Human Biocultural Evolution Research Articles

Quantum Leaps in Human Biocultural Evolution and the Relationship to Cranial Capacity.

The evolution of the genus Homo can only be understood by considering both of the inheritance systems that interact to shape human nature: biology and culture. While growing intellectual abilities are a key factor of human evolution, they are rarely contrasted with cultural progress. Cranial capacity data of 193 hominin fossils from the last seven million years and artefacts of increasing number and complexity in the archaeological record are used to demonstrate the concordant progression of brain-size increase and cultural development, starting approximately two million years ago. Our biocultural evolution shows a number of quantum leaps along the time axis applying to both domains. At first, humans left the canonical evolutionary pathway, which pertains to all other organisms, by enhancing their fitness using sophisticated tools and fire; secondly, they turned into a symbolic species; and finally, humanity now faces a new challenge: "intentional evolution". Chronologically, these quantum leaps correspond to cranial capacity data used here as a proxy for cognitive performance. This contribution tries to demonstrate this parallel development and argues for a simple and generalized model of human biocultural evolution. An extrapolation of the model into the future shows that humans, as biological entities, will not necessarily persist.

Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution.

Cultural evolutionary theory conceptualises culture as an information-transmission system whose dynamics take on evolutionary properties. Within this framework, however, innovation has been likened to random mutations, reducing its occurrence to chance or fortuitous transmission error. In introducing the special collection on children and innovation, we here place object play and play objects - especially functional miniatures - from carefully chosen archaeological contexts in a niche construction perspective. Given that play, including object play, is ubiquitous in human societies, we suggest that plaything construction, provisioning and use have, over evolutionary timescales, paid substantial selective dividends via ontogenetic niche modification. Combining findings from cognitive science, ethology and ethnography with insights into hominin early developmental life-history, we show how play objects and object play probably had decisive roles in the emergence of innovative capabilities. Importantly, we argue that closer attention to play objects can go some way towards addressing changes in innovation rates that occurred throughout human biocultural evolution and why innovations are observable within certain technological domains but not others.

Do emotions influence the motivations and preferences of keepers of stingless bees?

BackgroundAccording to the biophilia hypothesis, an emotional affiliation with nature has been inherited during human biocultural evolution. Research on beekeeping can contribute to the scientific understanding of the influence of emotions in the human-nature relationship, since this activity provides concrete experiences of beneficial interaction between the human being and the environment by stimulating conservation-friendly values among practitioners. In this study, we investigated motivations and preferences driving beekeepers’ choices. We hypothesized that emotional criteria would be the main motivators in choosing to include beekeeping into small-scale farming systems. We also assumed that, once beekeeping has been chosen, the preference among species of bees for raising would also be influenced mainly by emotional criteria.MethodsData were collected from free lists and semi-structured interviews with 52 keepers of stingless bees from Sítio Xixá in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The content analysis technique was used to analyze data from interviews. The underlying criteria for motivation and preference quoted in the free lists were analyzed with Smith’s Salience Index.ResultsEmotional and esthetic criteria were the most salient motivations for choosing beekeeping as one of the activities in small-scale farming systems. On the other hand, honey productivity and bee behavior were the most salient criteria for the preference for certain bee species to be kept.ConclusionsEmotional criterion had an especially notable influence on the motives for practicing beekeeping, but not on the preference of species to be raised. This demonstrates that the scenario under study represents a panorama of multiple influences in which emotions are one, but not the only, important component. Finally, our results indicate that the emotional domain should be taken into account in environmental education efforts and in the planning of bee management and nature conservation policies.

Human life course biology: A centennial perspective of scholarship on the human pattern of physical growth and its place in human biocultural evolution.

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Bogin, Barry; Vera, Carlos; Hermanussen, Michael and Scheffler, Cristiane: Human life course biology: A Centennial Perspective of scholarship on the human pattern of growth and capacity for culture which has been published in final form at: American Journal of Physical Anthropology 165.4 (2018): 834-854 titled : Human life course biology: A centennial perspective of scholarship on the human pattern of physical growth and its place in human biocultural evolution. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23357. This is article non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving

Stories of stones and bones: disciplinarity, narrative and practice in British popular prehistory, 1911-1935.

This paper explores how three central figures in the field of British prehistory - Sir Arthur Keith, Sir Grafton Elliot Smith and Louis Leakey - deployed different disciplinary practices and narrative devices in the popular accounts of human bio-cultural evolution that they produced during the early decades of the twentieth century. It shows how they used a variety of strategies, ranging from virtual witness through personal testimony to tactile demonstration, to ground their authority to interpret the increasingly wide range of fossil material available and to answer the bewildering variety of questions that could be asked about them. It investigates the way in which they positioned their own professional expertise in relation to fossil interpretation, particularly with regard to the - sometimes controversial - use they made of concepts, evidence and practices drawn from other disciplines. In doing so, they made claims that went beyond their original disciplinary boundaries. The paper argues that while none of these writers were able, ultimately, to support the wider claims they made regarding human prehistory, the nature of these claims deserves much closer attention, particularly with respect to the public role that historians of science can and should play in relation to present-day calls for greater interdisciplinarity.

Archaeology and Heritage Resource Management in Siuyu, Singida Region (Tanzania)

This paper was produced as a part of our ongoing research endeavors in Singida destined to provide a better understanding of early humans’ cultures, and to promote the conservation of cultural and natural heritages of the region. The overreaching goals of this research are to holistically reconstruct the archaeology of Singida by studying cultural processes over time and space. Equally important is to promote tourism in the Singida eastern axis and, to salvage the heritage assets of the region from total disappearance as evinced by the activities of modern day civilization, broadly, to shed more light about the past life ways, and the subsistence behaviours of our ancestors. Our recent archaeological reconnaissance conducted in January 2016 in Siuyu ward discovered rock paintings and a rock shelter with archeological potential (Ngaghe rock shelter), containing a large scatter of Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological artifacts that are crucial to the unravelling of the prehistoric human behaviours in Singida. Preliminary results from our research revealed that Singida region is an ideal place for undertaking research on early human bio-cultural evolution from LSA times to the present. Data from this study will be utilized to re-write the history of Singida region, to make sure that it is sustained for future generations. Despite their rarity, uniqueness, scientific and aesthetic values, these heritage assets are neither protected by village nor regional by-laws. Before deliberate conservation measures are put in place, it is very important to have good records of the areas that are attractive to tourism, and their current state of preservation. These sites were undocumented by the previous researchers, and in certain circumstances are unknown even to the local people of the Siuyu ward. Although the archaeology of Singida east is much “terra incognita”, this article is timely, for promoting archaeo-tourism and raising public awareness on the archaeology of Singida. Additionally, this work provides a stimulus to the authorities to take action by introducing effective conservation measures for the sustainability of these priceless non-renewable resources.

Apache Farmers, Agta Hunters and Bunong Elephant Keepers: a Career in Ethnoarchaeology

I spent much of my life interested in prehistoric and modern hunter-gatherer, or forager, societies. This professional exploration has led me through concepts, tools, and passions of many aspects of ethnoarchaeology. An ecological approach and material focus to modern hunters has led me to seek both the basis of today’s humid tropics foragers, and to consider the many models associated with human biocultural evolution, from the Plio-Pleistocene through the development of farming. I believe that a broad four-field anthropology, with considerable seepage and cross-fertilization into related fields, has given archaeologists and ethnographers a solid platform for researching our hunter-gatherer or forager basis of becoming, and being, human. Ethnoarchaeology, like anthropology, is properly a broad, diverse and multi-faceted field for joining attempts to ‘know how we know’ a cultural present and a past through patterned material remnants. Ethnoarchaeology, as I comprehend its power, focuses on seeing the behavior extractable from patterns in the present that may build theoretically solid and testable alternative models of humans’ patterns in the past. I will tell you in the following pages how I first began and now many years later continue my journey through anthropology and ethnoarchaeology. Much of my story is one of good luck, good timing, and many supportive teachers, colleagues and students.

AGENTS OF CHANGE: MODELING BIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION IN UPPER PLEISTOCENE WESTERN EURASIA

The complex interactions between social learning and biological change are key to understanding the human species and its origins. Yet paleoanthropological models often focus only on the evolution of the human genome and physical characters, while behavior is treated as an epiphenomenon of biological evolution. We present the results of a series of experiments that use computational models, parametrized with new archaeological data, to simulate the complex dynamics of human biocultural evolution in the changing environment of OIS (Oxygen Isotope Stage) 3 of western Eurasia (~58000–27000 ka). These experiments allow us to compare alternative trajectories of human evolution, resulting from differing combinations of socioecological behaviors and biological conditions, against the paleoanthropological record.

Genetic diversity on the Comoros Islands shows early seafaring as major determinant of human biocultural evolution in the Western Indian Ocean

The Comoros Islands are situated off the coast of East Africa, at the northern entrance of the channel of Mozambique. Contemporary Comoros society displays linguistic, cultural and religious features that are indicators of interactions between African, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian (SEA) populations. Influences came from the north, brought by the Arab and Persian traders whose maritime routes extended to Madagascar by 700-900 AD. Influences also came from the Far East, with the long-distance colonisation by Austronesian seafarers that reached Madagascar 1500 years ago. Indeed, strong genetic evidence for a SEA, but not a Middle Eastern, contribution has been found on Madagascar, but no genetic trace of either migration has been shown to exist in mainland Africa. Studying genetic diversity on the Comoros Islands could therefore provide new insights into human movement in the Indian Ocean. Here, we describe Y chromosomal and mitochondrial genetic variation in 577 Comorian islanders. We have defined 28 Y chromosomal and 9 mitochondrial lineages. We show the Comoros population to be a genetic mosaic, the result of tripartite gene flow from Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. A distinctive profile of African haplogroups, shared with Madagascar, may be characteristic of coastal sub-Saharan East Africa. Finally, the absence of any maternal contribution from Western Eurasia strongly implicates male-dominated trade and religion as the drivers of gene flow from the North. The Comoros provides a first view of the genetic makeup of coastal East Africa.

A Corollary to Revonsuo's "The Reinterpretation of Dreams"

Revonsuo's (2000) reinterpretation of dreams within an evolutionary framework is reiterated and a corollary is presented that complements and expands his original contribution. Revonsuo argues that dreams present an evolutionary adaptation that allows the sleeper's nervous system to generate simulations of threatening situations and to rehearse various tactics or strategies for dealing with the (simulated) threat. Revonsuo emphasizes physical threats, for example, dealing with predators (both two- and four-footed) and physical dangers such as storms. This article will expand the simulations to include more of Homo sapiens' ecological niche wherein successive generations, for success, would have had to negotiate within the very competitive world of their respective communities. Our ancestors had to negotiate male/male competition and female/female competition, achieve successful courting, achieve successful parenting, optimize winning the co-operation of neighbors and minimize being exploited by those neighbors. Empirical data from surveys on dreams' manifest content support this expansion of Revonsuo's theory. Key Words: Dreams; Manifest content; Social chess; Human bio-cultural evolution; Evolutionary adaptation. By all accounts, dreaming is a universal human trait, found in all cultures. A great deal of literature has been published on the meaning, symbols, and ritualization of dreams. The works of Jung (1963, 1974) and Freud (1900) are classic examples. Using a different paradigm, A. Revonsuo (2000) analyzed from an evolutionary perspective how dreams and dreaming would have emerged and stabilized. There is an intuitive appeal to this perspective. Dreaming is a cognitive event that is dependent upon the central nervous system (CNS). Given that dreams and dreaming occur during sleep, they are not under conscious control. The CNS is constructed by genetic information. In turn, the genes that code for the CNS are continuously filtered or selected across generations. Genetic blueprints that do not generate successive generations are deleted. Genetic blueprints that have continuously created descendants are represented by the current representatives of Homo sapiens - us. And virtually all of us dream. This paper attempts to build upon the paradigm that Revonsuo has constructed. First, Revonsuo's paradigm will be briefly presented. The paradigm can be encapsulated in his six premises. second, an expansion of the second premise will be offered, and, by extension, this expansion affects the next four. Revonsuo's Paradigm Revensuo's six premises are that: 1. Dream consciousness is an organized and selective simulation of the perceptual world. 2. Dream consciousness is specialized in the simulation of threatening events. 3. Nothing but exposure to real threatening events fully activates the threat simulation system. 4. The threat simulations produced by the fully activated system are perceptually and behaviorally realistic rehearsals of threatening events. 5. The realistic rehearsal of these skills can lead to enhanced performance regardless of whether the training episodes are explicitly remembered. 6. The ancestral environment in which the human brain evolved included frequent dangerous events that constituted extreme threats to human reproductive success. They thus presented serious selection pressures to ancestral human populations and fully activated the threat simulation mechanisms. An Expansion We suggest that, in addition to threat to life and limb, dreams create simulations of other behaviors that are necessary for ancestors to have descendants. For humans, the transfer of their genetic blueprints across generations involves: (i) surviving gestation, (ii) birth, (iii) staying alive at least through puberty, (iv) achieving fertility, (v) maneuvering among the community's children, adolescents and adults; i.e., mastering social chess, (vi) successfully learning the community's traditions and folkways/mores and expectations; i. …

Integrative Paths to the Past: Paleoanthropological Advances in Honor of F. Clark Howell, edited by Robert S. Corrnccini and Russell L. Ciochon, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1994.

F. Clark Howell retired from the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. At Berkeley, and earlier while at the University of Chicago, he was responsible for training a number of specialists in human biocultural evolution, or palaeoanthropology. In fact, Howell is credited with developing the concept of palaeoanthropology (and defining the term itself); he certainly created the framework for this integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to human evolution. For his retirement, former students and colleagues collaborated to produce this volume. Some of the papers were presented at a one day symposium reviewing the highlights of Howell's career along with current research directions in palaeoanthropology. It took place during the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association held in San Francisco in 1992. Bowell's long time colleague J. Desmond Clark gave the distinguished lecture at the same meeting. During his career, Howell directed excavations at Isimilain Tanzania, as well as Torralba and Ambrona in Spain (all extensive Acheulean localities), but is best known for his work west of the Omo River in southern Ethiopia. It was there during the 1960s and 1970s that he developed the methods and approaches which would come to characterize the best of palaeoanthropological research.