Q&A: CMNH curator Emma Finestone talks stone tools, science narratives, 'Eve' author Cat Bohannon

Last year, Dr. Emma Finestone, paleoanthropologist and assistant curator of human origins at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH), made global headlines when she and her team of scientists unearthed some of the oldest stone tools ever discovered.

Dr. Emma FinestoneDr. Emma FinestoneFinestone is on the CMNH team who conducts research in 11 scientific disciplines, publish findings in peer-reviewed journals, and bring the work back to the museum where it interacts directly with the public.

Today, Wednesday, March 20, in alignment with Women’s History Month and CMNH’s commitment to integrating often-overlooked perspectives into its programming, Finestone will moderate a lecture with author, researcher, and scholar Dr. Cat Bohannon at CMNH.

Bohannon’s book, “Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution,” published in 2023 and an instant bestseller, is the result of a decade of research. In the book, she challenges the traditional narratives in science by discussing the role of female bodies in driving human evolution and the social implications in modern medicine and society, which go hand in hand with Dr. Finestone’s work and CMNH’s mission.

In anticipation of Wednesday's event, FreshWater talked to Finestone about Bohannon’s upcoming lecture, CMNH's ongoing transformation project, and how these initiatives converge to shape the evolving landscape of human origins research at CMNH.

FreshWater: Tell me about yourself and what motivates you.

Emma Finestone: I'm the assistant curator of human origins at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I am interested in studying the evolution of behavior broadly in the human lineage, but I'm really interested in the evolution of early tool technology.

I study some of the earliest stone tools that our ancestors and relatives were making as far back as even three million years ago. And so I'm interested in ancient stone tools and what they can tell us about our ancestor's and relative’s behavior. I do a lot of fieldwork in Western Kenya, where I find ancient stone tools and fossilized bones from animals that hominins interacted with and lived alongside.

I'm just really interested in the question of how we started to use tools and technology to solve adaptive problems and how that fits into a broader picture of human evolution.


Dr. Emma Finestone in the field in Kenya last summerDr. Emma Finestone in the field in Kenya last summerFW: How do tools and tech tie into your work at the Museum?

EF: Research is a big component of my job, but I'm also interested in bringing this type of research to the community. And so, I do a lot of public engagements, I do programming, I help with the exhibit designs, and, of course, we also have a collection that I interface with.

My job at the museum, there's a lot of parts to it, but I basically do research on early stone tools and find ways to try to connect that with people and find the relevance in their lives for the Cleveland community.


FW: Can you discuss your experience entering the field as a woman, particularly in light of Women's History Month? How did you find it, and how does that align with Dr. Bohannon’s work?

EF: The field of human origins is changing like many fields in the sciences. I have many colleagues who are women at the museum—especially the curators, who are all women.

Dr. Cat BohannonDr. Cat BohannonIt's this new generation of young scientists; there's a lot more diversity represented across the board. That's really important not just for representation, but also in the way we come about framing questions in science, [which] impacted by our own experiences.

With this young generation of women scientists, you see different questions being asked that are actually really essential to understanding the science in addition to equity and issues of representation.

You're seeing a lot of old ideas dismantled that were previously rooted in misconceptions, like what Cat Bohannon talks about in her book, many [rooted in] male bias.

I'm really excited for this event and to have Dr. Bohannon come to the museum. Her book is another example of these new perspectives being formed in the field because there's so much more diversity coming through.


FW: Can you speak to any specific exhibits or collections at CMNH that complement and expand on the themes that Dr. Bohannon will discuss in her lecture?

EF: Our museum is undergoing a major transformation project. We're re-imagining the entire museum, including all of the galleries and exhibits.

[At CMNH] there’s a really large focus on humans in the natural history story and how human health is tied to the planet's health in the new galleries.

But what I feel more comfortable speaking to is how this ties to [Australopithecus afarensis] Lucy. As the curator of human origins, I deal a lot with Lucy.

People can look in Lucy's eyes and see their own experiences in her eyes, see themselves represented in LucyPeople can look in Lucy's eyes and see their own experiences in her eyes, see themselves represented in LucyCMNH has a really long-standing connection to Lucy because the team of scientists that discovered Lucy was led by a former CMNH curator. Lucy was studied in our labs at the museum. So Lucy has always been a pillar of our museum. Her lifelike reconstruction is in the visitor hall, free to everyone visiting the museum.

Lucy is about three feet tall—about the height of children. And I see people look at Lucy, feel connected to her, and see themselves in Lucy's eyes. While I was reading Dr. Bohannon’s book this reminded me a lot of Lucy being the representation of human origins for our museum and the way that our visitors can connect with Lucy.

Lucy is one of these critical Eves that Dr. Bohannon talks about in her book. Although Lucy just happened to be a female Australopithecus afarensis, she paved the way for some of these new perspectives to come forward in human origins. The focus on males in human origins shifted a little bit when Lucy became this iconic household name that everybody was thinking about and learning about.

People see themselves in Lucy—people who are maybe not the people who are interested in the man, the hunter stories. They can look in Lucy's eyes and see their own experiences in her eyes, see themselves represented in Lucy.

That is a big feature of our museum that I think connects really heavily with the themes in Dr. Bohannon's book. We're looking to tell Lucy's story in a more complex and dynamic way than the traditional view of human origins where an ape is just standing up into a man with a spear.


FW: How does hosting speakers like Dr. Bohannon align with CMNH’s mission?

EF: Part of our mission is to show the importance of science to people in their everyday lives and make science accessible. We often use the term “democratize” in science—[meaning] to make it understandable, provide a resource for people in the community that they can trust, and present relevant topics that connect with a diversity of audiences.

Dr. Emma Finestone in the field in Kenya last summerDr. Emma Finestone in the field in Kenya last summerWe're in Cleveland, where there are many different types of people who are interested in a lot of different things. We want everyone to see themselves reflected in, not only the science, but also the programs that we do.

Bringing Dr. Bohannon to the museum is one way that we're accomplishing this by encouraging discussions about how science has been historically, how it should be moving forward, how it relates to people's everyday lives and their health, and also appealing to a part of the population that might not have always seen themselves represented in the human origin story.

We do a lot of events for women in science. We do events for all types of communities, and it's important to connect with our communities that way and also to illustrate that science and evolution, they're not just focused on one perspective or learning about one specific type of person, one typical form.

Evolution acts on diversity. It's diversity that makes us strong as a species. And then that also relates to the health of our communities and also what's going to make the museum a place that people can connect to as if we're representing diversity if people see themselves connected to science.

Dr. Bohannon's lecture is a way that we can encourage conversations and discussions about these themes that relate to people who don't always see themselves represented in the human origin story.


FW: How this lecture will impact the community 

EF: I think people are going to love it. I loved her book. It made me think about human origins in a different way—and I study human origins as my career. I was just blown away by things in her book that I had never thought of before.

It is amazing how entrenched this male perspective is in human evolutionary biology. I think it's going to make many scholars who read the book think about different questions and different ways of framing their research.

I also think that the general public is going to see themselves, their evolutionary past, and their bodies in a way that they've never thought of or heard of before.

But is actually very empowering, too, to see yourself represented in a way that typically, in this field, hasn't [had] much conversation about the role of female bodies, childbirth, or choosing not to have children.

Just seeing all of these types of people represented, I think, is really going to be empowering to the audience.

FW: What are your thoughts on the future of women in STEM?

EF: As this generation of scientists continues to mature in our careers, I think these ideas that are rooted in past stereotypes based on the male body are not just going to be overturned, we're going to be able to start asking questions that we never even considered before—because the scientists doing the work didn't have as broad of a perspective as the scientists doing the work now.

I also think in the next generation of researchers, you see a lot of diversity—not just in women scientists, but in scientists from different countries that have been historically underrepresented in the sciences.

[We’re going to see] people from different and groups—which is really necessary to understand human origins because you're not asking all of the right questions in your research if you don't have scientists with the broadest number of perspectives that you can possibly have.

What we're studying is what makes people human and what makes us human as a species. If only one category of humans is asking those questions, there's just no way we'll be able to get to the best answer.

Dr. Cat Bohannon will join Dr. Emma Finestone at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Murch Auditorium (1 Wade Oval Drive in University Circle) today, Wednesday, March 20. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and the lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Dr. Bohannon will be available to sign books at 7:30 p.m. You can bring your own copy or purchase one at the Museum Store.

Tickets are $30 for CMNH members, $35 for non-members. A pre-event reception will be held from 5 p.m.to 6:10 p.m.

Rebecca Cahill
Rebecca Cahill

About the Author: Rebecca Cahill

Rebecca Cahill is a freelance writer who is thrilled to contribute to FreshWater Cleveland, sharing the stories of the people and places that make our fine Forest City flourish and grow.