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A New Interpretation of the Origin of Modern Human Behavior

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A New Interpretation of the Origin of Modern Human Behavior Sally McBrearty The revolution that wasn’t: a new Department of Anthropology, interpretation of the origin of modern University of Connecticut, human behavior Storrs, Connecticut 06269, U.S.A. E-mail: Proponents of the model known as the ‘‘human revolution’’ claim [email protected] that modern human behaviors arose suddenly, and nearly simul- taneously, throughout the Old World ca. 40–50 ka. This fundamental Alison S. Brooks behavioral shift is purported to signal a cognitive advance, a possible Department of Anthropology, reorganization of the brain, and the origin of language. Because the George Washington earliest modern human fossils, Homo sapiens sensu stricto, are found in University, Washington, Africa and the adjacent region of the Levant at >100 ka, the ‘‘human DC 20052, U.S.A. E-mail: revolution’’ model creates a time lag between the appearance of [email protected] anatomical modernity and perceived behavioral modernity, and creates the impression that the earliest modern Africans were behav- Received 3 June 1999 iorally primitive. This view of events stems from a profound Euro- Revision received 16 June centric bias and a failure to appreciate the depth and breadth of the 2000 and accepted 26 July African archaeological record. In fact, many of the components of 2000 the ‘‘human revolution’’ claimed to appear at 40–50 ka are found in the African Middle Stone Age tens of thousands of years earlier. Keywords: Origin of Homo These features include blade and microlithic technology, bone tools, sapiens, modern behavior, increased geographic range, specialized hunting, the use of aquatic Middle Stone Age, African resources, long distance trade, systematic processing and use of archaeology, Middle pigment, and art and decoration. These items do not occur suddenly Pleistocene. together as predicted by the ‘‘human revolution’’ model, but at sites that are widely separated in space and time. This suggests a gradual assembling of the package of modern human behaviors in Africa, and its later export to other regions of the Old World. The African Middle and early Late Pleistocene hominid fossil record is fairly continuous and in it can be recognized a number of probably distinct species that provide plausible ancestors for H. sapiens. The appearance of Middle Stone Age technology and the first signs of modern behavior coincide with the appearance of fossils that have been attributed to H. helmei, suggesting the behavior of H. helmei is distinct from that of earlier hominid species and quite similar to that of modern people. If on anatomical and behavioral grounds H. helmei is sunk into H. sapiens, the origin of our species is linked with the appearance of Middle Stone Age technology at 250–300 ka. 2000 Academic Press Journal of Human Evolution (2000) 39, 453–563 doi:10.1006/jhev.2000.0435 Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Introduction and background 2000; Diamond, 1992; Mellars, 1995, 1996; Nobel & Davidson, 1991; Tattersall, The human revolution in Europe 1995; Bar-Yosef, 1998). The ‘‘human For at least the past 15 years, most recon- revolution’’ model proposes a dramatic structions of later human evolutionary alteration in human behavior at the Middle history have featured a relatively brief and Paleolithic to Upper Paleolithic transition at dramatic shift known as the ‘‘human revol- about 40 ka. This behavioral breakthrough ution’’ (Binford, 1985, 1989; Mellars & is thought by some to correspond to Stringer, 1989; Klein, 1989a, 1994, 1995, increased cognitive sophistication, the 0047–2484/00/110453+111$35.00/0 2000 Academic Press 454 . . manipulation of symbols, and the origin of two great European wars, and the trend language (e.g., White, 1982; Mellars & in archaeology in the second half of the Stringer, 1989; Diamond, 1992; Byers, twentieth century has been the study of 1994; Mithen, 1994, 1996; Klein, 1995; but local sequences and the application of see Kay et al., 1998). We believe that the models of cultural evolution (Otte & Keeley, model of the ‘‘human revolution’’ is fatally 1990). flawed. Modern humans and modern In terms of developments in world pre- human behaviors arose first in Africa, and history, however, Western Europe is a we examine the African record to reveal a remote cul de sac with a somewhat anom- different picture of the nature of events. alous prehistoric record. We argue here that The concept of a ‘‘human revolution’’ and models derived from the unique record of the periodization of Stone Age prehistory European prehistory do not explain events have their roots in the nineteeth-century in Africa where the origin of modern people probings of the Western European archaeo- actually occurred. In the Holocene, western logical record. The first paleolithic classifi- Europe experienced a series of incursions catory schemes were based on the Western from the less peripheral portions of the Old European large mammal succession (Lartet World. Each arrival of a wave of invaders & Christy, 1865–1875; Lyell, 1868), and and alien technology induced a fairly these authors emphasized the wide techno- sudden, rapid cultural turnover. These logical gulf separating the l’age du renne disruptive episodes are reflected in the (Upper Paleolithic) from the earlier phases European archaeological record as dis- (Lartet & Christy, 1865–1875:25). By the continuities that punctuate industrial 1920s the concept of an Upper Paleolithic periods of relatively long duration. They distinguished by the appearance of engrav- have been sometimes described as ‘‘revol- ing, sculpture, painting, beads, and worked utions,’’ such as the ‘‘neolithic revolution’’ bone tools had become current. A tripartite of Childe (1936, 1942). division into Lower, Middle and Upper Recent paleoclimatic data and refined Paleolithic based upon stone tool technology chronologies have supported the early sug- (De Mortillet, 1900; Obermeier, 1924; gestion of Howell (1951) that regions of Burkitt, 1921, 1928, 1933; Kendrick, 1925; Pleistocene Europe were repeatedly isolated Menghin, 1931) echoed the three-age sys- by ice and mountain barriers, so that its tems of Thomsen (1837) and Worsaae hominid populations were periodically (1849) that partitioned the total prehistoric reduced or even eliminated (Howell, 1952; record into ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron. Gamble, 1986, 1994; Jochim, 1987; The Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic Hublin, 1998a). Moreover, it has become divisions of the western European record increasingly clear that the Neanderthals have continued to dominate discourse in the were replaced by modern humans in Europe field, despite problems in the application of within too short a period for the former to these divisions to sequences in Eastern and have evolved into the latter (Mellars, Southern Europe (Morselli, 1926:292). 1998a,b, 1999, Bocquet-Appel & Demars, None of these temporal divisions was 2000). Thus, the ‘‘revolutionary’’ nature of intended as an evolutionary scheme, but the European Upper Paleolithic is most rather they were thought to reflect repeated probably due to discontinuity in the invasions by outsiders with new ideas. archaeological record rather than to the sort Perhaps not surprisingly, a picture of of rapid cultural, cognitive, and/or biological Europe conquered by invaders with superior transformation that has been argued by technology had little appeal in the light of proponents of the ‘‘human revolution.’’ ’ 455 The earliest modern Europeans were The fossil evidence for an African origin Africans for modern humans is robust. It is clear that modern humans (H. sapiens sensu stricto) Who were the earliest modern Europeans? It were certainly present in Africa by 130 ka is becoming increasingly difficult to deny (Day & Stringer, 1982; Deacon, 1989), and that they were Africans. Although the perhaps as early as 190 ka if specimens ‘‘mitochondrial Eve’’ hypothesis, first such as Singa are considered modern articulated by Cann et al. (1987), has been (McDermott et al., 1996; Stringer, 1996). revised in light of criticism (Templeton, Modern humans do not appear in Europe or 1992; Hedges et al., 1992; Ayala, 1995), and Central Asia before ca. 40 ka; earliest dates population size and structure have effects on for the Levant range between ca. 80 ka and the distribution of genetic characters that 120 ka (Day, 1969, 1972; Day & Springer, were not taken into account in early recon- 1982, 1991; Stringer, 1989, 1992; structions (Harpending et al., 1993, 1998; McBrearty, 1990b; Stringer et al., 1989; Sherry et al., 1994; Relethford, 1995; Bra¨uer, 1984a,b, 1989; Stringer & Andrews, Relethford & Harpending, 1995), genetic 1988; Valladas et al., 1988; Gru¨n& data either directly support or are consistent Stringer, 1991; Miller et al., 1991; Foley & with an African origin for modern humans Lahr, 1992; Mercier et al., 1993; Deacon, (Wainscoat et al., 1986; Cann, 1988; 1993b; Brooks et al., 1993a,b; Stringer, Stringer & Andrews, 1988; Vigilant et al., 1993a; Schwarcz, 1994; Straus, 1994; 1991; Stoneking, 1993; Stoneking et al., Bar-Yosef, 1994, 1995a, 1998; but see 1993; Relethford & Harpending, 1994; Howells, 1989). Recent evidence suggests Ayala, 1995; Nei, 1995; Goldstein, 1995; that modern humans were present in Tishkoff et al., 1996; Ruvolo, 1996, 1997; Australia as early as 62 ka (Stringer, 1999; Irish, 1998; Pfeiffer, 1998; Zietkiweicz et al., Thorne et al., 1999). 1997; Pritchard et al., 1999; Quintana- Although some, notably Bra¨uer (1984a,b, Murci, 1999; Relethford & Jorde, 1999; 1989), favor a scenario involving some inter- Tishkoff et al., 2000; see Relethford, 1998 breeding among Neanderthal and modern and Jorde et al., 1998 for recent reviews). human populations, the successful extrac- As Howell (1994:306) observes, ‘‘The tion and analysis of fragmentary mito- phylogenetic roots of modern humans are chondrial DNA (mtDNA) from both the demonstrably in the Middle Pleistocene. Neanderthal type fossil (Krings et al., 1997, The distribution of those antecedent 1999) and additional material from the populations appear to lie outside of western northern Caucasus (Ovchinnikov et al., and eastern Eurasia, and more probably 2000) appears to remove the Neanderthals centered broadly on Africa.’’1 from modern human ancestry.
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