African and Asian perspectives on the origins of modern humans

1992 ◽  
Vol 337 (1280) ◽  
pp. 201-215 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Far East ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Fossil Hominids ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
The One ◽  
Noah's Ark

The ways in which the cultural evidence - in its chronological context - can be used to imply behavioural patterning and to identify possible causes of change are discussed. Improved reliability in dating methods, suites of dates from different regional localities, and new, firmly dated fossil hominids from crucial regions such as northeast Africa, the Levant, India and China, are essential for clarification of the origin and spread of the modern genepool. Hominid ancestry in Africa is reviewed, as well as the claims for an independent origin in Asia. The cultural differences and changes within Africa, West and South Asia and the Far East in the later Middle and early Upper Pleistocene are examined and compared, and some behavioural implications are suggested, taking account of the evolutionary frameworks suggested by the ‘multiregional evolution’ and ‘Noah’s Ark’ hypotheses of human evolution. A possible explanation is proposed for the cultural differences between Africa, West Asia and India on the one hand, and southeast Asia and the Far East on the other. The apparent hiatus between the appearance of the first anatomically modern humans, ca . 100 ka ago, and the appearance of the Upper Palaeolithic and other contemporaneous technological and behavioural changes around 40 ka ago, is discussed. It is suggested that the anatomical changes occurred first, and that neurological changes permitted the development of fully syntactic language some 50 ka later. The intellectual and behavioural revolution, best demonstrated by the ‘Upper Palaeolithic’ of Eurasia, seems to have been dependent on this linguistic development - within the modern genepool - and triggered the rapid migration of human populations throughout the Old World.

Marine investigations in the Lakshadweep Islands, India

Antiquity ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (282) ◽  
pp. 827-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sila Tripati
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Far East ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Early Settlement ◽  
The One ◽  
Lakshadweep Islands

The Lakshadweep Islands lie on the sea route between west Asia and Africa on the one hand and south Asia and the Far East on the other. In maritime history, these islands have played a vital role by providing shelter, fresh water and landmarks to navigators through the ages. Recent discoveries made during marine archaeological exploration and excavations in the Lakshadweep have revealed evidences of early settlement and shipwrecks. The findings suggest that the islands had been inhabited much before the early historical period.

The Archaeology of Archaic and Early ModernHomo Sapiens: An African Perspective

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Allsworth-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
Out Of Africa

Whereas in Europe the transition from Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the replacement of Neanderthal by anatomically modern humans appear to be synchronous events, in Africa this is not the case. Neanderthals as such were not present in Africa, and if the ‘Out of Africa’ model is correct, the ancestors of anatomically modern humans must have made their appearance in a Middle Stone Age context before 100,000 years ago. Subsequently, it seems that they coexisted with Neanderthals for up to 70,000 years in the Near East. If a direct biological correlation can be ruled out, the question arises: what was the impetus for an Upper Palaeolithic ‘revolution’ and why should it have taken place at all?

Why Not Islam?

1975 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Zaehner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Far East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
Rigid Structure ◽  
The Far East ◽  
The One ◽  
Second World

As everyone knows, since the end of the Second World War there has been a sensational revival of interest in the non-Christian religions particularly in the United States and in this country. The revival has taken two forms, the one popular, the other academic. The first of these has turned almost exclusively to Hindu and Buddhist mysticism and can be seen as an energetic reaction against the dogmatic and until very recently rigid structure of institutionalised Christianity and a search for a lived experience of the freedom of the spirit which is held to be the true content of mysticism, obscured in Christianity by the basic dogma of a transcendent God, the ‘wholly Other’ of Rudolf Otto and his numerous followers, but wholly untrammelled by any such concept in the higher reaches of Vedanta and Buddhism, particularly in its Zen manifestation. On the academic side the picture is less clear. There is, of course, the claim that the study of religion, like any other academic study, must be subjected to and controlled by the same principles of ‘scientific’ objectivity to which the other ‘arts’ subjects have been subjected, to their own undoing. But even here there would seem to be a bias in favour of the religions of India and the Far East as against Islam, largely, one supposes, in response to popular demand.

scholarly journals The First Anatomically Modern Humans from South-Eastern Europe. Contributions from the Buran-Kaya III Site (Crimea)

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 169-179
Author(s):  
S. Prat ◽  
S. Péan ◽  
L. Crépin ◽  
S. Puaud ◽  
D.G. Drucker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Potential Interactions

The arrival of modern humans into Europe, their dispersal and their potential interactions with Neanderthals are still in debate. Whereas the first appearance of anatomically modern humans in Western Europe seems to be well understood, the situation is quite different for Eastern Europe, where data are more scarce. The Buran-Kaya III site in Crimea is of key importance to understand the colonization of Europe by anatomically modern humans and their potential contemporaneity with the last Neanderthal occupations. The new radiocarbon dated sequence shows that no Neanderthal settlement existed after 39 ka cal BP and casts doubt on the survival, as previously proposed, of Neanderthal refuge zones in Crimea 28 ka BP ago (34-32 ka cal BP). The human remains from Buran-Kaya III, directly dated to 32450 +250/-230 BP (layer 6-2) and 31900+/-220 BP (layer 6-1) (37.1-35.7 ka cal BP and 36.3-35.2 cal BP respectively), represent some of the oldest evidence of anatomically modern humans in Europe in a unique welldocumented archaeological context (Gravettian). Furthermore, the specimens from layer 6-1 represent the oldest Upper Palaeolithic modern humans from Eastern Europe with evidence of post-mortem treatment of the dead.

scholarly journals The position of women in the Far East villages in the period of «late» socialism

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-295
Author(s):  
Andrey Aleksandrovich Grinko
Keyword(s):  
Rural Women ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Far East ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Late Socialism ◽  
The One ◽  
Working And Living Conditions

The paper analyzes the transformation of the female rural population position of the Far East in the USSR in 1970 - the first half of 1980 under the influence of a set of factors. The peculiarities of the geographical location of the region, its level of development, acceleration of life processes in rural areas, rapid dissemination of information and other factors had a significant impact on rural women. This influence was controversial and ambiguous. On the one hand, the role of a woman in the family changed, her activity as an employee increased, her well-being, cultural and educational level increased. On the other hand, becoming more independent, the woman aspired to better working and living conditions, career growth, free time increase, but in rural areas it was difficult. Despite the special attention of the state to the Far East and the activities aimed at the development of rural areas, life in the villages did not meet the urban views of local residents. The result of this transformation was a focus on childlessness for a large part of young people and moving to urban areas. Against the background of the village it was perceived as an incomparably better place of residence.

scholarly journals A chrono-cultural reassessment of levels III-V from El Cuco rock-shelter: a new sequence for the late Middle Palaeolithic – early Upper Palaeolithic boundary in the Cantabrian region (northern Iberia)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro RASINES DEL RÍO ◽  
Julià MAROTO ◽  
Emilio MUÑOZ-FERNÁNDEZ ◽  
José Manuel MORLOTE-EXPÓSITO ◽  
undefined Pedro María CASTAÑOS-UGARTE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Cantabrian Region ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Early Upper

The Iberian Peninsula is one of the key areas for studying the last populations of Neanderthals and the arrival in Europe of the first anatomically modern humans. In the Cantabrian region, this process can be traced in just a few sites with levels dating to the final stages of the Middle Palaeolithic and the earliest phases of the Upper Palaeolithic. One of these singular enclaves is El Cuco rock-shelter, where the sequence was initially dated by 14C only to the early Upper Palaeolithic sensu lato. However, new studies and datings now place this archaeological sequence in the late Mousterian and the Aurignacian. In this article we present a chrono-cultural reassessment of the upper levels of El Cuco (III-V), including a study of the large mammals. Levels Vc and Vb (>43.5-40.5 ky uncal BP) date from the late Mousterian, whereas levels Va, IV and III (c. 36.5-30 ky uncal BP) cover an interval extending at least from the Early Aurignacian to the Evolved Aurignacian. Particularly noteworthy is the discovery in level Va of a set of decorative beads made from marine shells in a context of possible symbolic behaviour.

Toward a Corporeal Orientalism: Foregrounding Arabian Erotic Figures in Algernon Swinburne and Aubrey Beardsley

2018 ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Eleonora Sasso
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Far East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Sexual Freedom ◽  
Arabian Nights ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Female Figures ◽  
The One ◽  
The Hill

Chapter 2 investigates the corporeal Orientalism envisioned by Swinburne and Beardsley, two Pre-Raphaelite sympathisers who envisioned the East as a sexual dimension inhabited by Oriental female figures such as Scheherazade, Dunyazad, Salome and Bersabe – namely, hur al-ayn – evoking the sensual and pornographic content of the Arabian Nights. Both Swinburne and Beardsley exalted Sir Richard F. Burton and his uncensored translation of the Arabian Nights, which aimed to reveal the erotic customs of the Muslims. On the one hand, Swinburne’s cognitive grammar reveals the use of binary world-builders (West and East) attesting to the superiority of the East, as exemplified by his poems dedicated to Burton and The Masque of Queen Bersabe. On the other hand, Beardsley’s conceptual metaphor East is sexual freedom is projected on to his grotesque pen-and-ink illustrations of Salome and Ali Baba and on to his Oriental poems (‘The Ballad of a Barber’ (1896) and Under the Hill) by blending together the sacred and the profane, the Middle East and the Far East. His radical mode of repatterning old Oriental schemas into new ones is aimed at desacralising the Orient and, in a way, at (de)Orientalising Western and Eastern schemas.

FAR EAST DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY: (NOT) TYPICAL CASE OF MODERN RUSSIAN REGIONAL POLICY

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3/1) ◽  
pp. 82-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. K. PESTSOV ◽  
A. B. VOLYNCHUK
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Regional Policy ◽  
Far East ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Basic Approaches ◽  
The One ◽  
Modern Russian

The main subject of the research in this article is the development  policy of the Far East as one of the aspects (components) of the  strategy of pivot to the East, declared and implemented by the  country's leadership from the beginning of the 2000s. The case of  Russian policy related to the development of the Far East has a  scientific and practical interest in two respects. On the one hand, as  a means of ensuring success in Russia's general pass to Asia, on the other, as an example, allowing judging the content, basic  approaches and principles of modern Russian regional policy as a  whole. The main features and peculiarities of this policy are  considered by the authors in the context of the discussion about the so-called new paradigm of regional policy that is unfolding in  recent years. The article analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of  the new regional policy, and evaluates its effectiveness. 

Practicing Transdisciplinary Engineering in a Global Development Context: The Transferring, Translating and Transforming Approaches

2017 ◽  
Vol 02 (04) ◽  
pp. 1750017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bang Mathiasen ◽  
Rasmus Munksgaard Mathiasen
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Far East ◽  
Parent Company ◽  
Global Development ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Development Context ◽  
The One ◽  
Theoretical Conceptualization

The paper addresses the consequences of using a one-size-fits-all approach when practicing transdisciplinary engineering (TE) in a global development context and suggests a method to cope with these consequences. The theoretical conceptualization is a practice-based understanding of development activities, which entails knowledge being embodied and contextually embedded. Two cases, each addressing three TE projects, are studied. Each of the six TE projects embraces a parent company located in Denmark and one of two facilities abroad, located in the Far East and Eastern Europe, respectively. Two projects are conducted successfully. Significant drawbacks and thus costly iterations are necessary in three projects; the companies do not understand the consequences of a higher level of perceived newness and interdependence than anticipated from the outset. Similarly, the last project is terminated after some costly iterations. The analysis reveals a lack of TE competences to handle increasing newness/interdependence projects; practitioners’ understanding habitually draws on existing solutions; because the nature of the handed-over knowledge differs, the one-size-fits-all approach to gain a convergent understanding is inappropriate. Three approaches to obtaining a convergent understanding are suggested: (1) transferring, (2) translating and (3) transforming.

The Evolution of Modern Behaviour and its Implications for Maritime Dispersal During the Palaeolithic

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas P. Leppard
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Dispersal Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans ◽  
Bodies Of Water

Oceans and seas are more frequently thought to have been barriers to than enablers of movement for archaic hominins. This interpretation has been challenged by a revisionist model which suggests that bodies of water facilitated the dispersal of pre-moderns. This paper addresses the revisionist model by defining maritime dispersal as a series of cognitive and organizational problems, the capacity to solve which must have arisen during the evolution of Homo. The central question posed is: knowing the type of social and cognitive configuration necessary for strategic maritime dispersal, and knowing the social and cognitive capacities of hominin species implied in the revisionist dispersal model, how likely is it that such species possessed the capacity to undertake purposive maritime colonization? Available data suggest that the evolution of modern cognitive architecture during the Late Pleistocene correlates positively with increasing evidence for maritime dispersal in the Upper Palaeolithic, and that behavioural modernity is implicated in the appearance of strategic maritime dispersal in Homo. Consequently, it is likely that deliberate trans-oceanic seagoing is restricted to Anatomically Modern Humans, and possibly Neanderthals.

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