Did Homo Naledi Deliberately Dispose of Their Dead? | Darryl J de Ruiter | TEDxTAMU

Burial, an act as old as recorded history, seems unique to humans. However, this hallmark practice may not be as isolated to humanity as once thought.

Darryl de Ruiter is a paleoanthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Originally from Canada, Dr. de Ruiter received his Masters degree in Anthropology at the University of Manitoba in 1995. The following year he moved to South Africa to continue his studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, receiving his PhD from the Department of Anatomical Sciences in 2001. He was employed as a Research Officer in the Bernard Price Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand from 2001 until 2003, when he moved to his current position in Texas. In 2009 Dr. de Ruiter was promoted to Associate Professor, and was selected as a ‘Ray A. Rothrock 77’ Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M. In 2013 Dr. de Ruiter was promoted to the rank of Professor, and in 2014 he was appointed as a Cornerstone Faculty Fellow in Liberal Arts. In 2016 Dr. de Ruiter was presented the Distinguished Achievement Award for Research by the Association of Former Students of Texas A&M University. Dr. de Ruiter also holds an honorary appointment as a Reader in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, and serves as the principal investigator in charge of craniodental remains at the hominin fossil sites of Malapa and Rising Star in South Africa.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx