Henshilwood, Christopher S. and Curtis W. Marean. 2003. The Origin of Modern Human Behavior. Critique of the Models and Their Test Implications. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 44(5): 627-651.
Abstract:
Archaeology's main contribution to the debate over the origins of modern humans has been investigating where and when modern human behavior is first recognized in the archaeological record. Most of this debate has been over the empirical record for the appearance and distribution of a set of traits that have come to be accepted as indicators of behavioral modernity. This debate has resulted in a series of competing models that we explicate here, and the traits are typically used as the test implications for these models. However, adequate tests of hypotheses and models rest on robust test implications, and we argue here that the current set of test implications suffers from three main problems: (1) Many are empirically derived from and context-specific to the richer European record, rendering them problematic for use in the primarily tropical and subtropical African continent. (2) They are ambiguous because other processes can be invoked, often with greater parsimony, to explain their character. (3) Many lack theoretical justification. In addition, there are severe taphonomic problems in the application of these test implications across differing spans of time. To provide adequate tests of these models, archaeologists must first subject these test implications to rigorous discussion, which is initiated here.
Holliday, Trenton W. 2003. Species Concepts, Reticulation, and Human Evolution. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 44,(5): 653-673.
Abstract:
Hennig differentiated parent-offspring, or tokogenetic, relationships among organisms within a population, which are network-like, or reticulate, in their structure, from phylogenetic relationships between species taxa, which are hierarchical. However, some biologists have recently argued that reticulation may occur across taxa at high taxonomic levels, and Jolly, using a papionin analogy for hominin evolution, argued that fossil hominins represent a group of allotaxa that likely exhibited varying degrees of hybridization in zones of ecological overlap. Such potential reticulation among the Hominini has important implications for phylogenetic reconstruction and is likely a significant source of homoplasy in the hominin fossil record. Hybridization between taxa can lead to the merging of taxa, to the reinforcement of behavioral barriers to mating, or even to the emergence of new, hybrid species. Templeton has noted that many mammalian species appear to be grouped into higher-level, hybridizing taxa called syngameons. Evidence for such syngameons within the Hominini is here explored in light of current species concepts.
Kaufman, Jason A. 2003. On the Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: Independent Support from Highly Encephalized Fish. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 44(5): 705-707.
In 1995, Aiello and Wheeler (CA 36:199–221) introduced the expensive-tissue hypothesis of human brain evolution, suggesting that the increased metabolic cost of the relatively large human brain was offset by a reduction in other metabolically expensive tissues, mainly the gut. The theory has remained largely untestable because it is based on a correlation with a sample of one—no other species is known to possess a brain that requires as much of the body's energy resources as that of humans (Mink, Blumenschine, and Adams 1981). However, it has now been reported that the brain of the African freshwater fish Gnathonemus petersii is responsible for approximately 60% of total-body oxygen consumption—the largest fraction of whole-body energy expenditure in any known adult vertebrate (Nilsson 1996). G. petersii thus offers a unique test of the expensive-tissue hypothesis: given the exceptional energy demands of its brain, along with its carnivorous diet, the expensive-tissue hypothesis predicts that the gastrointestinal tract of G. petersii should be significantly reduced in size …
Hlusko, Leslea J. 2003. The Oldest Hominid Habit? Experimental Evidence for Toothpicking with Grass Stalks. . CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 44(5): 713-741.
It has long been appreciated that integrating biological and cultural data sets represents one of the most productive approaches in paleoanthropology. The earliest evidence of material culture from the hominid paleontological record consists of stone tools embedded in sediments more than 2.5 million years old (Semaw et al. 1997). Behavioral insights into the butchery of large mammals by hominids have been generated by zooarchaeological analysis of modified animal bones of equivalent antiquity. Building on this record, the remains of early hominids themselves have often been used in attempts to understand early hominid behaviors.
Early in the last century, some fossil hominid teeth were observed to bear grooves between adjacent postcanine teeth. A recent review of these interproximal wear grooves demonstrates how behaviors can be inferred from skeletal evidence (Ungar et al. 2001). These grooves appear mostly on the root, their axis often paralleling the cervicoenamel junction of some premolars and molars from members of the genus Homo, including H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens. These grooves are semicircular in mesiodistal cross section and 1.5 mm to 2.6 mm in width and typically appear as elongated ovals on the mesial and/or distal aspects of the teeth …
All of the above can be read and/or downloaded (as PDFs)
HERE.
Jacques Cinq-Mars
