Head shapes and human evolution

W. W. Howells. Cranial Variation in Man: A Study by Multivariate Analysis of Patterns of Difference Among Recent Human Populations. Papers of the Pea‐body Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, no. 67. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973. ix + 259 pp. Figures, tables, references, and appendixes. $10.00. ?     

Conceptualising the unique in human ecology and evolution

Foley, Robert. Another Unique Species: Patterns in Human Evolutionary Ecology. Harlow: Longman; New York: Wiley, 1987 xxii + 313 pp. including references and index. £12.95.

Ingold, Tim. The Appropriation of Nature: Essays on Human Ecology and Social Relations. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986. ix + 287 pp. including references and index. £27.50.     

Cultural evolution: a basic concept for human and historical geography

The concept of cultural evolution profoundly affected the objectives and methods employed in the social sciences in the earlier part of this century but it has largely been ignored by geographers. In recent years a number of American cultural anthropologists have re-examined the concept of cultural evolution, including Sahlins and Service, who consider that cultural evolution is analogous to biological evolution involving the diversification of cultural forms through adaptive modification and the progress of culture through successive levels of development. They have called these two processes specific evolution and general evolution respectively and from these two perspectives on cultural evolution they have developed the Law of Cultural Dominance. Certain operational problems exist in the application of the concept of cultural evolution, but once they have been surmounted it promises to constitute a valuable mode of explanation in the analysis of cultures and cultural change.     

Throwing Behaviour and the Mass Distribution of Geological Hand Samples,Hand Grenades and Olduvian Manuports

This research examines the efficiency of impact energy delivered by a thrown rock and the relationship between the mechanics of throwing and how rocks are chosen. This choice tends to lead to a Poisson distribution of mass with different means for men and women. These values are reflected in the mass of hand samples selected by geologists, in the throwing stones made in the last century by the Nuie Islanders, in the sport of handball and in the design of hand grenades. When the mass distributions of manuports from Olduvai and Koobi Fora are examined two very different mass distributions can be seen: one indicating a probable selection by larger creatures of almost modern human size, the other by creatures that were far smaller. Observations of Olduvian cobble tools indicate that their mass distribution is similar to the manuports hoarded by the larger hominids. A simple engineering model links the mass distribution of selected rocks to body size and it is suggested that this technique can be used to reveal sexual differences in cobble tool making and any differences in body size during the development of the Olduvian industry or at distinct geographical sites. Perhaps the most intriguing use of this technique, however, is in the examination of the mass and form of stone deposits laid down before stone tools were manufactured. A specific clustering would indicate, within a certain degree of statistical probability, the deliberate selection and hoarding by a hominid species that used the systematic hurling of rocks as a behavioural strategy. In this case, stone tools would represent an improvement on an object of the same mass and material that had been part of an earlier culture.     

A new synthesis: Resituating approaches to the evolution of human behaviour

Most anthropologists would agree that humans are simultaneously historical, biological, behavioral, and social. However, many researchers retain a relatively dualistic paradigm dividing anthropological questions into biological and/or social aspects. Many practitioners of Neo-Darwinian perspectives prioritize natural selection in all explanations of human evolution. Many other anthropologists refuse to acknowledge a significant role for biological features and biological histories in human action, sensation, and engagement. Both perspectives are misplaced. Incorporating emerging perspectives in evolutionary theory into the broader anthropological discourse may help discard simplistic dualisms and resituate our assessments of the evolution of human behavior. In this essay I review three major emergent themes in evolutionary theory; Multi-Inheritance Systems Theory, Developmental Systems Theory, and Niche Construction. I suggest, with one brief example, that placing these elements in transaction with other perspectives in anthropology might enhance the possibilities of assessing human evolution and behavior.     

Current perspectives on human evolution: Reaffirming the singular value of fossil evidence

Andrew, Peter, and Jens Lorenz Franzen, eds. The Early Evolution of Man with Special Emphasis on Southeast Asia and Africa. Frankfurt: Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, No. 69, 1984. 277 pp. including chapter references. Price unknown, paper.

Delson, Eric, ed. Ancestors: The Hard Evidence. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1985. xii + 366 pp. including chapter references and index. $49.50 doth.

Smith, Fred H., and Frank Spencer, eds. The Origins of Modern Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1984. xxii + 590 pp. including chapter references and index. $70.00 cloth.

Tobias, Phillip V., ed. Hominid Evolution: Past, Present and Future. New York: Alan R. Liss, 1985. xxx + 499 pp. including chapter references and index. $38.00 cloth.     

Investigating the role of food processing in human evolution: a niche construction approach

While it is generally agreed that food processing has had a role in human evolution, the specific ways that is has affected our evolution are not well understood. Using a Niche Construction Theory (NCT) perspective, coupled with methodologies borrowed from “post-harvest” research in the plant sciences, this paper investigates the means and mechanism by which food processing is of evolutionary consequence. The central tenet of NCT is that organisms have an active role in their own evolution through reciprocal interactions with their environments; niche construction is understood to occur when organisms initiate long-term changes to their environments that modify the selection pressures on themselves and their descendants (and on other organisms in the environment). Humans and our hominin ancestors are considered to be the ultimate niche constructors due to our ability to modify selection pressures through diverse culturally generated and transmitted cultural means, i.e. cultural niche construction. In this paper, post-harvest methods are used to identify how food processing could feasibly have permitted hominins to modify their evolutionary selection pressures. Food processing is shown to facilitate access to increasing amounts of digestible nutrients and energy (kilocalories/kilojoules) as well as promoting increased dietary breadth and making possible the production of safer and more stable foods. It is argued that these advancements catalysed related technological and ecological skills and knowledge, which together with the nutritional benefits, further triggered changes in hominin brain and body and locomotory adaptations and increased longevity, disease prevention and juvenile survival rates.     

Population growth and cultural evolution

Brian Spooner, ed. Population Growth: Anthropological Implications. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972. xxvii + 425 pp. Figures, tables, notes, bibliography, and index. $15.00.     

The evolution of human culture during the later Pleistocene: Using fauna to test models on the emergence and nature of “modern” human behavior

It has often been argued that the success and spread of modern humans ∼50,000 years ago was due to a series of key behavioral shifts that conferred particular adaptive advantages. And yet, particularly during the African Middle Stone Age (MSA), some of these “modern” behaviors see only patchy expression across time and space. Recent models have proposed a link between the emergence of modern behaviors and environmental degradation and/or demographic stress. Under these models, modern behaviors represent a form of social/economic intensification in response to stress; if this were the case, signs of subsistence intensification should be more common during periods in which these behaviors are manifested than when they are not. In order to test these models, I analyzed faunal remains from Sibudu Cave (South Africa), focusing on the Howieson’s Poort (HP), a phase in which modern behaviors are evidenced, and the post-HP MSA, when classical signatures of such behavior have disappeared. Significant variability in hunting behavior was identified. While much of this variability appears to correspond with changes in the local environment, evidence for resource stress was more common during the HP. The implications of these results to our understanding of the evolution of human culture are discussed.     

文献系统化加工与文化演进

献整理包括献搜集、献选择、献系统化加工诸阶段。就与整个化系统的关系而论,献系统化加工可能是最为重要的。它通过献化内涵的修改、献化地位的升降、献化结构的调控等方式对整个化系统进行历史重构、目标控制与功能组配,从而生成高度整合的献系统,作用于人类化的演进．     

Palaeolithic archaeology and the evolution of mind

This paper reviews recent archaeological studies concerning the evolution of mind. It is structured around four themes: language, intelligence, symbolism, and social learning. It includes reference to recent work in other disciplines that is either having, or likely to have, considerable impact on archaeological thought. The evolution of mind is a highly contentious subject, plagued by problems of definition and lacking an explicit methodology. This paper argues that the two most positive trends of recent work have been greater attempts at interdisciplinary studies and the integration of the study of cognition with that of hominid lifestyles.     

Economic geography and the evolution of networks

An evolutionary perspective on economic geography requires adynamic understanding of change in networks. This article explorestheories of network evolution for their use in geography anddevelops the conceptual framework of geographical network trajectories.It specifically assesses how tie selection constitutes the evolutionaryprocess of retention and variation in network structure andhow geography affects these mechanisms. Finally, a typologyof regional network formations is used to discuss opportunitiesfor innovation in and across regions.     

Two views of natural selection and evolution

Ho, Mae‐Wan, and Peter Saunders, eds. Beyond Neo‐Darwinism: An Introduction to the New Evolutionary Paradigm. London: Academic Press, 1984. xiv + 376 pp. including illustrations, author and subject indices, and chapter references. $40.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

Sober, Elliott. The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984. x + 383 pp. including references and author and subject indices. $25.00 cloth, $12.50 paper.     

Myopia, knowledge development and cluster evolution

This article aims to show how processes of knowledge developmentand their institutional underpinnings make up the core of evolutionaryeconomic geography. We argue that micro level concepts—notablyinnovation, selection and retention—provide insights thatcan be helpful also when investigating evolutionary processesof knowledge creation at the aggregate levels of cities, regionsor nations. We investigate the linkage between drivers, mechanismsand barriers to knowledge creation and acquisition at the micro-level,and the development over time and across spatial settings ofhigher-order phenomena of localized institutions and other capabilities.We apply this distinction on the analysis of the rise, growth,decline and possible rejuvenation of spatial clusters of similarand complementary economic activity.