Showing papers in "Current Anthropology in 1992"

Primate Communication and the Gestural Origin of Language

Abstract: Wallace, Tylor, Wundt, Johannesson, and others have proposed that human language had its basis in hand and arm gestures. The Gardners' work with the chimpanzee Washoe, Premack's study of the chimpanzee Sarah, and continuing experiments along these lines indicate that neural restructuring would not have been necessary for the protohominid acquisition of a simple propositional gesture or sign language which did not involve cross-modal transfer at a high level from the visual to the auditory channel or vice versa. Evidence from primate studies, early tool-using, the continuing functions of gesture in human communication, lateral dominance in its relation to speech and tool manipulation, and other sources is presented to support a model of glottogenesis. It is argued that a preexisting gestural language system would have provided an easier pathway to vocal language than a direct outgrowth of the "emotional" use of vocalization characteristic of nonhuman primates.

The Human Revolution

Abstract: THE HUMAN REVOLUTION* By CHARLES F. HOCKETT and ROBERT ASCHER This essay attempts to set forth the story of the emergence of the first humans from their prehuman ancestors. A special feature is that we have tried to incorporate the various steps and stages of the evolution of language into the total picture. The term "revolution" in our title is not intended to be flamboyant. A revolution is a relatively sudden set of changes that yield a state of af fairs from which a return to the situation just before the revolution is virtually impossible. This seems to be the sense of the word intended by V. Gordon Childe when he speaks of the "Neolithic Revolution" and of the "Urban Revolution" [i]. But these two revolutions were experienced by our fully human ancestors. The second could not have occurred had it not been for the first. The first could not have taken place had it not been for an even earlier extremely drastic set of changes that turned non humans into humans. These drastic changes, as we shall see, may have required a good many millions of years ; yet they can validly be regarded as "sudden" in view of the tens of millions of years of mammalian history that preceded them. For the reconstruction of human evolution we have evidence of two

The Excavations in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel

Abstract: Resultats des fouilles recentes (1982-90) sur le site du Paleolithique moyen de Kebara, Israel. Synthese de la stratigraphie complexe du site et datation. Description des structures spatiales de foyers, cendres, concentrations d'os et d'artefacts. Resultats des etudes mineralogiques des sediments afin de determiner si la distribution spatiale des ossements animaux est le resultat d'activites humaines (charognage) ou de processus post-depositionnels. Synthese sur l'outillage lithique mousterien axee sur la technologie de production et les chaines operatoires. Analyse taphonomique des mammiferes, en particulier des ongules. Inventaire des restes humains du Paleolithique moyen et etude de la sepulture intentionnelle d'homme adulte

Beyond "The Original Affluent Society": A Culturalist Reformulation [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract: This paper examines Marshall Sahlins's \"Original Affluent Society\" in relation to recent developments in modem huntergatherer studies and reveals a theoretical confusion of ecological and cultural perspectives within it which has hitherto been overlooked. Drawing comparatively on three case studies-the Nayaka of South India, the Batek of Malaysia, and the Mbuti of Zaire-it then reformulates Sahlins's argument using the culturalist method of economic analysis. At the same time it demonstrates the explanatory and analytical dimensions of this new method.

The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle

Abstract: The relationship between human and bovine population in India has hitherto been widely regarded as an important example of resource mismanagement under the influence of religious doctrine. It is suggested that insufficient attention has been paid to such positive functioned features of the Hindu cattle complex as traction power and milk, dung, beef and hide production in relationship to the costs of ecologically viable alternatives. In general, the exploitation of cattle resources proceeds in such a way as not to impair the survival and economic well-being of the human population. The relationship between the human and bovine population is symbiotic rather than competitive; more traction animals than are presently available are needed for carrying out essential agricultural tasks. Under existing techno-environmental conditions, a relatively high ratio of cattle to humans is ecologically unavoidable. This does not mean, that with altered techno-environmental conditions, new and more efficient food energy s...

Women's Status in Egalitarian Society: Implications for Social Evolution

Abstract: Problemes theoriques et conceptuels de l'analyse de la place de la femme dans les societes egalitaires et par l'analyse de ces societes elles-memes. Les dangers de l'ethnocentrisme. Les donnees ethnographiques contradictoires: l'exemple des aborigenes australiens et des Ojibwas. Les problemes specifiques de l'etude des changements dans les societes egalitaires et de leur integration au systeme capitaliste. Le changement de role de la femme. Les theories de F. Engels sur le communisme primitif.

Foragers, Genuine or Spurious? Situating the Kalahari San in History

Abstract: 2 case studies of the Western Kweneng San and Dobi San in Botswana are examined historically to show that contact with the Bantu-speaking neighbors or dominant societies may take other autonomous forms rather than dependency and abandonment of foraging. Revisionists have argued that hunter-gatherers were absorbed into regional economic networks and ceased to be independent societies however it they continued to exhibit traits of hunter-gathers it was because of their poverty and resistance to domination by stronger societies. This is a spacious argument. The Kweneng San are described as having lived for 200 years among the Bantu-speaking people in the southern Kalahari. Loss of autonomy was neither automatic nor complete. The pre and protohistoric period and the fur trade period are described as having some subservient to effect but institutionalization came later. The San had a flexible social organization and there was fluidity between village and bush. Agropastoralism reduced the Sans foraging base and the fur trade was the link between the San and Kgalagadi. By the 1950s the San became the Kgalagadis labor force when foraging became more precarious. The Dobi San were isolated from 19th century colonial southern Africa as hunter-gatherers and traded with the Goba between A.D. 500-1500. The trade involved indirect contact through the Goba and later the Tswana and direct contact with European hunters and traders. The prehistoric and fur trade periods are described. There were barter systems and mafisa or contracted animal husbandry which afforded the ]Kung a complement of beef to be added to their foraging diet. After 1954 non-San (Hereros) dominated the areas with the ]Kung as herders. There were 2 groups: a foraging mafisa herding and horticulture group living in camps and client groups attached to cattle posts. The pattern of hunter-gatherers remained as one of collective ownership of resources and food sharing. This final dependency from fierce autonomy was a result of the inability of the land to support foraging due to environmental degradation. The relationships between the Kwena San and Dobi San with non San-were different. The internal organization of the San was unaffected. In the discussion of genuine and spurious foragers attention is paid to terminology and distinguishing between fact and discussion. In the transition to dependency it is cautioned that revisionism trivializes the history of these people and inaccurately characterizes the nature of their autonomy. Commentary which supports the general position and provides constructive criticism is provided by replies from by 19 anthropologists.

Dense Forests, cold Steppes and the palaeolithic Settlement of Northern Europe

Abstract: Les donnees paleo-ecologiques d'un grand nombre de sites archeologiques d'Europe septentrionale montrent que les hominides etaient capables d'exploiter une serie d'environnements plus vaste qu'on ne le pensait. Ces donnees indiquent que les modeles de colonisation des latitudes nord ont exagere les differences de tolerance ecologique entre les hommes modernes et archaiques

History, Phylogeny, and Evolution in Polynesia

Abstract: CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 28, Number 4, August-October 1987 ~ r987 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved ooII-po4!87h804-ooo4$:l.6S History, Phylogeny, and Evolution in Polynesia l by Patrick V. Kirch and Roger C. Green In the study of evolution, biological or cultural, a critical element is a methodology fOI distinguishing homologous from analogous characters. The histOIical knowledge this requires must be sought in the phylogeny of the modem groups under study and their com­ mon ancestors. Applying the methods for detennining the phy­ logenetic relationships among cultural groups defined some years ago by Romney and VOg! to the results of recent archaeological and historical linguistic work, we examine Polynesia as a well­ defined case of cultural radiation and divergence for which the specific shared ancestral traits can be distinguished from conver­ gent developments in response to common selection pressures. We go on to present a series of hypotheses regarding some major factors underlying divergence and convergence in Polynesia in the hope that others will be stimulated to test them and thereby ad­ vance our understanding of this region. PATRICK V. KIRCH is Director of the Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum and Professor in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Washington ISeattle, Wash, 98195, U,S.A.). Born in 1950, he received his B.A, from the Uni­ versity of PeIUlsylvania in 197J and his Ph.D. from Yale Univer­ sity in 1975. Before assuming his present position he was an­ thropologist with and, from 1982 through 1984, head of the Division of Archaeology of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, His research interests are the archaeology and prehistory of Oceania, prehistoric agricultural systems, paleoenvironmental reconstruc­ tion, and human impact on island environments. He has pub­ lished (with D, Yen) Tikopia: The Prehistory and Ecology of a Polynesian Outlier (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1982); The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); Feathered Gods and Fishhooks: An In­ troduction to Hawaiian Archaeology and Prehistory (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1985}; the collection Island Societies: ArchaeolOgical Approaches to Evolution and Transformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), ROGER C, GREEN is Professor (Personal Chair) in Prehistory in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Auckland. He was born in r932 and educated at the University of New Mexico (B.A., 1954; B.Sc., 1955) and at Harvard University (Ph, D 1964). He has worked at the Bishop Museum (I967-70} and, as visiting professor, at the University of Hawaii {r981-82J and the Univer­ sity of Calgary (1985) and has held his present post at Auckland since 1973, His research interests lie in Oceanic culture history, He has published Makaha Before 1880 A.D. (Pacific Anthropolog­ ical Records 31); with coeditor Marion Kelly, Studies in Oceanic Culture History (Pacific Anthropological Records I I - I 3); with coeditor J. M. DaVidson, Archaeology in Western Samoa {Auck­ land Institute and Museum Bulletin 6 and 7li with coeditor M. M, Cresswell, Southeast Solomon Islands Cultural History: A Pre­ liminary Survey {Royal Society of New Zealand Bulletin Ill; and numerous articles in Oceanic prehistory and hiswricallinguistics. The present paper was submitted in final form 12 I Despite its roller-coaster-like history of popularity amongst anthropologists, the idea that evolution is fun­ damental to the understanding of cultural diversity pre­ dates even the Darwinian Revolution, Unfortunately, a resurgence of one kind of cultural evolutionism (often called neo-evolution) which still bore the shackles of Spencerianism ended up mired in a semantic morass of static evolutionary types-Ifbands, chiefdoms, states/!­ linked to concepts of orthogenesis and linear progress (Sahlins and Service '960, Service r962, Fried '967, Car­ neiro 1970). Yet the anthropological goal of understand­ ing diversity calls for an evolutionary theory of culture change just as the explanation of organic diversity has depended upon neo-Darwinian theoretical advances (Dunnell r9801. In his inimitable style, Flannery (r983b:3621 recently declared that /lif evolution is what you are interested in, then anthropology includes archaeology or it is noth­ ing. To borrow further from his discussion, the promise of archaeology for the development of a cultural evolu­ tionary theory is exactly analogous to that of paleontol­ ogy in the study of biological evolution Icf. Dunnell 1982:2 I). We will take this analogy between archaeology and paleontology slightly further. Paleontology has made some of its most e;nduring contributions to evolu­ tionary theory when it has concentrated upon the study of divergence or radiation in groups of phy10genetically related lineages (Gould '980, Mayr 1982). George Gay­ lord Simpson's monographs on equid evolution (I95r) and the insights which these brought to general patterns of adaptive radiation and speciation are a classic example. It is not iust the ability to trace change over lengthy time periods that renders both paleontology and archaeology l This paper reflects initially independent responses on the part of the two authors upon reading certain theoretical parts of the Flan­ nery and Marcus {1983) volume Tbe Cloud People. One was recog­ nition of the degree to which developments in Polynesian prehis­ tory in the past three decades had formally fulfilled all the main conditions required for employing the methodology of the genetic model. The other was the realization that in the Polynesian case it was now possible to specify more precisely than previously the main explanatory mechanisms or processes required to account for many of the similarities and differences encountered in the various Polynesian societies at the time of European contact. In short, a specific case of divergent, parallel, and convergent evolution within a distinct phylogenetic unit could be established. Green wishes to express his appreciation of being a Killam Visiting Scholar at the University of Calgary, where his ideas were pre­ sented in a seminar class in Problems in Oceanic Culture History, while Kirch wishes to acknowledge the stimulus of presenting an initial paper in the 1985 Society for American Archaeology sym­ posium on evolutionary approaches in archaeology organized by T. Hunt and S, Studeman, The paper benefited from comments by Debra C. Kii.·ch and by two anonymous reviewers. Both of us also thank Susan Keech McIntosh for inviting us to submit the paper to CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY and for her subsequent editorial assis­ tance. I.

Rethinking the Middle/Upper Paleolithic Transition

Abstract: DESPITE ITS APPARENT IMPORTANCE, the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition in Western Europe has been the subject of very little serious and informed ebate (but see Bordes 1958; S. Binford 1968; Klein 1969; L. Binford 1973; Mellars 1973). I shall attempt here to reassess past statements concerning behavioral shifts across the transition, pointing out inadequacies in previous formulations and bringing recently assembled data to bear on the problem. In the course of a detailed study of Upper Paleolithic settlement in the Perigord region of southwestern France (White 1980), it became apparent to me that a number of published characterizations of the Upper Paleolithic could be questioned. The following discussion, then, is biased toward the Upper Paleolithic and toward southwestern France, although some observations from other areas are included. It must be emphasized that this is not an attempt to use southwestern France to generalize about the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition everywhere. Rather, the goal is to use the Perigord data base to elicit comment and thought from scholars working in a number of areas of the Old World. The first real synthesis of a broad range of data pertaining to the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition was that of Mellars (1973) for southwestern France. Surprisingly, it stimulated little discussion, despite some obvious weaknesses. Mellars's article is well organized and cogently written. It therefore makes an effective baseline from which debate can proceed. I shall begin by summarizing Mellars's observations concerning continuity and change across the Middle/Upper Paleolithic boundary and offering some critical discussion of each. MELLARS'S VIEWS: SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE

On optimal foraging models and subsistence transitions

Abstract: JORION, P. I986. Reprendre a zero. L'Homme 26:305. LEVI-STRAUSS, C. 1949. Les structures elementaires de la parente. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. 1955. Tristes tropiques. Paris: Plon. 1958a (1945). \"L'analyse structurale en linguistique et en anthropologie,\" in Anthropologie structurale. Paris: Plon. 1958b (1945). \"Le redoublement de la representation dans les arts d l'Asie et de l'Amerique,\" in Anthropologie structurale. Paris: Plon. . 1958c (1955). \"La structure des mythes,\" in Anthropologie structurale. Paris: Plon. . I962. La pensee sauvage. Paris: Plon. 197I. L'homme nu. Paris: Plon. . 1973a. \"Reflexions ur l'atome de parente,\" in Anthropologie structurale deux. Paris: Plon. . 1973b (I960). \"Sens et usage de la notion de modele,\" in Anthropologie structurale deux. Paris: Plon. . 1973C (1952). \"Race et histoire,\" in Anthropologie structurale deux. Paris: Plon. . I983 (1971). \"Race et culture,\" in Le regard eloigne. Paris: Plon. . I985. La potiere jalouse. Paris: Plon. OSORIO DE ALMEIDA, M. I988. Hamiltonian systems: Chaos and quantization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. PIAGET, J. 1970. L'epistemologie genetique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. PRIGOGINE, I., AND I. STENGERS. I985. Order out of chaos. London: Fontana Paperbacks. . I988. Entre le temps et l'eternite. Paris: Fayard. ROEMER, j. I98I. Analytical foundations of Marxism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. SHUBNIKOV, A. V., AND V. A. KOPTSIK. 1974. Symmetry in science and art. New York and London: Plenum Press.

The Patterning of Intervention among Male Bonnet Macaques: Reciprocity, Revenge, and Loyalty

Abstract: For those interested in the evolution of human societies, the scale of human social organization presents an interesting problem. A number of authors have argued that human social organization involves cooperation that is too widespread to be explained by nepotism or kin selection (Alexander I987; Boyd and Richerson I990; Campbell I975, i983). Instead, they have suggested that widespread cooperation in human societies may be based upon reciprocity. This argument relies upon the theory of reciprocal altruism (Trivers I97 I), which predicts that reciprocity will be favored by natural selection if individuals restrict their help to those who help them in retum. This process is favored because, over time, the participants in reciprocal relationships obtain benefits that balance the costs of their interactions. In contrast to kin selection, reciprocity does not rely upon the participants' being kin. This insight has generated considerable theoretical and empirical interest in the factors that may shape the evolution of cooperative behavior. There have been a number of efforts to formalize and expand Trivers's original theoretical formulation (reviewed by Axelrod and Dion I989, Boyd n.d.), and there has also been considerable interest in empirical evidence of cooperative behavior in other mammalian species, particularly the nonhuman primates. Since the nonhuman primates are our closest living relatives, analysis of the patteming of cooperative activities among them may provide important insights into the phylogenetic history of the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms that underlie reciprocity in humans. Coalitions provide a particularly useful context in which to study the patteming of cooperation in nonhuman primates. A dyadic confrontation is transformed into a coalition when a third individual intervenes on behalf of one of the original participants. Although it is impossible to assess quantitatively the effects of specific behavioral acts upon lifetime fitness, coalitions are generally considered to be a form of altruism which is beneficial to the recipient and costly to the donor (see Dunbar I988 for a full discussion of this issue). The individual who receives support may benefit if intervention increases the probability that the opponent will flee, submit, or redirect its aggression to the supporter. The supporter may suffer some costs if it expends energy, suffers an injury, or becomes the target of the opponent's aggression. Over the last I5 years, the frequency and patteming of support in agonistic interactions have been described in a variety of primate species. While differences in sampling techniques, behavioral definitions, and methods of analysis make it difficult to compare these studies directly, some general conclusions emerge from them: individuals tend to give the most support to their relatives, and the tendency to support kin is particularly pronounced in confrontations with older, larger, or higher-ranking group members (e.g., Gorilla gorilla gorilla [Harcourt and Stewart, I987, I989], Pan troglodytes [de Waal i9821, Papio ursinus [Cheney I9771, Cercopithecus aethiops [Cheney I983, Horrocks and Hunte I983], M. mulatta [Bemstein and Ehardt I985, Kaplan I9771, M. fascicularis [de Waal I978], M. nemestrina [Massey I9771, M. radiata [Silk i982], M. fuscata [Kurland I977, Watanabe I9791). However, not all support is performed on behalf of kin; virtually all of the studies cited above report that monkeys and apes sometimes support unrelated individuals. Reciprocity in support was first reported among unrelated male baboons, which form coalitions in contests over access to estrous females (Packer I977). Similar coalitions have subsequently been described at several other sites, although the extent of reciprocity in support among males has been questioned (Bercovitch I988, Nod i989). Reciprocity in support has also been documented among vervet monkeys (Hunte and Horrocks i987) and macaques (de Waal and Luttrell i988). Seyfarth and Cheney have demonstrated that vervet monkeys and baboons provide support in agonistic interactions for individuals that groom them (Cheney I977; Cheney and Seyfarth I990; Seyfarth I977, I980), although this does not seem to hold true for female bonnet macaques (Silk i982) or rhesus macaques (de Waal and Luttrell i986). Seyfarth and Cheney (i984) performed a particularly insightful experiment in which they explored the conditions under which grooming might be exchanged for support among free-ranging vervet monkeys. In this experiment, a tape-recorded distress call was played back to a subject from a hidden speaker under two different conditions: (a) after it had been groomed by the caller and (b) when no grooming had been observed. Uf the subject had been groomed by the caller it was more likely to respond to the distress call by staring intently in the direction of the speaker. When the subject and caller were closely related, the subject's response was not influenced by whether or not the caller had recently groomed it. Seyfarth and Cheney's results demonstrated that one form of altruism, support, was contingent upon another, grooming. They also suggested that the rules for social exchange may vary among kin and nonkin, i. ? I992 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved ooiI-3204/92/3303-0004$I.00. This work was partially supported by NIH Grant RRooI6g to the California Primate Research Center and a grant to the author from the UCLA Academic Senate. I thank Rob Boyd, Dorothy Cheney, Frans de Waal, Lynn Fairbanks, and several anonymous referees for their comments upon the manuscript.

Was There No Place Like Home?: A New Perspective on Early Hominid Archaeological Sites From the Mapping of Chimpanzee Nests [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract: Early archaeological sites in East Africa have traditionally been interpreted as home bases, suggesting that by two million years ago hominids had developed ranging behavior more similar to the subsistence patterns of modern human hunter-gatherers than to the individualistic foraging characteristic of other primates. This interpretation rests on assumptions about contrasts in the debris-producing behavior of primates and humans that have never been tested ethnoarchaeologically. To explore alternative behavioral processes that could have contributed to the formation of early archaeological sites, field research was undertaken on the ranging patterns of a small population of wild chimpanzees living along the Ishasha River in Zaire's Virunga National Park. This riparian habitat is comparable to the paleoenvironmental contexts of many early archaeological sites in East Africa. Maps of the distribution of the nesting and feeding debris produced by these chimpanzees formed patterns spatially analogous to concentrations of artifacts found at the early sites. These data raise questions about how the ecological structure and resource configuration of this habitat conditioned the spatial redundancy of the chimpanzees' debris patterns and the extent to which analogous processes may have helped to pattern the Plio/Pleistocene archaeological record.

Prehistoric Subsistence in the Soconusco Region

Abstract: SOUTHALL, AIDAN W. i952. Lineage formation among the Luo. International African Institute Memorandum 26. . I989. \"Power, sanctity, and symbolism in the political economy of the Nilotes,\" in The creativity of power. Edited by W. Arens and I. Karp, pp. i83-222. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. WHEATLEY, PAUL. I97I. The pivot of the four quarters: A preliminary enquiry into the origins and character of the ancient Chinese city. Chicago: Aldine.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Mousterian and Natufian Burials in the Levant

Abstract: to reinvigorate an evaluation of what has been learned ethnographically and theoretically (as in Levi-Strauss I949 or H6ritier I976, 198I) about kinship and marriage systems. It reconnects the approaches of two worldsFrench and Anglo-Saxon-whose very different perspectives on the study of kinship have to date precluded consensus on theories and on the relation between theoretical models and empirical data. Tufte (I983, I990) and others have shown the importance of visualization in communication. The same is true in the development of scientific specialties. Klovdahl (I98I) argues that network analysis and its concepts-centrality, reachability, role position, clique, flow, etc.-would not have developed as they did without graph theoretic images and measures. Conceptually, it is no small matter that kinship nets can be represented as graphs. Perhaps we are in a better position than before for a foundational reconceptualization in the analysis of kinship.

Guidelines for the Economic Valuation of Nontimber Tropical-Forest Products

Abstract: kids how this is important, why they should want to know some biology. Now, the biology book that my kids were using in high school was the best excuse for not learning biology that I've ever seen. John Holt said that the dull students forget the facts before the exam and the bright students forget the facts after the exam, and that's an excellent summary of American education. Evolution and anthropology are very important fields of study because they can help people to understand themselves and other people better. And the failure in our schools at this level is, it seems to me, very, very deep. So much of education is about the mechanics, not the fundamental issues. Perhaps this comes out more clearly in anthropology than in anything else. At the last meetings, I went to a session on the teaching of evolution, and it was dull beyond belief! Few people there were up-to-date on what they should be teaching, and their notion of teaching was all technique. I finally got up in irritation and said, \"The point is that we should be trying to teach these school kids to understand human beings. It's not a question of what particular technique we use. How are we getting to the most important objective of having them understand people better?\" In anthropology textbooks, it used to be very clear, and people like Herskovits had very clear notions of what anthropology should be doing-it should be helping us to understand our own behavior and that of others and the variety of human behavior.

On Stable Isotopic Data and Prehistoric Subsistence in the Soconusco Region

Abstract: GHIGLIERI, M. P. I984. The chimpanzees of Kibale Forest. New York: Columbia University Press. KORTLANDT, A. I962. Chimpanzees in the wild. Scientific American 206:I28-38. I972. New perspectives of ape and human evolution. Amsterdam: Stichting voor Psychobiologie. . I980. How might early hominids have defended themselves against large predators and food competitors? Journal of Human Evolution 9:79-I1I2. . I986. The use of stone tools by wild-living chimpanzees and early hominids. Journal of Human Evolution I5:77-I32. MOORE, j. I992. Comment on: Was there no place like home? by J. Sept. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 33:I98-99. NISSEN, H. W. I93I. A field study of the chimpanzee. Comparative Psychology Monographs 8: I-Io5.

Representing and Computing Kinship: A New Approach

Abstract: The study of kinship is hampered by the lack of a common language of description for basic structures and processes in the formation of kinship relations. This paper is an attempt to develop such a representational anguage. The conventional approach to kinship and marriage, the genealogical diagram, which represents marriage and parent/child relations between individuals, reinforces an ego-centered view of kinship and is largely unworkable as a means of analyzing kinship. Problems of presenting and analyzing data using conventional genealogies have led to attempts to stylize and simplify patterns in kinship and marriage in terms of abstract models and vocabularies that are often at considerable variance from the data. In consequence, anthropological discourse on the subject tends to involve disagreement over interpretations and ambiguous definitions. Nonetheless, there remains an urgent need to provide better means of carrying out one of the fundamental tasks of anthropology-understanding marriage and kinship as

Overlapping Species "Choice" by Italian Upper Pleistocene Predators

Abstract: Work beginning in the I940S on species sampling of living animal communities has elucidated a mathematical relationship between the number of taxa represented in nonselective samples and the number of individuals collected from the environment. Whether butterflies of the Malaysian lowlands (Fisher, Corbet, and Williams I943) or Andean birds along a topographic gradient (Terborgh I977), rare species can seem rarer or even invisible in small samples. The same relationship holds for the number of taxa (N-taxa) and the number of bones identifiable to taxon (NISP) preserved in archaeological sites (Grayson I 98 I, I 984). For archaeologists, however, eliminating the possibility of sampling bias is only half the battle, since we ultimately want to know what people were eating and how their choice of foods responded to the standing (but immeasurable) content of animal communities in the past. Most zooarchaeological analyses of taxonomic abundance implicitly or explicitly assume that the species eaten will reveal important features of human ecology and evolutionary changes therein-once over the hurdle of numerical sampling effects. But can predatory adaptations be distinguished on the basis of the species consumed, or do humans and other predators respond directly to abundance? This question has been asked over and over by community ecologists working in modern settings. More often than not, data on predatory mammals and birds testify to the overwhelming influence of natural abundance on prey species selection within major trophic levels, such as among frugivores, insectivores, or carnivores (e.g., Schoener i982, Terborgh I977), despite most studies' having been directed to finding difference (e.g., Bertram I979, Eisenberg I990, Koehler and Hornocker I99I, Leopold and Krausman I986, Major and Sherburne I987, Skinner, Henschel, and van Jaarsveld I986). Predators may vary in their relative emphases on certain prey species within a shared array, but there is much overlap even so, especially between predators of similar body size such as African lions and spotted hyaenas or leopards and cheetahs (Bertram I 979, Ewer I973, Kruuk I972, Schaller I972). There are many other ways for predators to partition the environment and the resources it contains than by simply taking different species. The potential for interspecific competition among trophically linked predators can be reduced, for example, through spatial segregation within habitats, differing biological apparatuses for processing and digesting food (Van Valkenburgh I989), and/or different strategies and maneuvers for locating and capturing food (Gautier-Hion, Emmons, and Dubost I980, Holmes, Bonney, and Pacala I979, Jaksic, Greene, and Yafiez I98I, Jaksic, Yafiez, and Fuentes I98I, Landres I983, Schoener i982, Terborgh and Diamond I970, and references cited above). Resource use may also be partitioned in time, especially by season (Wiens I977).2 The ambiguous relationships between species choice and adaptations of modern coexisting predators raise some questions about what species representation might mean for archaeological studies of human ecology, independently of the problem of sample-size biases. We know without a shadow of a doubt that modern predators are different from one another; the animals they eat simply do not provide a very sensitive measure of adaptive variation. Yet many archaeologists have turned to species representation in faunal assemblages to evaluate hypotheses about foraging "specialization" as opposed to "generalist" strategies (for an analytical review, see Grayson I984:I3I-51). And in archaeological research on early populations of Homo sapiens, apparent uniformity in taxa consumed has recently been called upon to support a variety of arguments about foraging adaptations across the Middle-to-UpperPaleolithic transition in Eurasia (e.g., Clark and Lindly I989a, b; Mellars I989). Other researchers meanwhile are more inclined to look to climatic shifts (e.g., Tchernov I98I, I989; Simek and Snyder I988) or geographic isolation (Baryshnikov I989) for explanations of the same general phenomena. The problems of niche separation between contemporaneous taxa living in the same ecosystem and between populations of the same genus separated in time are not entirely equivalent. They are close enough, however, that it is relevant to ask what taxonomic abundance data really mean to research on the evolutionary history of I. ? I992 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research OOII-3204/92/3304-0007$I.00. I am grateful to Lew Binford, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, and especially Steve Kuhn for inspiration and critical evaluations during all of the stages of this work. Comments by Clive Gamble, Lee Lyman, John Speth, and Lawrence Straus have made this a better paper. I thank my European colleagues, A. G. Segre, E. Segre-Naldini, A. Bietti, P. Cassoli, D. Cocchi, A. Radmilli, C. Tozzi, and G. Manzi, for their assistance and encouragement during data collection in Italy. The research was supported by the American Association of University Women, the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, the Institute for International Education (Fulbright Program), and a dissertation improvement grant (BNS-86i84Io) from the National Science Foundation. 2. Also relevant are observations that competition over a resource tends to be periodic rather than continuous (Wiens I977). Thus, even where differences in prey species selection by predators are found, it remains to be established that the variation is not the product of short-term resource switching. This kind of behavior is very common among higher organisms; diversification is merely an adjustment to temporary scarcity of certain prey taxa (for general reviews, see Kitchener I99I:98-I05; Schoener i982).

The Age of the Acheulian in India: New Evidence

Abstract: species: Symmetrical relationship characteristics or reciprocity? Ethology and Sociobiology 9:IOI-I8. .I989. Toward a comparative socioecology of the genus Macaca: Different dominance styles in rhesus and stumptail monkeys. American Journal of Primatology I9:83-IO9. DE WAAL, F. B. M., AND R. REN. I988. Comparison of the reconciliation behavior of stumptail and rhesus macaques. Ethology 78:I29-42. DUNBAR, R. I. M. I988. Primate social systems. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. HARCOURT, A. H., AND K. J. STEWART. I987. The influence of help in contests on dominance rank in primates: Hints from gorillas. Animal Behaviour 35:i82-90. .I989. Functions of alliances in contests within wild gorilla groups. Behaviour I09:I76-90. HEMELRIJK, C. K. 1990. Models of, and tests for, reciprocity, unidirectionality, and other social interaction patterns at a group level. Animal Behaviour 39:IOI3-29. HORROCKS, J., AND W. HUNTE. I983. Maternal rank and offspring rank in vervet monkeys: An appraisal of the mechanisms of rank acquisition. Animal Behaviour 3I:772-82. HUNTE, W., AND J. A. HORROCKS. I987. Kin and non-kin interventions in the aggressive disputes of monkeys. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 20:25 7-63. KAPLAN, J. R. I977. Fight interference and altruism in rhesus monkeys. American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Thermoluminescence Dates and a New Analysis of the Early Mousterian From Asprochaliko

Abstract: . I988. "Le Paleolithique final: Bilan d'une rencontre," in De la Loire a l'Oder: Les civilisations du Paleolithique final dans le nord-ouest europeen. Edited by M. Otte, pp. 723-32. British Archaeological Reports Intemational Series 444. PALtS, L., AND M. TASSIN DE SAINT-PEREUSE. I969. Les gravures de la Marche, Vol. I. Felins et ours. Bordeaux: Delmas/ Publications de l'Institut de Prehistoire de l'Universite de Bordeaux. . 1976. Les gravures de la Marche. Vol. 2. Les humains. Paris: Ophrys. PELLICIER, M., AND P. ACOSTA. I986. "Neolitico y Calcolitico de la Cueva de Neria," in La prehistoria de la Cueva de Nerla (Malaga). Malaga. PEQUART, M., AND S. J. PEQUART. 1936. "De l'authenticite des galets colories du Mas d'Azil et de leur signification presumee." Congres Prehistorique de France, vol. 12, pp. 548-58. PEYRONY, D. 1934. "L'art azilien perigordien: Son rapport avec l'art magdalenien final et l'art capsien." Congres Prehistorique de France, vol. II, pp. 413-17. PIETTE, E. I895. Hiatus et lacune: Vestiges de la periode de transition dans la grotte du Mas d'Azil. Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris, April I8. . I896. Etudes d'ethnographie prehistorique. 3. Les galets colories du Mas d'Azil. L'Anthropologie 7:385-427. PRIULI, A. I987. Figura zoomorfa tra i reperti della Grotta Romanelli conservati al museo di Maglie. Edizioni Scientifiche del Museo Comunale di Paleontologia di Maglie 3:79-85. RADMILLI, A. M. 1974. Gli scavi nella Grotta Polesini a Ponte Lucano di Tivoli e la pih antica arte del Lazio. Firenze: Sansoni. RIPOLL LOPEZ, S., AND C. CACHO QUESADA. I987. "Art mobilier du Paleolithique mediterraneen espagnol: Quelques nouvelles techniques," in L'art des objets au Paleolithique. Edited by J. Clottes, pp. 287-93. Foix-Le Mas d'Azil: Ministere de la Culture. ROUSSOT, A. 1990. "Art mobilier et art parietal du Perigord et de la Gironde: Comparaisons tylistiques," in L'art des objets au Paleolithique. Edited by J. Clottes, pp. I89-2o2. Foix-Le Mas d'Azil: Ministere de la Culture. ROZOY, J. G. 1978. Les demiers chasseurs: L'Epipaleolithique n France et en Belgique, essai de synthese. 3 vols. Charleville: Societe d'Etudes Champenoise. SCHILD, R. I988. "Processus de changement dans le Paleolithique final des plaines septentrionales," in De la Loire a l'Oder: Les civilisations due Paleolithique final dans le nordouest europeen. Edited by M. Otte, pp. 595-614. British Archaeological Reports Intemational Series 444. STRAUS, L. G. I99I. Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic adaptations in Cantabrian Spain and Pyrenean France. Journal of World Prehistory 5:83-104. TABORIN, Y. n.d. Les coquillages dans la parure paleolithique en France. Gallia Prehistoire, suppl. In press. THEVENIN, A. I982. Rochedane: L'Azilien, I'Epipaleolithique de l'est de la France et les civilisations epipaleolithiques de l'Europe Occidentale. Strasbourg: Memoires de la Faculte des Sciences Sociales et Ethnologiques. . I983. Les galets graves et peints de l'abri de Rochedane (Doubs) et le probkme de l'art azilien. Gallia Prehistoire 1:139-88. TRATMAN, E. K. 1976. A Late Upper Palaeolithic calculator (?) Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society 14:115-22. UTRILLA, P. 1990. "Aragon/litoral niediterrAneo: Relaciones durante el Paleolitico." Aragon/litoral mediterraneo: Intercambios culturales durante la prehistoria, pp. 29-63. Zaragoza: Fundaci6n Femando el Cat6lico. VIALOU, D. I986. L'art des grottes en Ariege magdalenienne. Gallia Prehistoire, suppl. 22.

Technology, Motion, and the Meaning of Epipaleolithic Art

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On Modeling Resource Transport Costs: Suggested Refinements

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Virgin Births and Sterile Debates: Anthropology and the New Reproductive Technologies

Abstract: Embryo research in Britain has been controversial and the 1984 Warnock report on human fertilization and embryology has been in the center of the battle over the legality of embryo research. Research is permitted under Parliamentary decision as of April 23 1990. The issue arouses feelings and thoughts about the nature of motherhood paternity biological inheritance the integrity of the family and the naturalness of birth and adds to the already difficulty struggles over sexuality reproduction gender relations and the family. Reproductive technologies raise questions 1) about the ethics and practicality of embryo experimentation 2) that challenge the structure of parenthood 3) about the feminist perspective on female reproductive capacity and male-dominated medical professions and 4) about anthropological concerns with marriage parenthood childbirth kinship and cultural patterns. Studies are cited which reflect an anthropological perspective on the impact of reproductive technologies on kinship and family structure. In vitro fertilization began in 1978 with the birth of Louise Brown. In 1984 the Warnock committee made recommendations that human embryo research 1) must be considered ethically acceptable and subject to stringent controls 2) subject to licensing up to the 14th day after fertilization 3) be monitored by a new independent statutory body 4) surrogacy be subject to criminal penalties when provided through surrogacy services by agencies or individual health professionals. Proposals for legislation based on 2 white papers were developed. The proposed Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill of 1990 established a statutory licensing body and either a ban on embryo research or authorization for limited research up to 14 days. Only the 2nd part of the Bill was approved. Embryo research is supported by medical and scientific establishments and justified as providing potential health benefits. Opposition to the bill included fear of criminal prosecution and religious belief about the protection of human life from conception. Scientific objections referred to violations of medical ethics and the Hippocratic oath. Feminists objected to the loss of identity to women. Artificial insemination raised issues about social parenthood and biological procreation and surrogacy raised ones about family integrity and social order. The legal issue of freezing embryos was dealt with in the Commission report. Many institutions in society have a vested interest in controlling reproduction and the repercussions of the new reproductive technologies challenge basic ideas.