Alternative Pathways to Complexity
Evolutionary Trajectories in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2223604 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L Kuhn (0000-0002-0288-030X), Steven L Kuhn, Erella Hovers (0000-0002-7855-6573, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | S8 |
| Pages | S176-S182 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/673501 |
| OpenAlex | W1523879083 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 19 |
| References cited | 46 |
The 145th symposium of the Wenner-Gren Foundation took place June 1-8, 2012, in Häringe Slott near Stockholm, Sweden. The primary goal of the symposium was to reframe discussions of behavioral evolution among Neanderthals and early modern humans. We hoped to replace conventions of a single scale of evolutionary progress (in which the primary benchmark is "modern human behavior") with a more Darwinian framework that could allow for independent evolutionary trajectories in different areas. The 15 participants included archaeologists researching material culture and subsistence in Eurasia, Africa, and China; physical anthropologists; a demographer; a geneticist; modelers of cultural evolution; and a climatologist. Participants were asked to draw on evidence in their areas of expertise, focusing on evolutionary trends in both modal tendencies and levels of variation/diversity within various regions during the interval in which the Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic developed, spread, and eventually disappeared. It was agreed that there is compelling evidence for very different trajectories of cultural evolution in different parts of the world but that we are not yet in a position to fully evaluate and understand the outcomes of the parallel cultural evolutionary pathways among modern Homo sapiens in Africa and Neanderthals in Europe. Answering questions this large in scope requires synthesis on a large geographic scale comparable to studies by climate scientists and biogeographers. Conventional approaches to collecting, reporting, and analyzing archaeological and skeletal data do not lend themselves to rigorous tests of alternative evolutionary models. At the same time, the intellectual tools needed to research these questions are well developed, and answers are within reach
Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Biological evolution · Biology · Cognitive reframing · Cultural diversity · Diversity (politics · Evolutionary biology · Evolutionism · Geneticist · Geography · Hominidae · Homo sapiens · Human evolution · Middle Paleolithic · Middle Stone Age · Paleoanthropology · Primatology · Scale (ratio · Scope (computer science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Computer Science · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Psychology
Cultural Evolution in Africa and Eurasia During the Middle and Late Pleistocene
Cultural Evolution During the Middle and Late Pleistocene in Africa and Eurasia
L’Aurignacien vu de l’Afrique
Are we missing the “sweet spot” between optimality theory and niche construction theory in archaeology
Scraper Blank Morphology and Artifact Use-Life in the Acheulo-Yabrudian of Tabun Cave, Israel
The Aurignacian Viewed from Africa
Qingshuiyuan Dadong
Longquan Cave
Introduction to ‘Theoretical Pathways’
Steak tournedos or beef Wellington
Using multivariate techniques to assess the effects of raw material, flaking behavior and tool manufacture on assemblage variability
Initial Upper Paleolithic
A Statistical Examination of Flake Edge Angles Produced During Experimental Lineal Levallois Reductions and Consideration of Their Functional Implications
Technological behavior of the early Late Pleistocene archaic humans at Lingjing (Xuchang, China)
Human Evolution, Niche Complexity, and the Emergence of a Distinctively Human Imagination
Integrative Anthropology and the Human Niche
Fire and the Genus Homo
The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, Ethnography, and the Human Niche
Alternative Pathways to Complexity
The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution
Tenfold Population Increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal–to–Modern Human Transition
An early and enduring advanced technology originating 71,000 years ago in South Africa
Evolutionary Rate at the Molecular Level
Ratcheting up the ratchet
Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets
Insights into early Middle Palaeolithic tool use and hafting in Western Europe. The functional analysis of level IIa of the early Middle Palaeolithic site of Biache-Saint-Vaast (France)
“Now You See it, Now You Don't”—Modern Human Behavior in the Middle Paleolithic
Hunting and Hunting Weapons of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
The consequences of Middle Paleolithic diets on pregnant Neanderthal women
Nutritional ecology and the human demography of Neandertal extinction
Demography and the demise of Neandertals
Early Italy and the colonization of Western Europe
The Lithic Assemblages of Qafzeh Cave
Transitions Before the Transition
Stone tools for the hunt
Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel
On Variability and Complexity
The Evolutionary Implications of Variation in Human Hunting Strategies and Diet Breadth during the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa
Roots of the Middle Paleolithic in Eurasia
Paleoclimate Variability in the Mediterranean and Red Sea Regions during the Last 500,000 Years
Variability in the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa
Lower Palaeolithic Core Technology and the Origins of the Levallois Method in North‐Western Europe
Using genetic evidence to evaluate four palaeoanthropological hypotheses for the timing of Neanderthal and modern human origins
Gibraltar Neanderthals and results of recent excavations in Gorham's, Vanguard and Ibex Caves
Paleolithic Archaeology in China
Population Size as an Explanation for Patterns in the Paleolithic Archaeological Record
Change and Stasis in the Iberian Middle Paleolithic
Neanderthal Demographic Estimates
Hominin Evolution in the Middle-Late Pleistocene
Paleolithic Cultures in China
Identifying Mechanisms behind Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age Cultural Trajectories
Agreements and Misunderstandings among Three Scientific Fields
An Unshakable Middle Paleolithic
Technological Trends in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa between MIS 7 and MIS 3
Measuring the Complexity of Lithic Technology
Territory, Trust, Growth, and Collapse in Classic Period Maya Kingdoms
Homo sapiensIs asHomo sapiensWas
Modernity, Enhanced Working Memory, and the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Record in the Levant
The Origin of Modern Human Behavior
| Unique citing works | 19 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,46 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2021 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |