Testing Models of Handedness in Stone Tools

2019 ◽  
pp. 225-236
Author(s):  
Natalie Uomini ◽  
Lana Ruck
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Hand Preference ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Learning Hypothesis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis

When, why, and how did humans develop the extreme right-handedness found in this species? As reviewed in this chapter, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the distribution of handedness in humans. The social learning hypothesis posits that similarity in hand configuration between demonstrator and learner facilitates learning; the fighting hypothesis states that a left-hander minority is maintained by an advantage in close combat; and the task complexity hypothesis proposes that task complexity increases hand preference. The three hypotheses are compared in terms of how they might be detected in the stone tool record. The power of the archaeological record is carefully considered to address hand preference and handedness at the level of individuals and groups, and how stone tools can help to test the predictions of the various hypotheses for the evolution of right-handedness in our species.

scholarly journals Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radu Iovita ◽  
david braun ◽  
Matthew Douglass ◽  
Simon Holdaway ◽  
Sam C. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Niche Construction Theory ◽  
Dual Inheritance Theory ◽  
Dual Inheritance

One of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in the study of stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology in a way that preserves human agency and operates at scales that are visible in the archaeological record. The concept of niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments and change the conditions for selection, could provide a solution to this problem. In this review, we evaluate the utility of niche construction theory (NCT) for stone tool archaeology. We apply NCT to lithics both as part of the ‘extended phenotype’ and as residuals or precipitates of other niche-constructing activities, suggesting ways in which archaeologists can employ niche construction feedbacks to generate testable hypotheses about stone tool use. Finally, we compare NCT to other prominent evolutionary approaches, such as human behavioral ecology and dual-inheritance theory, concluding that NCT has several advantages.

scholarly journals A sexual division of labour at the start of agriculture? A multi-proxy comparison through grave good stone tool technological and use-wear analysis

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249130
Author(s):  
Alba Masclans ◽  
Caroline Hamon ◽  
Christian Jeunesse ◽  
Penny Bickle
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Sexual Division ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Grave Good ◽  
East West

This work demonstrates the importance of integrating sexual division of labour into the research of the transition to the Neolithic and its social implications. During the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, when migration led to the dispersal of domesticated plants and animals, novel tasks and tools, appear in the archaeological record. By examining the use-wear traces from over 400 stone tools from funerary contexts of the earliest Neolithic in central Europe we provide insights into what tasks could have been carried out by women and men. The results of this analysis are then examined for statistically significant correlations with the osteological, isotopic and other grave good data, informing on sexed-based differences in diet, mobility and symbolism. Our data demonstrate males were buried with stone tools used for woodwork, and butchery, hunting or interpersonal violence, while women with those for the working of animal skins, expanding the range of tasks known to have been carried out. The results also show variation along an east-west cline from Slovakia to eastern France, suggesting that the sexual division of labour (or at least its representation in death) changed as farming spread westwards.

Knapping in the Dark

2019 ◽  
pp. 355-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Cole
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Direct Products ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Multiple Points ◽  
Abstract Thought ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Relationship

Understanding the cognitive abilities of ancestral hominins remains challenging, despite the many advances of recent years, including new fossil discoveries and paleogenetic data. However, the primary route to accessing the behavioral and cognitive worlds of our hominin ancestors still remains firmly rooted in the archaeological record, particularly stone tools, the direct products of hominin actions grounded in the physical, social, and cognitive worlds occupied by the knappers. A theory of mind (ToM) has long been considered a key component of the human condition, linked to both language and the development of abstract thought. There must therefore be a point (or perhaps multiple points) in our evolutionary history when hominins gained a ToM. This ability should, in turn, be reflected in the archaeological record. To date, however, only limited attempts have been made to correlate the two. This chapter thus explores the relationship between the various stone tool traditions and ToM.

scholarly journals Human activity negatively affects stone tool-using Burmese long-tailed macaquesMacaca fascicularis aureain Laem Son National Park, Thailand

Oryx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Gumert ◽  
Yuzuru Hamada ◽  
Suchinda Malaivijitnond
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
National Park ◽  
Anthropogenic Impact ◽  
Macaca Fascicularis ◽  
Canis Familiaris ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Domestic Dogs ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Invertebrate Prey ◽  
The Impact

AbstractAnimal traditions can affect survival by improving how individuals use their environment. They are inherited through social learning and are restricted to small subpopulations. As a result, traditions are rare and their preservation needs to be considered in biodiversity conservation. We studied Burmese long-tailed macaquesMacaca fascicularis aurealiving on Piak Nam Yai Island in Laem Son National Park, Thailand, which maintain a rare stone tool-using tradition for processing hard-shelled invertebrate prey along the island's shores. We found the population had 192 individuals in nine groups and most individuals used stone tools. This population is under pressure from the local human community through the development of farms and release of domestic dogsCanis familiarisonto the island. The level of anthropogenic impact varied in each macaque groups' range and juvenile–infant composition varied with impact. The proportion of young was smaller in groups overlapping farms and was negatively correlated with the amount of dog activity in their range. We also found that coastal use by macaques was negatively related to living near plantations and that the dogs displaced macaques from the shores in 93% of their encounters. We conclude that human impact is negatively affecting Piak Nam Yai's macaques and are concerned this could disrupt the persistence of their stone-use tradition. we discuss the impact and the potential consequences, and we recommend better protection of coastal areas within Laem Son National Park.

scholarly journals ANALISIS ”RANGKAIAN TAHAPAN OPERASIONAL” PEMBUATAN BELIUNG BATU DARI PERBENGKELAN NEOLITIK DI BANYUWANGI SELATAN

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-168
Author(s):  
Sofwan Noerwidi
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Process ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Regional Office ◽  
Chaîne Opératoire ◽  
Chaine Operatoire ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technological Perspective

Prehistoric research in South Banyuwangi by the National Center of Archaeology of Yogyakarta Regional Office between 2008-2011 have found artifact assemblage which indicating stone tool workshop activities. The typology of artifacts which reflecting workshop activities, including; nucleus, percutor, debitage, rough adze, and polishing stone. This paper uses chaîne opératoire approach to reconstruct the producing process and technological aspects related to the manufacturing process of stone adze from neolithic workshop sites in the region. This study is expected to increasing our understanding on technological perspective in the manufacture of Neolithic stone tools, and to give some idea about the social aspects of life of Austronesian speaking people in Indonesia.

Stone Tool Life Meets Everyday Life

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Carr ◽  
Andrew P. Bradbury
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Tool Life ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Chipped Stone ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Organization Of Technology

Often, the lives of people in the past were constrained by their basic everyday needs and what they needed to accomplish. This chapter considers both how people conducted certain minimal activities everyday to meet those needs and how those activities left traces in the archaeological record. An Organization of Technology model articulates the archaeological record (artifact form and distribution) not only through activities and technological strategy but also through other considerations. The authors explore the possibilities of how examining the everyday life of an individual in the past just from discarded Lithics is possible: from the stone’s first procurement for the manufacture of chipped stone tools, to the stone’s use in various activities before it’s either (eventually) discarded or reused, to the stone’s finally recovery by archaeologists.

scholarly journals Achieving Social and Ecological Outcomes in Collaborative Environmental Governance: Good Examples from Swedish Moose Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2329
Author(s):  
Sabrina Dressel ◽  
Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist ◽  
Maria Johansson ◽  
Göran Ericsson ◽  
Camilla Sandström
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Collaborative Governance ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Ecological Context ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social

Collaborative governance approaches have been suggested as strategies to handle wicked environmental problems. Evaluations have found promising examples of effective natural resource governance, but also highlighted the importance of social-ecological context and institutional design. The aim of this study was to identify factors that contribute to the achievement of social and ecological sustainability within Swedish moose (Alces alces) management. In 2012, a multi-level collaborative governance regime was implemented to decrease conflicts among stakeholders. We carried out semi-structured interviews with six ‘good examples’ (i.e., Moose Management Groups that showed positive social and ecological outcomes). We found that ‘good examples’ collectively identified existing knowledge gaps and management challenges and used their discretionary power to develop procedural arrangements that are adapted to the social-ecological context, their theory of change, and attributes of local actors. This contributed to the creation of bridging social capital and principled engagement across governance levels. Thus, our results indicate the existence of higher-order social learning as well as a positive feedback from within-level collaboration dynamics to between-level collaboration. Furthermore, our study illustrates the importance of institutional flexibility to utilize the existing knowledge across stakeholder groups and to allow for adaptations based on the social learning process.

scholarly journals Taking the Historical-Social Dimension Seriously: A Reply to Bandini et al.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Noël Haidle ◽  
Oliver Schlaudt
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Cumulative Culture ◽  
Fundamental Notion ◽  
Dynamic Interpretation

AbstractIn our recent article, "Where Does Cumulative Culture Begin? A Plea for a Sociologically Informed Perspective" (Haidle and Schlaudt in Biol Theory 15:161–174, 2020) we commented on a fundamental notion in current approaches to cultural evolution, the “zones of latent solutions” (henceforth ZLS), and proposed a modification of it, namely a social and dynamic interpretation of the latent solutions which were originally introduced within an individualistic framework and as static, genetically fixed entities. This modification seemed, and still seems, relevant to us and, in particular, more adequate for coping with the archaeological record. Bandini et al. (Biol Theory, 2021) rejected our proposition and deemed it unnecessary. In their critique, they focused on: (1) our reservations about an individualistic approach; (2) our objections to the presumption of fully naive individuals; and (3) our demand for an extended consideration of forms of social learning simpler than emulation and imitation. We will briefly reply to their critique in order to clarify some misunderstandings. However, the criticisms also show that we are at an impasse on certain crucial topics, such as the meaning of ZLS and the scope and nature of culture in general. Thus, we consider it necessary to make an additional effort to identify the conceptual roots which are at the very basis of the dissent with Bandini et al.

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