CARTA - Anthropogeny (Audio)

Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Show ID: 25399]

CARTA: Behaviorally Modern Humans: The Origin of Us – Iain Davidson: Stone Tools and Cognition: Lessons from Australia In this talk, Iain Davidson (Univ of New England, Australia) addresses four topics: What is cognition? Can we learn anything from brains? What was the cognitive ability of the Last Common Ancestor? And, how can we learn from stone tools? He emphasizes specific aspects of stone too...

CARTA: Behaviorally Modern Humans: The Origin of Us – Christopher Ehret: Relationships of Ancient African Languages Almost all of the more than 1,000 African languages spoken today belong to just four families – Afroasiatic, Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoesan. As these language families spread out across the continent in the early Holocene, they gradually drove out hundreds of other lang...

Ofer Bar-Yosef (Harvard Univ) briefly summarizes the archaeological evidence for the dispersals of modern humans into Eurasia avoiding the assumptions that these events, whether short or continuous, were triggered by climatic conditions or followed the dispersals of other mammals. He contends that tracing past human groups as they move through time and space in Eurasia relies on the recognition of...

Evidence points strongly to Africa as the major center for the genetic, physical and behavioral origins of both ancient and modern humans. In this talk, Chris Stringer (Natural History Museum, London) reviews recent genetic and paleontological research that suggests more complex scenarios for our origins than had been considered previously. This includes the likelihood of interbreeding between arc...

Lyn Wadley (Univ of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) contends that the manufacture of compound adhesives and compound paints by 100,000 years ago in South Africa is clear evidence for modern thought processes that involve, for example, multi-tasking. Some early hunting technologies support this conclusion. Cultural traditions, reminiscent of hunter-gatherer ones practiced in historic times, are also e...

Rick Potts (Smithsonian Institution) suggests that the complexity of climate dynamics, and associated resource uncertainty, likely influenced the evolution of adaptive versatility in our species, expressed by the expansion of mobile technologies, symbolism, social networks, and behavioral diversity. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Show ID: 25390]

One of the enduring questions of human origins is when, where and how we "Behaviorally Modern Humans" emerged and why and how we eventually replaced all the other human-like species. This series takes a fresh look at the situation today with a critical examination of the available evidence from multiple sources. Ofer Bar-Yosef (Harvard Univ) leads off with a talk about Evidence for the Spread of M...

One of the enduring questions of human origins is when, where and how we "Behaviorally Modern Humans" emerged and why and how we eventually replaced all the other human-like species. This series takes a fresh look at the situation today with a critical examination of the available evidence from multiple sources. Chris Stringer (Natural History Museum, London) leads off with a talk about the Fossil...

One of the enduring questions of human origins is when, where and how we "Behaviorally Modern Humans" emerged and why and how we eventually replaced all the other human-like species. This series takes a fresh look at the situation today with a critical examination of the available evidence from multiple sources. Rick Potts (Smithsonian Institution) leads off with a talk about African Climate of th...

Morality is a social behavior seen in mammals, and some birds, which depends on an interlocking brain organization shaped by four factors. Patricia Churchland (UC San Diego) discusses how the importance of these factors can vary between species, as a function of natural selection operating on subcortical structures, and of the degree of flexibility of the cortical organization. For example, increa...

Colin Renfrew (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research) discusses the “Sapient Paradox.” The genetic basis of humankind was established 200,000 years ago, and yet the tectonic phase of human development is only 10,000 years old. So what took so long? Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 24982]

Steve Mithen (Univ of Reading) discusses what the archaeological and fossil records tell us about the similarities and differences between the minds of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 24980]

In this talk, Daniel Povinelli (Univ of Louisiana at Lafayette) suggests that “desperately seeking explanation” is a uniquely human mental function. In science, this “explanatory drive” can be properly regarded as a mania, which, as it proceeds largely uncontrolled, will continue to yield products that both improve, and threaten, our very existence. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research an...

Why is human thought so flexible? Although many features of human brains can be attributed to selection for novel cognitive functions (e.g., for symbolic language), relaxation of selection on other attributes has additionally contributed to de-differentiation of certain brain functions. Here a parallel process is described by Terry Deacon (UC Berkeley) involving domestication and birdsong. Series:...

Cognitive abilities often regarded as unique to humans include humor, morality, symbolism, creativity, and preoccupation with the minds of others. In these compelling talks, emphasis is placed on the functional uniqueness of these attributes, as opposed to the anatomical uniqueness, and whether these attributes are indeed quantitatively or qualitatively unique to humans. Merlin Donald (Queen’s Uni...

Cognitive abilities often regarded as unique to humans include humor, morality, symbolism, creativity, and preoccupation with the minds of others. In these compelling talks, emphasis is placed on the functional uniqueness of these attributes, as opposed to the anatomical uniqueness, and whether these attributes are indeed quantitatively or qualitatively unique to humans. Nicholas Humphrey (Darwin...

Cognitive abilities often regarded as unique to humans include humor, morality, symbolism, creativity, and preoccupation with the minds of others. In these compelling talks, emphasis is placed on the functional uniqueness of these attributes, as opposed to the anatomical uniqueness, and whether these attributes are indeed quantitatively or qualitatively unique to humans. Colin Renfrew (McDonald In...

Language is a hallmark of modern humans: only humans have language. Yet, while no human society lacks a language, individual languages exhibit wide variety. In this, language differs greatly from bipedalism, the other hallmark of humans. Mark Aronoff, Stony Brook University, and Carol Padden, UC San Diego, explore the question of whether there is a relation between the variety among languages and...

Kristen Hawkes, University of Utah, discusses the grandmother hypothesis, which links the evolution of human longevity to ecological changes that left ancestral youngsters unable to get enough food on their own. Help from grandmothers allowed mothers to bear their next baby sooner while setting novel social problems for both mothers and offspring. These connections link grandmothering not only to...

For many species, including humans, matings occur among a restricted pool of partners. In humans, restrictions on the choice of partners are culturally determined and frequently are the result of homophily, namely, contacts among individuals that are similar on some dimension. Marcus Feldman, Stanford University, discusses how the dimension may itself be culturally transmitted, and its transmissio...

At least three major transitions can be seen from the archaeological record of meat-eating. Mary Stiner (Univ of Arizona) explains how each of these transitions came with new labor and social arrangements that extended well beyond the mechanics of hunting. The transitions also relate to major changes in environmental carrying capacity and human population densities. These changes are predicated on...

Alison S. Brooks (George Washington Univ) and Margaret J. Schoeninger (UC San Diego) provide an overview of Neanderthal diets based on the physical evidence, archaeological data, and bone composition data. They conclude that Neanderthal subsistence strategies varied with their local environments and included various combinations of plant and animal foods throughout their range. Like modern humans,...

Globalization is, in part, an economic force to bring about a closer integration of national economies. Food globalization brings about nutritional transitions. The most common transition today is the shift from a diet based on locally-grown, minimally refined vegetable foods supplemented with small amounts of animal food to the ‘modern diet’ of globally sourced highly processed foods, rich in sat...

Clark Spencer Larsen (Ohio State Univ) explores what anthropologists have learned about the alterations of the lives, lifestyles, and wellbeing from the study of bones and teeth of our recent ancestors during the one of the most dynamic periods of human evolution. Just as the process of domestication was complex and involved regional economic, social, and environmental circumstances, the impact of...