Changing paradigms in Asian paleoanthropology: Papers in honor of Robin W. Dennell

Conveners: Parth R. Chauhan¹ and Gao Xing^2
1parth73@gmail.com        &         ²gaoxing@ivpp.ac.cn

In the last decade, new paleoanthropological discoveries have drastically changed our theoretical and interpretative perceptions on Pleistocene hominin evolution and adaptations in Asia. This includes extending the dates of the earliest hominin occupation and previously collected fossils, pinpointing the earliest Acheulean evidence outside Africa, respective discoveries of Modes 2 and 3 lithic technologies east of the ‘Movius Line’, possibly extending the respective dates of modern human arrival in southern, eastern and southeastern Asia, earliest modern human adaptations to rainforests, new evolutionary interpretations of previously-discovered specimens and geochronological revisions of select sites and specimens, thus all challenging traditional evolutionary paradigms. Some of these discoveries and studies dovetail with new genetic and paleoenvironmental data and offer views complementary to the African and European records. Nonetheless, prevalent debates and criticisms continue to persist between different researchers, partially due to missing required evidence (e.g. lithics at human fossil sites and vice versa) or general disagreement on various grounds. In addition, vast geographic zones of Asia continue to remain terra incognita and require more focused field surveys and multidisciplinary applications. This session offers a platform to present various recent discoveries, discuss their paleoanthropological implications, and how we can jointly confront existing methodological challenges and empirical limitations in Asian paleoanthropology. This session is dedicated to the dynamic scientific contributions of Robin W. Dennell to Asian paleoanthropology.