The study of archaeology can easily play into racist beliefs.

Forty thousand years ago, Homo sapiens weren’t the only human-like creatures roaming the planet. There were also the Neanderthals, the Denisovans, and Homo erectus. But only we, Homo sapiens, ultimately survived. That means there must be something special about us – right?

We’d like to believe so. Even scientists often can’t resist referring to Homo sapiens as “better,” “faster,” or “superior” compared to other human-like species – despite the blurry boundary separating us.

The belief that Homo sapiens is a superior species set the stage for a more sinister thesis: that within Homo sapiens there are superior and inferior races. Are some races more “human” than others? Throughout history, countless people, from ancient Egyptians to sixteenth-century European colonizers, have believed the answer is yes. And archaeologists have plumbed humanity’s origins for proof. 

The key message here is: The study of archaeology can easily play into racist beliefs.

In the West and in Africa, the most widely accepted origin theory for Homo sapiens is the out of Africa hypothesis. It states that all humans can trace their ancestry back to Africa, and that some people began migrating to other parts of the world around 100,000 years ago.

Of course, not all academics agree with this theory. In China, for instance, the multiregional hypothesis is commonly accepted by both scientists and the public. People who back this theory don’t think all humans originally migrated from Africa – instead, they believe they descended from ancestors who evolved in different parts of the world. 

All of this theorizing could be taken as an innocent investigation into humanity’s past – but it isn’t. 

During the Enlightenment, white Europeans set the first standard for what it meant to be a member of Homo sapiens. Philosophers reinforced the idea that humans were the superior species, and the earliest archaeologists focused their studies primarily on European fossils. As Europeans colonized the world, they came across indigenous populations that didn’t exactly match European standards for humanity. And the colonizers used this to justify the brutal subjugation of those populations.

Theories like the multiregional hypothesis hearken back to Enlightenment science; they easily play into the idea that some “types” of humans are superior to others. But we’ll probably never determine the exact origin story of humanity. Together, we as a society have decided that everyone is human and deserving of individual rights – so why isn’t that enough?