropology that recognises how racism, sexism, and colonial legacies continue to shape who gets to ask questions, who gets heard, and who gets credit.

It would actively support women and other marginalised scholars, not just in theory, but in funding, mentorship, authorship, and leadership. It would centre collaboration over extraction, reciprocity over prestige, and community engagement over gatekeeping.

At the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town, we are doing just that. Our #CampHERI programme creates space for women students to share experiences, build skills, and grow confidence.

We’ve helped launch Panache – the Pan-African Consortium for Human Evolution – to ensure that African scholars are not only participants but leaders in shaping research questions and priorities. Through the Panache training network, we’re building a continent-wide network of early-career scientists with the tools and support to thrive.

For the centenary of the Taung Child, the first truly ancient hominin discovered in Africa, we co-edited a special issue of the SA Journal of Science that centres African perspectives, research, and reflections on ethics and belonging.

Through initiatives like the co-created HUMANITY exhibition at Iziko SA Museum, which directly tackles issues of social justice and colonial legacies of the discipline, we’re engaging directly with the communities whose histories we study – not as subjects, but as partners.

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