Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective
01 Mar 2003-Journal of World Prehistory (Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers)-Vol. 17, Iss: 1, pp 1-70
TL;DR: In this article, a critical reappraisal contradicts the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago.
Abstract: In recent years, there has been a tendency to correlate the origin of modern culture and language with that of anatomically modern humans. Here we discuss this correlation in the light of results provided by our first hand analysis of ancient and recently discovered relevant archaeological and paleontological material from Africa and Europe. We focus in particular on the evolutionary significance of lithic and bone technology, the emergence of symbolism, Neandertal behavioral patterns, the identification of early mortuary practices, the anatomical evidence for the acquisition of language, the development of conscious symbolic storage, the emergence of musical traditions, and the archaeological evidence for the diversification of languages during the Upper Paleolithic. This critical reappraisal contradicts the hypothesis of a symbolic revolution coinciding with the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe some 40,000 years ago, but also highlights inconsistencies in the anatomically–culturally modern equation and the potential contribution of anatomically “pre-modern” human populations to the emergence of these abilities. No firm evidence of conscious symbolic storage and musical traditions are found before the Upper Paleolithic. However, the oldest known European objects that testify to these practices already show a high degree of complexity and geographic variability suggestive of possible earlier, and still unrecorded, phases of development.
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TL;DR: A population model shows that demography is a major determinant in the maintenance of cultural complexity and that variation in regional subpopulation density and/or migratory activity results in spatial structuring of cultural skill accumulation.
Abstract: The origins of modern human behavior are marked by increased symbolic and technological complexity in the archaeological record. In western Eurasia this transition, the Upper Paleolithic, occurred about 45,000 years ago, but many of its features appear transiently in southern Africa about 45,000 years earlier. We show that demography is a major determinant in the maintenance of cultural complexity and that variation in regional subpopulation density and/or migratory activity results in spatial structuring of cultural skill accumulation. Genetic estimates of regional population size over time show that densities in early Upper Paleolithic Europe were similar to those in sub-Saharan Africa when modern behavior first appeared. Demographic factors can thus explain geographic variation in the timing of the first appearance of modern behavior without invoking increased cognitive capacity.
819 citations
TL;DR: It is argued here that the current set of test implications suffers from three main problems: many are empirically derived from and context‐specific to the richer European record, rendering them problematic for use in the primarily tropical and subtropical African continent.
Abstract: Archaeology’s main contribution to the debate over the origins of modern humans has been investigating where and when modern human behavior is first recognized in the archaeological record. Most of this debate has been over the empirical record for the appearance and distribution of a set of traits that have come to be accepted as indicators of behavioral modernity. This debate has resulted in a series of competing models that we explicate here, and the traits are typically used as the test implications for these models. However, adequate tests of hypotheses and models rest on robust test implications, and we argue here that the current set of test implications suffers from three main problems: (1) Many are empirically derived from and context‐specific to the richer European record, rendering them problematic for use in the primarily tropical and subtropical African continent. (2) They are ambiguous because other processes can be invoked, often with greater parsimony, to explain their character. (3) Many ...
647 citations
TL;DR: Morphometric, taphonomic and microscopic analysis of modern assemblages of living and dead tick shell demonstrate that the presence of perforated Nassarius kraussianus shells in the Blombos MSA levels cannot be due to natural processes or accidental transport by humans.
548 citations
TL;DR: A comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of music is presented, stressing the value of comparisons both with human language, and with those animal communication systems traditionally termed "song".
512 citations
TL;DR: Thirteen additional pieces of incised ochre recovered from c.
473 citations
References
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TL;DR: The African Middle and early Late Pleistocene hominid fossil record is fairly continuous and in it can be recognized a number of probably distinct species that provide plausible ancestors for H. sapiens, and suggests a gradual assembling of the package of modern human behaviors in Africa, and its later export to other regions of the Old World.
2,165 citations
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01 Jan 1981
2,085 citations
"Archaeological Evidence for the Eme..." refers background or result in this paper
...It also argues that Neandertal and earlier societies were much less complex than early modern ones (Binford, 1981, 1989; White, 1982) and that there was a difference, even a clear inferiority, in the cognitive abilities of Neandertals, when compared to early AMH (Binford, 1989; Noble and Davidson,…...
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...This hypothesis, together with an interpretation of faunal remains, concludes that early humans had limited predatory abilities (Binford, 1981)....
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TL;DR: It is found that 39 different behaviour patterns, including tool usage, grooming and courtship behaviours, are customary or habitual in some communities but are absent in others where ecological explanations have been discounted.
Abstract: As an increasing number of field studies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have achieved long-term status across Africa, differences in the behavioural repertoires described have become apparent that suggest there is significant cultural variation1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Here we present a systematic synthesis of this information from the seven most long-term studies, which together have accumulated 151 years of chimpanzee observation. This comprehensive analysis reveals patterns of variation that are far more extensive than have previously been documented for any animal species except humans8,9,10,11. We find that 39 different behaviour patterns, including tool usage, grooming and courtship behaviours, are customary or habitual in some communities but are absent in others where ecological explanations have been discounted. Among mammalian and avian species, cultural variation has previously been identified only for single behaviour patterns, such as the local dialects of song-birds12,13. The extensive, multiple variations now documented for chimpanzees are thus without parallel. Moreover, the combined repertoire of these behaviour patterns in each chimpanzee community is itself highly distinctive, a phenomenon characteristic of human cultures14 but previously unrecognised in non-human species.
1,964 citations
"Archaeological Evidence for the Eme..." refers background or methods in this paper
...In a number of recent papers (Backwell and d’Errico, 2001; d’Errico et al., 2002; Villa and d’Errico, 2001), an integrated method has been developed on the basis of taphonomic observations, actualistic data, replicative experiments, and microscopic analysis to assess putative shaped or used bone…...
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...Studies on chimpanzees have demonstrated (Whiten et al., 1999) that each group is characterized by different and rather complex cultural traditions that are subject to ecological influences....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw upon ethnographic experiences among the Nunamiut Eskimo for insights into the effects of technological organization on interassemblage variability Varying situationally conditioned strategies of raw material procurement, tool design and manufacture, and disposal are described as clues to site function or "placement" in a subsistence-settlement system.
Abstract: This paper draws upon ethnographic experiences among the Nunamiut Eskimo for insights into the effects of technological organization on interassemblage variability Varying situationally conditioned strategies of raw material procurement, tool design and manufacture, and disposal are described as clues to site function or "placement" in a subsistence-settlement system
1,298 citations
"Archaeological Evidence for the Eme..." refers background in this paper
...Binford (1979, 1989) characterized early human technology as poorly organized and “tending toward the expedient manufacture, use, and abandonment of instrumental items in the immediate context of use” (Binford, 1977, p. 34)....
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TL;DR: The reconstruction of human evolutionary history was checked with statistical techniques such as "boot-strapping" and changes some earlier conclusions and is in agreement with more recent ones, including published and unpublished DNA-marker results.
Abstract: The genetic information for this work came from a very large collection of gene frequencies for "classical" (non-DNA) polymorphisms of the world aborigines. The data were grouped in 42 populations studied for 120 alleles. The reconstruction of human evolutionary history thus generated was checked with statistical techniques such as "boot-strapping". It changes some earlier conclusions and is in agreement with more recent ones, including published and unpublished DNA-marker results. The first split in the phylogenetic tree separates Africans from non-Africans, and the second separates two major clusters, one corresponding to Caucasoids, East Asians, Arctic populations, and American natives, and the other to Southeast Asians (mainland and insular), Pacific islanders, and New Guineans and Australians. Average genetic distances between the most important clusters are proportional to archaeological separation times. Linguistic families correspond to groups of populations with very few, easily understood overlaps, and their origin can be given a time frame. Linguistic superfamilies show remarkable correspondence with the two major clusters, indicating considerable parallelism between genetic and linguistic evolution. The latest step in language development may have been an important factor determining the rapid expansion that followed the appearance of modern humans and the demise of Neanderthals.
817 citations