In Search of Lost Future: Documentary Film and Panel Discussion

October 27, 2016

7:00 p.m.

Americas Society

680 Park Avenue

New York

Overview

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A screening of the documentary In Search of Lost Future will be followed by a panel discussion centered on recent findings in anthropology, archaeology, and paleo-climatology that shed light on recurring themes underlying the demise of past civilizations.

The panel discussion following the screening will feature journalist Luis Quevedo, geosciences professor Martín Medina Elizalde, geophysicist Richard Seager, and anthropology professor Radu Iovita.

About the Film

In a road trip that spans the African heat and the polar chill, the lush fertile crescent in Turkey, and the impossible tangle of the Mayan jungle, a makeshift group of explorers searches for clues left by ancient societies. Might these clues help us understand the essential mechanisms that underpin all civilizations? What enabled the blossoming of culture and trade, and what precipitated the collapse of those who came before us?

This journey, led by renowned Spanish archaeologist Eudald Carbonell—Director of the Atapuerca site and a discoverer of Homo antecessor—and science journalist Luis Quevedo, explores the concept of "cultural evolution" as the engine of humanity’s singular progress, which has enabled us, from a situation from near extinction in Africa 150,000 years ago, to inhabit the planet in its entirety.

The secret? We human beings are doomed to think in much the same way giraffes are condemned to nibble at the tops of the acacia tree. To know, to think, underlies the behavior of our species: a singular behavior among living things that has led us to modify our environment rather than adapt to it.

In Search of Lost Future [documentary, 56 min. in Spanish with English subtitles] Written and directed Luis Quevedo and Alfonso Par A Turkana Films and TVE Production, 2015 About the Panel Expert scientists will discuss a quintessential episode from the Americas: the pre-Columbian Maya collapse. Science is helping us understand how and why the ancient Maya went from a flourishing and rapidly expanding culture to ashes. The interplay between ecology, climate, and the human sphere played a much more nuanced role than previously thought. Mayans had to endure climate fluctuations for which their society was not culturally ready. A similar scenario now encompasses not only the Yucatan peninsula but, arguably, the whole planet. What lessons can we extract from their misfortunes that might better the odds of our culture? Luis Quevedo is a Spanish-born filmmaker and journalist. Trained as a scientist, he opted for a career in information and entertainment in order to share his passion for the history and evolution of the human species. His first documentary, En Busca del primer europeo (In Search of the First European), was released in 2011. He moved to New York City in 2010 and created the Spanish language version of NPR's Science Friday. He directs and hosts “CST,” NTN24 TV’s science and technology daily newscast. Luis is also a frequent contributor to the newspaper El Mundo. Among other accolades, he was named Minority Fellow by the National Association of Science Writers and was a mentor for the American Association for the Advancement of Science's first generation of Spanish speaking Mass Media Fellows. In Search of Lost Future was first aired in Spain in September 2016 on "La 2" TV. Martín Medina Elizalde is Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Auburn University (Alabama). His research focuses on paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, and climate change. One of his three primary research topics is the role of climate change in shaping the development of the Maya civilization. Prof. Elizalde received his Ph.D. from the Interdepartmental Program in Marine Science at University of California, Santa Barbara. Richard Seager’s research interests focus on climate variability and change on timescales of seasons to millennia. He is particularly interested in the causes of multiyear droughts around the world and how climate change will impact global hydroclimate. He is the Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, New York. He obtained his Ph.D. from Columbia University using tropical atmosphere and ocean models to understand key features of the tropical climate. Radu Iovita is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New York University. A Paleolithic archaeologist, he studies human behavioral adaptations to abrupt environmental change. He is particularly interested in re-thinking his discipline’s methodologies for finding deeply buried archaeological sites and for improving the reliability of laboratory techniques through controlled experiments. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.

In collaboration with:

Consulate General of Spain in New York

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In Search of Lost Future: Documentary Film and Panel Discussion

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Overview