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Nichols R, Charbonneau M, Chellappoo A, Davis T, Haidle M, Kimbrough EO, Moll H, Moore R, Scott-Phillips T, Purzycki BG, Segovia-Martin J. Cultural evolution: A review of theoretical challenges. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2024; 6:e12. [PMID: 38516368 PMCID: PMC10955367 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2024.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024] Open
Abstract
The rapid growth of cultural evolutionary science, its expansion into numerous fields, its use of diverse methods, and several conceptual problems have outpaced corollary developments in theory and philosophy of science. This has led to concern, exemplified in results from a recent survey conducted with members of the Cultural Evolution Society, that the field lacks 'knowledge synthesis', is poorly supported by 'theory', has an ambiguous relation to biological evolution and uses key terms (e.g. 'culture', 'social learning', 'cumulative culture') in ways that hamper operationalization in models, experiments and field studies. Although numerous review papers in the field represent and categorize its empirical findings, the field's theoretical challenges receive less critical attention even though challenges of a theoretical or conceptual nature underlie most of the problems identified by Cultural Evolution Society members. Guided by the heterogeneous 'grand challenges' emergent in this survey, this paper restates those challenges and adopts an organizational style requisite to discussion of them. The paper's goal is to contribute to increasing conceptual clarity and theoretical discernment around the most pressing challenges facing the field of cultural evolutionary science. It will be of most interest to cultural evolutionary scientists, theoreticians, philosophers of science and interdisciplinary researchers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan Nichols
- Department of Philosophy, CSU Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, USA
- Center for the Study of Human Nature, CSU Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, USA
| | - Mathieu Charbonneau
- Africa Institute for Research in Economics and Social Sciences, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique, Rabat, Morocco
| | - Azita Chellappoo
- School of Social Sciences and Global Studies, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
| | - Taylor Davis
- Department of Philosophy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Miriam Haidle
- Research Center ‘The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans’, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Erik O. Kimbrough
- Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Henrike Moll
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Richard Moore
- Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Coventry, England, UK
| | - Thom Scott-Phillips
- Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Institute for Logic, Cognition, Language & Information, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Benjamin Grant Purzycki
- Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Jose Segovia-Martin
- M6 Polytechnic University, Rabat, Morocco
- Complex Systems Institute, Paris Île-de-France, Paris, France
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Schmidt P, Koch TJ, Blessing MA, Karakostis FA, Harvati K, Dresely V, Charrié-Duhaut A. Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCES 2023; 15:84. [PMID: 37228449 PMCID: PMC10202989 DOI: 10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Accepted: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Birch tar is the oldest synthetic substance made by early humans. The earliest such artefacts are associated with Neanderthals. According to traditional interpretations, their study allows understanding Neanderthal tool behaviours, skills and cultural evolution. However, recent work has found that birch tar can also be produced with simple processes, or even result from fortuitous accidents. Even though these findings suggest that birch tar per se is not a proxy for cognition, they do not shed light on the process by which Neanderthals produced it, and, therefore, cannot evaluate the implications of that behaviour. Here, we address the question of how tar was made by Neanderthals. Through a comparative chemical analysis of the two exceptional birch tar pieces from Königsaue (Germany) and a large reference birch tar collection made with Stone Age techniques, we found that Neanderthals did not use the simplest method to make tar. Rather, they distilled tar in an intentionally created underground environment that restricted oxygen flow and remained invisible during the process. This degree of complexity is unlikely to have been invented spontaneously. Our results suggest that Neanderthals invented or developed this process based on previous simpler methods and constitute one of the clearest indicators of cumulative cultural evolution in the European Middle Palaeolithic. Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12520-023-01789-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick Schmidt
- Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Applied Mineralogy, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Tabea J. Koch
- Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Matthias A. Blessing
- Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - F. Alexandros Karakostis
- DFG Centre for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools”, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Paleoanthropology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Katerina Harvati
- DFG Centre for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools”, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Paleoanthropology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Department of Geosciences, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Veit Dresely
- State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory, Halle, Germany
| | - Armelle Charrié-Duhaut
- Laboratoire de Spectrométrie de Masse Des Interactions Et Des Systèmes (LSMIS), Strasbourg University, CNRS, UMR 7140, Strasbourg, CMC France
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Scerri EML, Will M. The revolution that still isn't: The origins of behavioral complexity in Homo sapiens. J Hum Evol 2023; 179:103358. [PMID: 37058868 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
The behavioral origins of Homo sapiens can be traced back to the first material culture produced by our species in Africa, the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Beyond this broad consensus, the origins, patterns, and causes of behavioral complexity in modern humans remain debated. Here, we consider whether recent findings continue to support popular scenarios of: (1) a modern human 'package,' (2) a gradual and 'pan-African' emergence of behavioral complexity, and (3) a direct connection to changes in the human brain. Our geographically structured review shows that decades of scientific research have continuously failed to find a discrete threshold for a complete 'modernity package' and that the concept is theoretically obsolete. Instead of a continent-wide, gradual accumulation of complex material culture, the record exhibits a predominantly asynchronous presence and duration of many innovations across different regions of Africa. The emerging pattern of behavioral complexity from the MSA conforms to an intricate mosaic characterized by spatially discrete, temporally variable, and historically contingent trajectories. This archaeological record bears no direct relation to a simplistic shift in the human brain but rather reflects similar cognitive capacities that are variably manifested. The interaction of multiple causal factors constitutes the most parsimonious explanation driving the variable expression of complex behaviors, with demographic processes such as population structure, size, and connectivity playing a key role. While much emphasis has been given to innovation and variability in the MSA record, long periods of stasis and a lack of cumulative developments argue further against a strictly gradualistic nature in the record. Instead, we are confronted with humanity's deep, variegated roots in Africa, and a dynamic metapopulation that took many millennia to reach the critical mass capable of producing the ratchet effect commonly used to define contemporary human culture. Finally, we note a weakening link between 'modern' human biology and behavior from around 300 ka ago.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleanor M L Scerri
- Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Kahlaische Str. 10, 07749, Jena, Germany; Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Malta, Msida, MSD 2080, Malta; Department of Prehistory, University of Cologne, 50931, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Manuel Will
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, Burgsteige 11, 72070, Tübingen, Germany
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Abstract
Birch tar production by Neanderthals-used for hafting tools-has been interpreted as one of the earliest manifestations of modern cultural behavior. This is because birch tar production per se was assumed to require a cognitively demanding setup, in which birch bark is heated in anaerobic conditions, a setup whose inherent complexity was thought to require modern levels of cognition and cultural transmission. Here we demonstrate that recognizable amounts of birch tar were likely a relatively frequent byproduct of burning birch bark (a natural tinder) under common, i.e., aerobic, conditions. We show that when birch bark burns close to a vertical to subvertical hard surface, such as an adjacent stone, birch tar is naturally deposited and can be easily scraped off the surface. The burning of birch bark near suitable surfaces provides useable quantities of birch tar in a single work session (3 h; including birch bark procurement). Chemical analysis of the resulting tar showed typical markers present in archaeological tar. Mechanical tests verify the tar's suitability for hafting and for hafted tools use. Given that similarly sized stones as in our experiment are frequently found in archaeological contexts associated with Neanderthals, the cognitively undemanding connection between burning birch bark and the production of birch tar would have been readily discoverable multiple times. Thus, the presence of birch tar alone cannot indicate the presence of modern cognition and/or cultural behaviors in Neanderthals.
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