Africanist archaeology and ancient IQ

Racial Science and Cultural Evolution in the Twenty-First Century

Bibliographic Data

ID3918908
AuthorsMaceachern (0000-0002-4859-3998, Bowdoin College, corresponding author), Scott Maceachern
Year2006
Volume38
Issue1
Pages72-92
Publication date2006-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438240500509918
OpenAlexW2070523164
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited90

Over the last two decades, a number of psychometric researchers have claimed that very substantial differences in intelligence exist among modern human racial groups, as these groups are traditionally defined. According to these researchers, African populations suffer severe cognitive deficits when compared to other modern humans. Philippe Rushton, particularly, places these claimed mental deficits in an evolutionary context, advancing environmental explanations for such deficits and asserting that such cognitive differences existed prehistorically as well. Such substantial cognitive differences should be evident in human behavioural patterns, and thus in the archaeological record. Archaeological data can thus be used to test these claims about human evolutionary development and modern human cognitive difference. Examination of the archaeological record does not support the claims made by these researchers. This suggests that regional differences in IQ test score results should not be ascribed to variations in human evolutionary development

Archaeological record · Archaeology · Biology · Cognition · Context (archaeology · Developmental psychology · Human culture · Human evolution · Human intelligence · Sociology · Test (biology · Anthropology · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Ecology · History · Language and cultural evolution · Psychology

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