Dr. Briana Pobiner: Down Ancient Trails, Sharma Centre for Heritage Education, India

23rd March, 2021, 7.00 pm (IST). Dr. Briana Pobiner, Paleoanthropologist and Educator, Human Origins Program, Smithsonian Institute and Associate Research Professor of Anthropology in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at the George Washington University.


Topic: The role of scavenging animal foods in hominin diets.

Abstract: Questions about the timing, frequency, resource yield, and behavioral and biological implications of hominins acquiring food from the carcasses of large animals have been a part of the “hunting-scavenging debate” in the paleoanthropological scholarly literature for decades. In this talk, I will present a brief summary of this debate and review the zooarchaeological and modern ecological evidence for a possible scavenging niche among the earliest animal tissue-consuming hominins. I will also discuss how the evolution of Homo erectus nearly 2 million years ago may have been a turning point in our dietary evolutionary history.


About: Briana Pobiner is a paleoanthropologist whose zooarchaeological and taphonomic research centers on the evolution of human diet (with a focus on meat-eating), but has included topics as diverse as human cannibalism and chimpanzee carnivory. Since joining the Smithsonian in 2005 to help put together the Hall of Human Origins, in addition to continuing her active field, laboratory, and experimental research programs, she leads the Human Origins Program’s education and outreach efforts, including managing the Human Origins Program's public programs, website content, social media, and exhibition volunteer training. Briana has more recently developed an additional research program in evolution education and science communication. She is also an Associate Research Professor of Anthropology in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at the George Washington University.


This is an edited video of an online lecture. For more details visit: http://www.sharmaheritage.com/down-an...

Team:
Dr. Kumar Akhilesh, Director, Sharma Centre for Heritage Education (SCHE)
Professor Shanti Pappu, Secretary (SCHE)
Dr. Prachi B. Joshi, Research Intern (SCHE)
Dr. Paromita Bose, Research Intern (SCHE)
Ms. Sutonuka Bhattacharya, Research Intern (SCHE)