Behavioral modernity

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Venus of Dolní Věstonice, dated to ca. 28,000 years ago (Gravettian)
Venus of Dolní Věstonice, dated to ca. 28,000 years ago (Gravettian)
various Aurignacian artefacts.
various Aurignacian artefacts.
Paleolithic
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↑ before Homo (Pliocene)

Lower Paleolithic (c. 2.6 Ma - 100,000 ka) (genus Homo)

Olduwan (2.6 - 1.8 Ma) earliest stone tools
Acheulean (1.7 - 0.1 Ma) Controlled fire, earliest large game hunting
Clactonian (0.3 - 0.2 Ma)

Middle Paleolithic (300,000 - 30,000 ka) (Neanderthal, H. sapiens) earliest evidence of behavioral modernity (art and intentional burials) earliest undisputed evidence of cooking food migration beyond Africa).

Mousterian (300 - 30 ka)
Aterian (82 ka)

Upper Paleolithic(50,000 - 10,000 ka) (behavioral modernity: abundant artwork, fully developed language)

Baradostian (36 ka)
Châtelperronian (35 - 29 ka)
Aurignacian (32 - 26 ka)
Gravettian (28 - 22 ka)
Solutrean (21 - 17 ka)
Magdalenian (18 - 10 ka)
Hamburg (14 ka)
Ahrensberg (13 ka)
Swiderian (10 ka)
↓ Mesolithic

Behavioural modernity (also known as the Great Leap Forward or the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution) is a term used in anthropology, archeology and sociology to refer to a critical event in sociocultural evolution, occurring between the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic. Around 50,000 years ago, modern human behaviour arose relatively abruptly.[1]

It is a loosely defined list of traits that distinguish humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and various fossil hominids. It is the point at which homo sapiens began to demonstrate its reliance on abstract thought and to express cultural creativity. These developments are often thought to be associated with the origin of language.

There are two main competing theories of why humans made the leap. The first theory purports that a dramatic social change occurred in response to an environmental trigger. The other theory suggests that a sudden genetics-based brain reorganization occurred.[2]

Contents

[edit] Cultural universals

Cultural universals are the key elements shared by all groups of people throughout the history of man. Examples of elements that may be considered cultural universals are language, religion, art, music, the incest taboo, myth, cooking, games, and jokes. While some of these traits distinguish homo sapiens from other species in their degree of articulation in language based culture, they all have analogues in animal ethology. Since cultural universals are found in all cultures including some of the most isolated indigenous groups, scientists believe that these traits must have evolved or have been invented in Africa prior to the exodus.[3][4][5][6]

Classic evidence of behavioral modernity includes:

A more terse definition of the evidence is the behavioral B's: blades, beads, burials, bone toolmaking, and beautiful.[7]

It might be thought that behavioral modernity preceded language but the complex behaviors from the list above suggest language was necessary and that they must have been at least contemporary developments.

[edit] Timing

The evolution into anatomically modern humans, particularly in brain anatomy, is mostly believed to be a precursor for behavioral modernity and is generally believed to predate it by tens of thousands of years.

Humans of the Acheulean and Mousterian cultures lived in an apparent stasis, experiencing little cultural change. This was followed by a sudden flowering of fine toolmaking, sophisticated weaponry, sculpture, cave painting, body ornaments, and long-distance trade.[8] Humans also expanded into hitherto uninhabited environments, such as Australia and Northern Eurasia.[8]

The Great Leap Forward was concurrent with the extinction of the Neanderthals, and it has been suggested that Cro-Magnon interaction with Neanderthals caused this extinction.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. W. W. Norton, 39. ISBN 978-0-393-31755-8. 
  2. ^ Ehrlich, Paul R. (2002). Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect. Island Press, 159-160. ISBN 978-1-559-63779-4. 
  3. ^ leap to language
  4. ^ Buller, David (2005). Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. PMIT Press, 468. ISBN 0262025795. 
  5. ^ 80,000-year-old Beads Shed Light on Early Culture
  6. ^ three distinct human populations
  7. ^ William H. Calvin, A Brief History of the Mind (Oxford University Press 2004), chapter 9
  8. ^ a b Diamond, Jared (1992). The Third Chimpanzee. Harper Perennial, 47-57. ISBN 978-0-060-98403-8. 

[edit] External links