Biology and Behaviour in Human Evolution

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis C. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Biological Perspective ◽  
Patterns And Processes ◽  
Reductionist Approach

Of the diverse approaches to understanding patterns and processes in human evolution, a focus on the biology of behaviour using principles derived from the non-human primates may have some utility for archaeologists. This article seeks to outline some biologically-based areas that could prove fruitful in exploring the origins of human behaviour within the archaeological record. It attempts to initiate a dialogue between biologists, even with their limited understanding of the problems facing those working with human origins, and archaeologists, in the hope that this dialogue will move beyond a simple reductionist approach towards the goal of integrating behaviour into a more sophisticated biological perspective.

Woman the Gatherer

2018 ◽  
pp. 133-142
Author(s):  
Erika Lorraine Milam
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Male Authority

This chapter considers the research of women anthropologists during this period. It shows how many anthropologists had fought to refute the picture of universal male authority implied by common narratives of human evolution were women, often at the very beginning of what turned out to be long, notable careers. Their research gave fuller form to a rhetorically powerful alternative to Man the Hunter in reconstructions of human origins—Woman the Gatherer. Like her partner, Woman the Gatherer found intellectual support in research on long-extinct human ancestors, studies of human cultures today, and animal behavior, with a new emphasis on field research among primates.

Semiosis in the Pleistocene

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Kissel ◽  
Agustín Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Distinctive Aspect ◽  
The One

A distinctive aspect of human behaviour is the ability to think symbolically. However, tracking the origin of this capability is controversial. From a Peircean perspective, to know if something truly is a symbol we need to know the cultural context in which it was created. Rather than initially asking if materials are symbols/symbolic, we offer that it is more salient to ask how they functioned as signs. Specifically we argue that using the Peircean distinction between qualisigns, sinsigns and legisigns provides support for this endeavour. The ‘flickering’ of early symbolic behaviour (the sporadic occurrences of objects with embedded social meanings in the Pleistocene archaeological record) can best be seen as sinsigns, whereas sites that show long-term presence of such materials are demonstrating the presence of legisigns: the codification of ideas. To illustrate this approach, we apply these ideas to three classes of artefacts, demonstrating how this system can address issues of relevance to palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists who often fetishize the symbolic as the one ability that makes us human.

Human Evolution: A new molecular view of human origins

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 651-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F.Y. Brookfield
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Human Origins

Inventing Homo gardarensis: Prestige, Pressure, and Human Evolution in Interwar Scandinavia

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Kjærgaard
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
International Competition ◽  
Evolutionary Explanation ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
National Pride ◽  
Fossil Evidence

ArgumentIn the 1920s there were still very few fossil human remains to support an evolutionary explanation of human origins. Nonetheless, evolution as an explanatory framework was widely accepted. This led to a search for ancestors in several continents with fierce international competition. With so little fossil evidence available and the idea of a Missing Link as a crucial piece of evidence in human evolution still intact, many actors participated in the scientific race to identify the human ancestor. The curious case of Homo gardarensis serves as an example of how personal ambitions and national pride were deeply interconnected as scientific concerns were sometimes slighted in interwar palaeoanthropology.

scholarly journals Violence in the prehistoric period of Japan: the spatio-temporal pattern of skeletal evidence for violence in the Jomon period

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 20160028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisashi Nakao ◽  
Kohei Tamura ◽  
Yui Arimatsu ◽  
Tomomi Nakagawa ◽  
Naoko Matsumoto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Temporal Pattern ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Whether man is predisposed to lethal violence, ranging from homicide to warfare, and how that may have impacted human evolution, are among the most controversial topics of debate on human evolution. Although recent studies on the evolution of warfare have been based on various archaeological and ethnographic data, they have reported mixed results: it is unclear whether or not warfare among prehistoric hunter–gatherers was common enough to be a component of human nature and a selective pressure for the evolution of human behaviour. This paper reports the mortality attributable to violence, and the spatio-temporal pattern of violence thus shown among ancient hunter–gatherers using skeletal evidence in prehistoric Japan (the Jomon period: 13 000 cal BC–800 cal BC). Our results suggest that the mortality due to violence was low and spatio-temporally highly restricted in the Jomon period, which implies that violence including warfare in prehistoric Japan was not common.

Alternative models of Pleistocene biocultural evolution: a response to Foley

Antiquity ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 63 (238) ◽  
pp. 153-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Single Source ◽  
Recent Discussion ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Biocultural Evolution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Origins Research

Human origins research has had a long history of vigorous debate. Recent discussion has been no exception, the more so perhaps as the strands of evidence — anthropological, archaeological, and now molecular-biological — are sufficiently diverse that not many can be well placed to deal fairly with them all. Here issue is taken with Foley's cladistic view of human evolution, and with the ‘Garden of Eden’ hypothesis of a single source in Africa for modern human populations.

scholarly journals Reflexiones acerca de la enseñanza de la influencia de la alimentación en la evolución humana, en niños de quinto de primaria

2015 ◽  
pp. 1747
Author(s):  
Yudy Cecilia Rátiva Avella
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Eating Behavior ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
Biological Perspective ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
Socially Relevant ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

Teniendo en cuenta los problemas mundiales que se presentan debido a la malnutrición; la alimentación y la nutrición humana, constituyen  temáticas de vital importancia en la enseñanza que se realiza a los niños de primaria, a temprana edad se deben brindar los conocimientos necesarios para poder influir en sus comportamientos alimenticios en  la edad adulta; por lo tanto se hacen necesarios procesos de reflexión docente afín de contribuir a mejorar las prácticas pedagógicas. En este artículo se presenta una reflexión sobre la importancia de desarrollar en el aula de clase de los niños de quinto de primaria la enseñanza de la alimentación desde una perspectiva histórica y biológica teniendo en cuenta la evolución humana y  la alimentación hoy, esta surge después de un proceso de reflexión y análisis de la práctica pedagógica, efectuada al analizar las respuestas proporcionadas al cuestionario semiestructurado  Representación del Contenido (ReCo), los resultados obtenidos establecen la importancia de implementar procesos de reflexión docente que permitan implementar diferentes estrategias de enseñanza mediante las cuales se  aborde temáticas socialmente relevantes desde diferentes perspectivas. Palabras claves: Alimentación y nutrición humana; Evolución humana; Representación de Contenido (ReCo); Reflexión docente; Enseñanza. AbstractTaking into account the global problems that arise due to malnutrition, food and human nutrition, these are topics of vital importance in what is taught to children in primary school, because  early knowledge required to influence  eating behavior in adulthood must be provided; therefore  teaching reflection  processes in order to help improve teaching practices are necessary. This article reflects on the importance of developing in the classroom of children in fifth grade teaching power from a historical and biological perspective considering human evolution and food today, this comes after a process of reflection and analysis of pedagogical practice, conducted after analyzing the replies provided to the semi-structured questionnaire Representation of Content (ReCo), the results establish the importance of generating reflection processes on teaching allowing to implement different teaching strategies through which to address socially relevant issues from different perspectives.

Evolution of mating strategies: Evidence from the fossil and archaeological records

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-616
Author(s):  
Steven Mithen
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Good Genes ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Persuasive Argument ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Strategic Pluralism

Gangestad & Simpson provide a persuasive argument that both men and women have evolved conditional mating strategies. Their references to “ancestral” males and females are rather vague, which is unfortunate, as they seek to justify their arguments by invoking human evolutionary history. When one actually examines the evidence for human evolution further, more support for their arguments can be found, as predominant types of mating strategies are likely to have shifted in light of environmental and anatomical developments. We can also see in the archaeological record evidence for a further dimension of strategic pluralism – the use of material culture to advertise good genes in some species of ancestral males.

On Human Origins: A Bahá’í Perspective

1990 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Craig Loehle
Keyword(s):  
Human Evolution ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Literal Interpretation ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Baha'i Faith ◽  
Divine Origin ◽  
The Individual

The question of human origins has been one of the major points of conflict between scientific and religious views. The scientific account of human evolution poses difficulties for those who demand a literal interpretation of scripture and believe in a special, divine origin for humanity. These difficulties are resolved by the Bahá’í writings, which view human evolution, spiritual development in the individual, the advancement of civilization, and the progress of religion as all representing a single fundamental developmental process and spiritual principle underlying all of creation. Rather than being in conflict with the theory of evolution, the Bahá’í Faith itself incorporates an evolutionary worldview.

Evolution of human behaviour and societies

Antiquity ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Ian Tattersall
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Style ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Living World ◽  
The World ◽  
Initial Appearance ◽  
Mental Symbols ◽  
The Way

Early in their book A story of us, the evolutionary psychologists Leslie Newson and Peter Richerson remark of very early hominins that “we can't know what it is like to experience life with a brain so very different from our own” (p. 34). These words neatly encapsulate an unfortunate reality that confronts anyone who tries to understand or reconstruct the evolution of human cognition: we humans are so completely imprisoned within our own cognitive style as to be incapable of fully imagining what was going on in the minds of extinct hominins who were behaviourally highly sophisticated, but who nonetheless did not think like us—which basically includes all of them. The reason for this difficulty is that we modern Homo sapiens are entirely unique in the living world in the way in which we manipulate information about our exterior and internal worlds. We do this symbolically, which is to say that we deconstruct those worlds into vocabularies of mental symbols that we can then combine and recombine in our minds, according to rules, to make statements not only about the world as it is, but as it might be. And evidence in the archaeological record for the routinely symbolic behaviours that are our best proxies for the apprehension of the world in this fashion is at best very sparse indeed prior—and even for some time subsequent—to the initial appearance of Homo sapiens.

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