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Breyl M. Triangulating Neanderthal cognition: A tale of not seeing the forest for the trees. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2020; 12:e1545. [PMID: 32918796 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2020] [Revised: 08/09/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The inference of Neanderthal cognition, including their cultural and linguistic capabilities, has persisted as a fiercely debated research topic for decades. This lack of consensus is substantially based on inherent uncertainties in reconstructing prehistory out of indirect evidence as well as other methodological limitations. Further factors include systemic difficulties within interdisciplinary discourse, data artifacts, historic research biases, and the sheer scope of the relevant research. Given the degrees of freedom in interpretation ensuing from these complications, any attempt to find approximate answers to the yet unsettled pertinent discourse may not rest on single studies, but instead a careful and comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis of findings. Triangulating Neanderthals' cognition by considering the plethora of data, diverse perspectives and aforementioned complexities present within the literature constitutes the currently most reliable pathway to tentative conclusions. While some uncertainties remain, such an approach paints the picture of an extensive shared humanity between anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Linguistics > Evolution of Language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Breyl
- Germanistik, Komparatistik, Nordistik, Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany
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Peeters S, Zwart H. Neanderthals as familiar strangers and the human spark: How the 'golden years' of Neanderthal research reopen the question of human uniqueness. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2020; 42:33. [PMID: 32696095 PMCID: PMC7374475 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-020-00327-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 07/09/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
During the past decades, our image of Homo neanderthalensis has changed dramatically. Initially, Neanderthals were seen as primitive brutes. Increasingly, however, Neanderthals are regarded as basically human. New discoveries and technologies have led to an avalanche of data, and as a result of that it becomes increasingly difficult to pinpoint what the difference between modern humans and Neanderthals really is. And yet, the persistent quest for a minimal difference which separates them from us is still noticeable in Neanderthal research. Neanderthal discourse is a vantage point from which the logic of 'us' versus 'other' is critically reconsidered. Studying contemporary academic literature and science autobiographies from an oblique perspective, focusing not on Neanderthals as objects, but on the dynamics of interaction between Neanderthal researchers and their finds, basic convictions at work in this type of research are retrieved. What is at issue is not the actual distinction between modern humans and Neanderthals (which is continuously being redefined), but rather the dualistic construction of human and nonhuman. Neanderthal understanding is affected by the desire to safeguard human uniqueness. The overall trend is to identify the human mark or spark, which defines us as favoured 'winners'. The paradoxes emerging in contemporary Neanderthal discourse are symptomatic of the fact that a dualistic style of thinking is no longer tenable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan Peeters
- Institute for Science in Society (ISiS), Radboud University Nijmegen, Huygens building - Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Bayle building - Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
| | - Hub Zwart
- Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Bayle building - Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Schroeder L. Revolutionary Fossils, Ancient Biomolecules, and Reflections in Ethics and Decolonization: Paleoanthropology in 2019. AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/aman.13410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Schroeder
- Department of Anthropology University of Toronto Mississauga Mississauga ON Canada
- Human Evolution Research Institute University of Cape Town Rondebosch Western Cape South Africa
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Inbreeding, Allee effects and stochasticity might be sufficient to account for Neanderthal extinction. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0225117. [PMID: 31774843 PMCID: PMC6880983 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2019] [Accepted: 10/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans has typically been attributed to environmental pressure or a superiority of modern humans with respect to competition for resources. Here we present two independent models that suggest that no such heatedly debated factors might be needed to account for the demise of Neanderthals. Starting from the observation that Neanderthal populations already were small before the arrival of modern humans, the models implement three factors that conservation biology identifies as critical for a small population's persistence, namely inbreeding, Allee effects and stochasticity. Our results indicate that the disappearance of Neanderthals might have resided in the smallness of their population(s) alone: even if they had been identical to modern humans in their cognitive, social and cultural traits, and even in the absence of inter-specific competition, Neanderthals faced a considerable risk of extinction. Furthermore, we suggest that if modern humans contributed to the demise of Neanderthals, that contribution might have had nothing to do with resource competition, but rather with how the incoming populations geographically restructured the resident populations, in a way that reinforced Allee effects, and the effects of inbreeding and stochasticity.
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Brittingham A, Hren MT, Hartman G, Wilkinson KN, Mallol C, Gasparyan B, Adler DS. Geochemical Evidence for the Control of Fire by Middle Palaeolithic Hominins. Sci Rep 2019; 9:15368. [PMID: 31653870 PMCID: PMC6814844 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-51433-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2018] [Accepted: 09/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The use of fire played an important role in the social and technological development of the genus Homo. Most archaeologists agree that this was a multi-stage process, beginning with the exploitation of natural fires and ending with the ability to create fire from scratch. Some have argued that in the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) hominin fire use was limited by the availability of fire in the landscape. Here, we present a record of the abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organic compounds that are produced during the combustion of organic material, from Lusakert Cave, a MP site in Armenia. We find no correlation between the abundance of light PAHs (3-4 rings), which are a major component of wildfire PAH emissions and are shown to disperse widely during fire events, and heavy PAHs (5-6 rings), which are a major component of particulate emissions of burned wood. Instead, we find heavy PAHs correlate with MP artifact density at the site. Given that hPAH abundance correlates with occupation intensity rather than lPAH abundance, we argue that MP hominins were able to control fire and utilize it regardless of the variability of fires in the environment. Together with other studies on MP fire use, these results suggest that the ability of hominins to manipulate fire independent of exploitation of wildfires was spatially variable in the MP and may have developed multiple times in the genus Homo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex Brittingham
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
| | - Michael T Hren
- Department of Geoscience, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Gideon Hartman
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
- Center for Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
| | - Keith N Wilkinson
- Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography, University of Winchester, Winchester, SO22 4NR, United Kingdom
| | - Carolina Mallol
- Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherer Societies Research Group, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- U.D.I. de Prehistoria, Arqueología e Hª Antigua (Dpto. Geografía e Historia), Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
- Archaeological Micromorphology and Biomarkers (AMBI Lab), Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Boris Gasparyan
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Charents 15, Yerevan, Armenia
| | - Daniel S Adler
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
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