Evolutionary Archaeology

The long-term utility of DNA banks is predicated on the stability of DNA during storage. The quality and yield of DNA extracted from seeds from four garden species, which varied in age from 1 to 135 years old, was used to examine the early stages of DNA degradation. Seeds that were 70 years old yielded high molecular weight DNA, which permitted amplification of a 650 bp segment of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear ribosomal DNA and a 487 bp segment of the plastid-encoded large subunit of rubisco (rbcL). DNA extracted from seeds estimated to be about 135 years old was degraded, but still permitted amplification when routine extraction procedures were used. TherbcLsequences obtained fromc. 135-year-old cucurbit seed DNA were consistent with species identifications based on seed morphological features; however,ITSsequences from the same samples were determined to be of fungal origin. A comparison of our results with studies of DNA stability in leaf specimens s...

 In this paper, we adopt the theoretical framework of evolutionary archaeology in order to model and simulate cultural transmission between hypothetical Neolithic sites in Balkans. We simulate neutral cultural transmission in order to compare the simulation results with empirically observed patterns of material culture variability such as traditional archaeological cultures. Our preliminary results show that a series of random local interactions can result in spatial groupings of typologically similar assemblages that correspond to the spatial distributions of traditional archaeological cultures, even in the absence of any other ‘external’ factor such as an overarching regional political structure or shared collective identity.

Station 3-avant at Pointe-du-Buisson (Beauharnois, Haut-Saint-Laurent, Quebec) has produced the most important collection of Early Middle Woodland (400 B.C. -A.D. 500) earthen ware in Northeastern North America. It also contains an uninterrupted sequence of occupations throughout the Woodland Period. Notwithstanding several stratigraphic complications (homogeneous soil and pedoturbations), evolutionary concepts and methods drawn from the Dual Inheritance Theory are applied to this assemblage. From an anthropological standpoint, what does the study of the evolution and the transmission of know-how pertaining to a Woodland period technology, which we assume to be exclusively feminine, tell us? The author defends that evolutionary archaeology may help detect the context of transmission, i.e. the socioeconomic organization of past populations. The examination of stylistic traits suggests that the progressive summertime sedentarization of amerindian bands, starting around the Late Middle Woodland period, favours a homogenization of ceramics in the context of virilocality, which is the consequence of a conformist-biased transmission operating on a horizontal axis (between peers). However, the probable transition to uxorilocality and to matrilinearity by Iroquoian tribes at the end of the Woodland Period manifests itself through an obvious heterogenization of ceramics, which is likely to reflect a form of cultural selection targeting clanic markers (vertical transmission between parents and offsprings). The study of techno-functional traits indicates a diversification of the ceramic tool-kit following an intensification of experimentation with cultigens. Overall, this evolution underlines a greater attention given to the performance of pots as culinary tools. Additionally, the recourse to seriation and AMS datation allows for the recognition of a Middle Middle Woodland taxon that is characterized by both morphological and decorative modifications of pots. A comparative analysis involving a sample of 27 archaeological sites belonging in the Pseudo-scallop-shell Horizon further demonstrates that the populational variation comprised within this dataset is structured according to the geographic localization of sites in specific drainages. Consequently, the author outlines guidelines for the elaboration of a proper taxonomy with respect to both Early Middle Woodland and Middle Middle Woodland taxa. Finally, arguments drawn from diverse fields (archaeology, palaeoethnobotany, ethnolinguistics, palaeonanthropology and population genetics) point towards a proto-algonquian identity for the aforementioned taxa.

We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to the study of cultural evolution. Existing approaches within anthropology and archaeology demonstrate a good match with the macroevolutionary methods of systematics, paleobiology, and biogeography, whereas mathematical models derived from population genetics have been successfully developed to study cultural microevolution. Much potential exists for experimental simulations and field studies of cultural microevolution, where there are opportunities to borrow further methods and hypotheses from biology. Potential also exists for the cultural e...

His research is focused on gender and status expressions in Iron Age European iconography. He is also involved in museum studies and experimental archaeology research. His overall interest is in religious/ cosmological ideologies, power structures, gender studies, and iconography. Karissa Annis is pursuing her Master's degree in Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in addition to a graduate certificate in museum studies. She received her BA in Classics and Anthropology from the University of Alabama in 2018. Her research interests include European archaeology, mortuary archaeology, historic cemeteries, and media studies. She is currently writing her thesis, which is focused on the intersection of past and present found in archaeological themes in popular culture. Samantha A. Bomkamp finished her MS in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May 2020 with certificates in Museum Studies and Nonprofit Management. She has done archaeology and museum work in the Midwest and Southwest. Her thesis research and interests are focused in the Southwest region, especially in museum collections management. She currently works at the Blackwater Draw Museum at Eastern New Mexico University. Katrina N Schmitz received her Master of Science in Anthropology and a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2020. Her master's thesis was an analysis of the Milwaukee Public Museum's Hopewell site collection from Ross County, Ohio. She is pursuing a career in the museum field .

Different hypotheses identifying factors affecting the complexity of implements used to obtain food resources by hunter-gatherer groups are assessed with regression analysis. A regression model based on interaction between growing season as a proxy measure for risk and number of yearly moves fits data on the complexity of implements for 20 hunter-gatherer groups. The interaction model leads to a division of hunter-gatherer groups into two subgroups that correspond to collector vs. forager strategies for procuring resources. Implications of the interaction model for the evolution of complex implements are discussed.

Among their wealth of publications, Reg Morton and his assistant, Joyce Wingrove, issued a number of interim reports on the constitution of early bloomery slags. Two such reports detailed the procedures and methods which they used in the chemical and microstructure analyses of slags relating to the Roman period (Morton & Wmgrove 1968, 1969). A supplementary report describing a computer model which could be used to analyse and catalogue the results for comparative reference against future analysis of slags from other sites was published by Bullas and Morton in 1969.

The evolution of human hunting techniques from active, endurance-based methods to monumental, passive strategies illustrates a significant shift in subsistence practices during the transition from the Plio-Pleistocene to the Holocene. This study explores the link between persistence hunting, characterized by endurance running and thermoregulation, and the development of desert kites—large, lithic hunting traps used in arid regions during the Neolithic era. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the research examines archaeological evidence, ethnographic data, and evolutionary anthropology to trace the cultural and technological transformations in hunting practices. The findings suggest that desert kites, with their complex structures and reliance on animal behavior, represent a continuation and enhancement of persistence hunting techniques. These monumental constructions required communal cooperation, advanced spatial planning, and a deep understanding of migration patterns, demonstrating the adaptability of human subsistence strategies to changing environmental and societal contexts. While direct links remain speculative, this study highlights the continuity of ancestral knowledge and its role in shaping innovative approaches to hunting in early sedentary societies.

Key Words: Desert kites, persistence hunting, evolutionary anthropology, Neolithic subsistence strategies, endurance running, animal behavior, arid environments, communal hunting, passive hunting techniques, human adaptability

This paper explores innovative Knowledge Discovery and Representation techniques for historical data within the field of Digital Humanities. In particular this research introduces Time-Resolved Variables, an information compression technique, to represent the evolution of categorical variables through time. This technique proves to be more effective than One-Hot Encoding with Principal Component Analysis in explaining the increase of social complexity from historical data. Moreover, this work highlights the potential of Time-Resolved Variables to enhance model explanation by means of correlation analysis and graph visualization. The result of this work, the Chronos dataset, is available online in a shared Spreadsheet for collaborative research and paves the way towards more transparent and trustworthy use of AI in history and cliodynamics.

El ensayo se articula en tres partes. En la primera se hace un esbozo crítico sobre las corrientes teóricas actualmente de moda en arqueología. En la segunda -la central del trabajo- se reflexiona sobre cómo en la arqueología darwiniana anglosajona se dan determinadas circunstancias evolutivas que han conducido a su fragmentación, y cómo los investigadores de países hispanohablantes parten de una realidad sociocultural distinta que permitiría avanzar hacia un paradigma unificado mucho más fértil. En tercer y último lugar se habla sobre la necesidad de abrirse a potentes reflexiones que proceden del materialismo filosófico, como por ejemplo las que giran en torno a los conceptos de cultura y materia, y que permiten concluir que todas las manifestaciones culturales son materiales, independientemente de su grado de corporeidad.

Abstract: This article derives from the conversation I had with Richard Potts in June 2023 about his work at the Human Origins Program of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington D. C.). Dr. Potts is one of the most renowned paleoanthropologists for his research about early humans in Africa and the curation of the exhibit “What does it mean to be human?” at the NMNH. My primary objective was to explore his role in advancing our understanding of humanity’s evolutionary heritage within the broader discourse on world heritage. The interview, conducted in Dr. Potts’s office on June 9, 2023, was recorded and published with his informed consent. His insights shed light on various aspects of artifact acquisition, preservation, and interpretive guidance—key elements in the ongoing social and academic debates surrounding heritage. This includes a perspective rooted in the field of public archaeology that views its practice as a reflexive form of action, intended to raise awareness and foster interconnection between society and archaeological work. From this standpoint, museums serve as fundamental hubs in heritage creation, shaping aesthetic, ethnographic, archaeological, and historical perspectives in alignment with historical agendas, preservation ideologies, conflicting memories, and particular values regarding exhibition, design, and display. They highlight the complex interactions between classification and preservation, the identity narratives they encompass, the scientific and political agendas that shape them, the international networks supporting them, and the communities they cultivate through Potts’ vision.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, evolution, exhibitions, human species museum collections, natural history museums.

Una historia universal: conversaciones con Richard Potts sobre el patrimonio de la evolución humana

Resumen: este artículo se desprende de la conversación que sostuve en junio de 2023 con Richard Potts sobre su trabajo en el programa Orígenes Humanos del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Instituto Smithsoniano en Washington D. C. (NMNH, por su sigla en inglés). Richard Potts es uno de los paleoantropólogos más reconocidos por su investigación sobre los primeros humanos en África y por su curaduría de la exposición “¿Qué significa ser humano?”, del NMNH. El objetivo principal de la entrevista era explorar el papel de Potts en el enriquecimiento de nuestra comprensión del patrimonio de la evolución humana, en el marco de una discusión más amplia sobre patrimonio mundial. La entrevista se llevó a cabo el 9 de junio de 2023 en la oficina de Potts, quien firmó un consentimiento informado y aprobó la grabación y posterior publicación de este diálogo. Su testimonio pone de relieve diferentes aspectos que son esenciales para los debates sociales y académicos sobre el patrimonio, como la adquisición, la preservación y los lineamientos de interpretación de los objetos. Sus declaraciones también nos ofrecen una aproximación al campo de la arqueología pública que comprende esta práctica como una forma reflexiva de acción que busca concientizar y fomentar la interconexión entre el trabajo arqueológico y la sociedad. Sobre la base de este enfoque, los museos actúan como núcleos fundamentales para la construcción de patrimonio, así como para la configuración de perspectivas estéticas, etnográficas, arqueológicas e históricas que responden a agendas históricas, a la preservación de ideologías, a memorias en conflicto y a unos valores particulares relacionados con la exposición, el diseño y el montaje. Mediante la mirada de Potts podemos observar la manera en que los museos resaltan la complejidad de las interacciones entre los asuntos de clasificación y preservación, las narrativas de identidad que engloban, las agendas científicas y políticas que los definen, las redes internacionales que los sostienen y las comunidades que cultivan.

Palabras clave: colecciones museográficas sobre especies humanas, evolución, exposiciones, museos de historia natural, patrimonio cultural.

Uma história universal: diálogo com Richard Potts sobre o patrimônio da evolução humana

Resumo: este artigo é o resultado de uma conversa que tive em junho de 2023 com Richard Potts sobre seu trabalho no programa Human Origins no National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) do Smithsonian, em Washington DC. Richard Potts é um dos mais renomados paleoantropólogos por sua pesquisa sobre os primeiros seres humanos na África e por sua curadoria da “O que significa ser humano?” do NMNH. O principal objetivo da entrevista foi explorar o papel de Potts no enriquecimento de nossa compreensão do patrimônio da evolução humana como parte de uma discussão mais ampla sobre o patrimônio mundial. A entrevista foi realizada em 9 de junho de 2023 no escritório de Potts, que assinou um termo de consentimento livre e esclarecido, em que aprovou a gravação e a posterior publicação desse diálogo. Seu depoimento destaca diferentes aspectos que são essenciais para os debates sociais e acadêmicos sobre patrimônio, como aquisição, preservação e diretrizes para a interpretação de objetos. Suas declarações também nos oferecem uma abordagem do campo da arqueologia pública que entende essa prática como uma forma de ação reflexiva que busca conscientizar e promover a interconexão entre o trabalho arqueológico e a sociedade. Com base nessa abordagem, os museus atuam como centros fundamentais para a construção do patrimônio, bem como para a configuração de perspectivas estéticas, etnográficas, arqueológicas e históricas que respondem a agendas históricas, à preservação de ideologias, a memórias conflitantes e a valores particulares relacionados à exposição, ao design e à montagem. Por meio do olhar de Potts, podemos ver como os museus destacam a complexidade das interações entre questões de classificação e preservação, as narrativas de identidade que abrangem, as agendas científicas e políticas que as definem, as redes internacionais que as sustentam e as comunidades que cultivam.

Palavras-chave: coleções museográficas sobre espécies humanas; evolução; exposições; museus de história natural; patrimônio cultural.

The application of conventional phylogenetic techniques for inferring cultural history is problematic due to differences in the nature of information transmission in biological and cultural realms. In culture, units of transmission are not just measurable attributes, but communicable concepts. Therefore, relatedness amongst cultural elements often resides at the conceptual level not captured by traditional phylogenetic methods. This paper takes a cognitively inspired approach to analyzing material cultural history. We show that combining data for physical attributes of cultural artifacts with conceptual information can uncover cultural influences among different ethnolinguistic groups, and reveal new patterns of cultural ancestry. Using the Baltic psaltery, a musical instrument with a well-documented ethnographic and archaeological record, we recovered a previously unacknowledged pattern of historical relationship that is more congruent with geographical distribution and temporal da...

The first people in Sāmoa produced a varied ceramic archaeological record including a single deposit with decorated Lapita ceramics on the island of ‗Upolu in the west of the archipelago and a nearly contemporaneous plainware deposit over 250 km to the east on Ofu Island. Post-Lapita ceramic change across Sāmoa is similar with almost no decoration, local ceramic production, limited vessel form diversity, and changing frequencies of thin-and thick-wares. This Samoan ceramic record is different from nearby Tonga and Fiji where early decorated Lapita ceramics are widely distributed, there are no thickness-defined ware types, and for Fiji, post-Lapita ceramics are more variable. Here we investigate the apparent uniqueness of the Samoan ceramic record through an analysis of early plainware ceramics, the second oldest after the Ofu deposits, from Tutuila Island in the center of the Sāmoan archipelago. Our assemblage-specific findings are similar to other Sāmoan plainware analyses, but we suggest the ceramic and other archaeological evidence from Sāmoa and the region indicates Sāmoa was colonized by a few isolated groups and that within the context of cultural transmission of ceramic variants, selection explains thickness variation and likely other aspects of Sāmoan ceramic change.

Like the information patterns that evolve through biological processes, mental representations, or memes, evolve through adaptive exploration and transformation of an information space through variation, selection, and transmission. Since unlike genes, memes do not come packaged with instructions for their replication, our brains do it for them, strategically, guided by a fitness landscape that reflects both internal drives and a worldview that is continually updated through meme assimilation. This paper presents a model for how an individual becomes a meme-evolving agent via the emergence of an autocatalytic network of sparse, distributed memories, and discusses implications for complex, creative thought processes and why they are unique to humans. Memetics can do more than account for the spread of catchy tunes; it can pave the way for the kind of overarching framework for the humanities that the first form of evolution has provided for the biological sciences.

Phase III of Sewall Wright's shifting-balance process involves the spread of a superior genotype throughout a structured population. However, a number of authors have suggested that this sort of adaptive change is unlikely under biologically plausible conditions. We studied relevant mathematical models, and the results suggest that the concerns about phase III of the shifting-balance process are justified, but only if environmental conditions are stable. If environmental conditions change in a way that alters species range, then phase III can be effective, leading to an enhancement of adaptedness throughout a structured population.

Food embodies our cultural identity, sense of taste, social status, and the
extent of dependence on resources. It has been the most crucial element in
establishing a liaison between humans and their environment. As hunter-gathers,
the human race has depended on a diverse resource base procured from the envi-
ronment from the early dawn of their evolution. The practice was partly lost owing to
the domestication of crops and the embracing of agricultural life. The dietary
diversity further shrunk in the recent century because of over-reliance on selected
cereal crops, while a large suite of edible species still remains at disposal. Here, we
review and synthesize the trajectory of consumption of wild edible plants, a part of
edible biodiversity, to delineate the link from prehistory to the present times. I also
analyze the diversity and its pattern, discuss the role of culture in use, and outline
their implications on food security policies in improving dietary diversity and in
creating a sustainable food system. The ndings show that the consumption of wild
uncultivated biota, though lessened over time, has not been completely abandoned.
They remained as subsistence food, insurance crop, or key alternate resource to tide
over the unfavorable period. Even now, apart from forest gathering, a plethora of
plants and animals from the various anthropogenic landscapes are collected, cooked,
and consumed likewise. Remarkable biodiversity (nearly 1400 species altogether) of
green leafy shoots, roots and tubers, fruits, owers, and many other edible plant
organs still form a part of our dietary repertoire. However, the edible oral diversity
is distributed heterogeneously across families, i.e., some families (e.g.,
Leguminosae, Compositae, Poaceae, Malvaceae, Rosaceae, Rubiaceae, Lamiaceae,
Moraceae, etc.) contribute disproportionately to the edible species pool. Of total
diversity, a maximum number of species is consumed for their leafy shoots
(740 spp.), followed by fruits (657 spp.), roots and tubers (219 spp.), seeds
(155 spp.), and owers (153 spp.). The diversity also indicates their assimilation and wider acceptance of our food culture. The rich tradition of consumption of underutilized biota has the potential to be included in food policies to render our diet diverse and to enhance the nutritional outcome, like the inclusion under National Nutrition Mission programs, encouraging cultivation in nutrition or kitchen gardens, incorporation in mid-day meals, or related programs. Their high diversity, wider acceptance, and abundance could be a more effective way to combat micronutrient defciency or hidden hunger than the mass-scale promotion and adoption of biofortified crops.

National Library of Australia card number and ISBN 0 7315 5500 7 Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the region south and east of Asia, through mainly Australia, New Guinea and Island Melanesia -lands that have remained terra australis incognita to generations of pre historians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.

Data are reviewed and presented demonstrating calendrical alignments at the Fairground Circle and the Hopeton Earthworks, two Middle Woodland Hopewell geometric enclosures in Ohio. The relationship of these designs to earlier Adena circles is considered. The corpus of available radiocarbon dates for Hopewell and Adena enclosures is discussed. Established chronologies of horticultural development in the prehistoric Eastern Woodlands are examined and suggest a motive for the creation of these Hopewell earthworks: subsistence scheduling. Archaeoastronomy as an interpretive tool has been ignored in Eastern Woodlands archaeology. As the title suggests, this paper is an effort to stimulate such investigations.
Poorly executed archaeoastronomical research can often be little more than confusing arrays of lines on low accuracy maps, with scant cultural interpretation. This paper seeks to avoid such pitfalls by its in-depth review of paleobotanical data and chronologies, and by suggesting possible variations in social structuring associated with primitive calendar
keepers, or “skywatchers”.

This paper reviews and clarifies five misunderstandings about cultural evolution identified by Henrich, Boyd, and Richerson (2008). First, cultural representations are neither discrete nor continuous; they are distributed across neurons that respond to microfeatures. This enables associations to be made, and cultural change to be generated. Second, 'replicator dynamics' do not ensure natural selection. The replicator notion does not capture the distinction between actively interpreted self-assembly code and passively copied self-description, which leads to a fundamental principle of natural selection: inherited information is transmitted, whereas acquired information is not. Third, this principle is violated in culture by the ubiquity of acquired change. Moreover, biased transmission is less important to culture than the creative processes by which novelty is generated. Fourth, there is no objective basis for determining cultural fitness. Fifth, the necessity of randomness is discussed. It is concluded that natural selection is inappropriate as an explanatory framework for culture.

We attempt to reconstruct Sewall Wright's Shifting Balance Theory in order to address some of the major criticisms leveled against it. The resulting abstract process is applied to the GA forming the Shifting Balance Genetic Algorithm (SBGA), which is shown to behave as Wright intended. For example, the SBGA avoids local optima through a shifting balance between subpopulations, as is demonstrated in an experiment. The experiment also shows that the SBGA outperforms the classical GA in both stationary and changing environments.

Significance Eggshell is an understudied archaeological material with potential to clarify past interactions between humans and birds. We apply an analytical method to legacy collections of Late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene cassowary eggshell and demonstrate that early foragers in the montane rainforests of New Guinea preferentially collected eggs in late stages of embryonic growth. This finding suggests that foragers regulated the exploitation of cassowaries and may have hatched eggs to rear chicks. The montane rainforests of New Guinea may thus present the earliest known evidence of human management of avian breeding.

A combination of archeological and ethnohistorical evidence indicates that, over an approximately 8,000-year period, from the beginning of the Holocene until European explorers began arriving in the eighteenth century, the societies of Tasmania lost a series of valuable skills and technologies. These likely included bone tools, cold-weather clothing, hafted tools, nets, fishing spears, barbed spears, spear-throwers, and boomerangs. To address this puzzle, and the more general question of how human cognition and social interaction can generate both adaptive cultural evolution and maladaptive losses of culturally acquired skills, this paper constructs a formal model of cultural evolution rooted in the cognitive details of human social learning and inference. The analytical results specify the conditions for differing rates of adaptive cultural evolution, and reveal regimes that will produce maladaptive losses of particular kinds of skills and related technologies. More specifically, the results suggest that the relatively sudden reduction in the effective population size (the size of the interacting pool of social learners) that occurred with the rising ocean levels at the end of the last glacial epoch, which cut Tasmania off from the rest of Australia for the ensuing ten millennia, could have initiated a cultural evolutionary process that (1) kept stable or even improved relatively simple technological skills, and (2) produced an increasing deterioration of more complex skills leading to the complete disappearance of some technologies and practices. This pattern is consistent with the empirical record in Tasmania. Beyond this case, I speculate on the applicability of the model to understanding the variability in rates of adaptive cultural evolution. La evidencia arqueoldgica y etnohist6rica indica que, a lo largo de aproximadamente 8, 000 afios, desde el principio del Holoceno hasta la llegada de exploradores europeos en el siglo XVIII, las sociedades de Tasmania perdieron gran parte de su cultura tecnolo'gica. Las herramientas que desaparecieron probablemente incluyen el hueso, ropa resistente alfrio, los instrumentos enmangados, arpones, lanzas de pdas, los lanza-lanzadores y los bumerangs. g Cdmo es posible que se perdiera todo esto? Para resolver este misterio, y tambidn esclarecer deforma mds general c6mo el conocimiento humano y la interaccidn social pueden generar adaptaciones y tambidn la pe'rdida de las mismas, e inclusive malas adaptaciones, en este articulo se construye un modelo formal de la evolucidn cultural que se basa en detalles cognoscitivos del aprendizaje y la inferencia humanos en el dmbito social. Los resultados analiticos especifican los regimenes de condiciones bajo los cuales la evolucidn cultural genera adaptaciones, y tambien los regimenes contrastantes bajo los cuales se producen pdrdidas que representan malas adaptaciones tanto de habilidades como de las tecnologias vinculadas con ellas. Mds especificamente, los resultados sugieren que la reduccidn relativamente repentina en el tamahio eficaz de la poblacidn (el tamafio del grupo de aprendices sociales), es la causa mds importante de estas perdidas culturales. El motor ecoldgico de esta reduccidn fue el alza del nivel del mar en la epoca final de la glaciacidn pasada, que tuvo como efecto separar a Tasmania del resto de Australia durante los ultimos diez milenios. La consecuencia fue un deterioro de las habilidades mds complejas con las cuales contaba esta poblacidn. El expediente empirico de la arqueologia en Tasmania confirma este patrdn. Mds alld de este caso particular, se presentan especulaciones acerca de la aplicabilidad de este modelo para entender la variabilidad en los indices de la evolucidn cultural adaptativa en el marco tecnoldgico. This paper presents a model of cumulative cultural evolution that explicitly links certain cognitive aspects of cultural learning with social group characteristics (e.g., size, density, interconnectedness). My goal is to provide some general theoretical insights that show how our cog-nitive capacities for social learning (i.e., cultural transmission), which likely evolved via natural selection for their ability to extract adaptive information from the social environment (Boyd and Richerson 1985; Henrich and Gil-White 2001), generate varying rates of cultural/technological

This session brings together researchers working in different areas of the world to explore the context of initial domestication of plants and animals and their subsequent dispersal. Participants will provide an overview of the ecological setting of domestication and dispersal, as well as the subsistence strategies developed in world areas from which domesticates either emerged or were merged into. Papers will explore questions of the richness and diversity of endemic plants and animals in these different settings, trade-offs between sedentism and mobility, the interaction of resident hunter-gatherers and migrant farmers, and the overall role of domesticates within subsistence strategies of groups with both emergent and introduced domesticates.

This paper fits a specific log-linear model to a contingency table containing the frequencies of 47 artifact types across 31 village sites on the North Coast of New Guinea. The model provides a precise and elegant answer to the questions raised by Welsch, et al. (1992:568), namely, how much of the "variability in the inventories" is accounted for by distance and how much by language. We measure the total amount of variability in the contingency table with a model of quasi-independence, i.e., the expected frequencies based on column and row totals. We then ask what proportion of this variability can be accounted for by: (1) the scaled distances, (2) the scaled languages, and (3) the scaled distances and languages taken together. The scale values for distance and language come from a previous analysis by Moore and Romney (1994). Results show that distance and language account for just over a quarter of the variability taken separately, whereas taken together they account for an additional 10 percent. The results support the previous analysis of Moore and Romney (1994) that finds both distance and language to be related to artifact type distribution and contradict the notion of Welsch, et al. (1992) that language is unrelated to artifact type distribution.

Two observed deficiencies of the GA are its tendency to get trapped at local maxima and the difficulty it has handling a changing environment after convergence has occurred. A mechanism proposed by Sewall Wright in the 1930s addresses the problem of premature convergence: his Shifting Balance Theory (SBT) of evolution. In this work the SBT has been modified to remove defects inherent in its original formulation, while keeping the properties that should both increase the adaptive abilities of the GA and prevent it from prematurely converging. The system has been implemented and is called the Shifting Balance Genetic Algorithm (SBGA). Experimental results and analysis are presented demonstrating that the SBGA does, in fact, lessen the problem of premature convergence and also improves performance under a dynamic environment, thereby mitigating both deficiencies.

ABSTRACT.-A cultural argument is proposed to explain the origins and development of cultivation in different areas of the world. It is suggested that culturally valued foodstuffs which reflected cultural categories of edibility, taste and other forms of sensory appeal may have had ...

Various disciplines, including evolutionary biology, anthropology, archaeology, and psychology, have studied the evolution of rituals. Archaeologists have typically argued that burial practices are one of the most prominent manifestations of ritual practices in the past and have explored various aspects of burial practices, including burial directions. One of the important hypotheses on the cultural evolution of burial practices in Japan is the kitamakura hypothesis, which claims that burial directions (including Kofuns and current burials) were intended to be oriented toward the north after the Kofun period under the influence of Confucianism or Buddhism. This hypothesis would be more plausible if burial directions were not oriented northward before the Kofun period. This research focused on the burial directions in the northern Kyūshū area of the Yayoi period, i.e., the directions of the kamekan jar burials. The results are almost consistent with the hypothesis, although one notable exception is found, and its possible interpretations and implications are discussed.

It has long been believed that climate shifts during the last 2 million years had a pivotal role in the evolution of our genus Homo1–3. However, given the limited number of representative palaeo-climate datasets from regions of anthropological interest, it has remained challenging to quantify this linkage. Here, we use an unprecedented transient Pleistocene coupled general circulation model simulation in combination with an extensive compilation of fossil and archaeological records to study the spatiotemporal habitat suitability for five hominin species over the past 2 million years. We show that astronomically forced changes in temperature, rainfall and terrestrial net primary production had a major impact on the observed distributions of these species. During the Early Pleistocene, hominins settled primarily in environments with weak orbital-scale climate variability. This behaviour changed substantially after the mid-Pleistocene transition, when archaic humans became global wande...

Sewall Wright's (1943) concept of isolation by distance is as germane to cultural transmission as genetic transmission. Yet there has been little research on how the spatial scale of social learning—the geographic extent of cultural transmission—affects cultural diversity. Here, we employ agent-based simulation to study how the spatial scale of unbiased social learning affects selectively neutral cultural diversity over a range of population sizes and densities. We show that highly localized unbiased cultural transmission may be easily confused with a form of biased cultural transmission, especially in low-density populations. Our results have important implications for how archaeologists infer mechanisms of cultural transmission from diversity estimates that depart from the expectations of neutral theory.

We present a study on the rock art of northern Patagonia based on network analysis and communities detection. We unveil a significant aggregation of archaeological sites, linked by common rock art motifs that turn out to be consistent with their geographical distribution and archaeological background of hunter-gatherer stages of regional peopling and land use. This exploratory study will allow us to approach more accurately some social strategies of visual communication entailed by rock art motif distribution, in space and time.

What turns an invention into an innovation? How, if at all, might we observe this process archaeologically? Loosely put, new varieties of plants or animals might be considered as inventions (whether from deliberate breeding or by chance), but ones that are only taken up by humans more systematically as innovations when certain social, demographic, economic and environmental factors encourage such take-up. The archaebotanically-observed history of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta) is an interesting case in this respect. Prior to 3000 bce, spelt is occasionally found in very small amounts at sites in eastern Europe and southwest Asia, but is usually considered to be a crop weed in such contexts, rather than a cultivar. However, rather suddenly across Central Europe ~ 3000−2500 bce spelt appears more consistently at multiple Chalcolithic and especially Bell Beaker sites, in quantities which suggest a shift to its use as a deliberate crop. By the full-scale Bronze Age in this region, spelt becomes one of the major crops. This paper discusses this Central European process in greater detail via macro-botanical evidence. It argues that demographic factors during the Neolithic may have inhibited the spread of Asian spelt into central Europe, and that while small amounts of local European spelt were probably present earlier on, it was only at the very end of the Neolithic, in tandem with human population increases and major technological changes such as the introduction of the plough that spelt was taken up as a cultivar. In particular, a shift by some communities in the region ~ 3000−2500 bceo more extensive (and sometimes plough-enabled) agricultural strategies may have favoured deliberate cultivation of spelt on less productive soils, given this variety's relative robustness to harsher conditions. In other words, a combination of conditions was necessary for this innovation to really take hold.

The last decade has brought many changes to the archaeology of hunter-gatherers: new kinds of data have been recovered; new methods and techniques have been applied; and new kinds of questions have been asked and answered. Amidst this change it is too early to separate what will last from what is merely new. Hence, this review will not deal with the achievements of huntergatherer archaeology. By focusing on some of the unanswered questions instead, I hope to help the reader in evaluating the monograph that follows. .Band Society, with initial caps, is viewed in this foreword as the cultural system which is manifest in the cultural behavior of most hunter-gatherer populations (band societies). Details of Band Society operation can be found in any of the following recent synopses:

Not by the Treadmill Alone by Claes Andersson and Dwight Read Among the drivers and constraints on the evolution of complex hominin culture that have been proposed throughout the years, demographic factors have been particularly persistent, and they have recently again come to gain traction in the literature in the shape of the so-called treadmill model. The treadmill model connects cultural complexity to group size via a need to constantly "outrun a treadmill of cultural loss," whose backward motion is caused by errors in culture transmission. The entrenchment of the treadmill explanation of cultural complexity, however, takes place against a background of critiques of the model and the presence of other explanatory propositions. This creates a need for deentrenchment: wider integration, elaboration, and critique of the premises of the treadmill model and the evidence advanced to validate it. We begin by reviewing the treadmill model, making an assessment of its current status, and then moving on to a more synthetic proposition by placing the model into the context of other models addressing the elaboration of cultural complexity. We end by considering the broader implications for the study of the evolution of culture and of human behavior to be gained from more integrated modeling of the various factors affecting cultural complexity.

Whitehouse, et al. have recently used the Seshat archaeo-historical databank to argue that beliefs in moralizing gods appear in world history only after the formation of complex “megasocieties” of around one million people. Inspection of the authors’ data, however, shows that 61% of Seshat data points on moralizing gods are missing values, mostly from smaller populations below one million people, and during the analysis the authors re-coded these data points to signify the absence of moralizing gods beliefs. When we confine the analysis only to the extant data or use various standard imputation methods, the reported finding is reversed: moralizing gods precede increases in social complexity. We suggest that the reported “megasociety threshold” for the emergence of moralizing gods is thus solely a consequence of the decision to re-code nearly two-thirds of Seshat data from unknown values to known absences of moralizing gods.

The terminology and definitions for farmers, foragers and those who undertake in-between subsistence strategies have attracted recurrent debate by archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers and others. These debates are plagued by semantic and conceptual confusions in terms of the definitions proffered to the ‘middle ground’ between foragers and farmers, as well as in terms of how categories are applied in the past and the present. In broad terms, perspectives diverge between considering the adoption of agriculture to be an ‘all-or-nothing’ commitment or a continuum representing various types of ‘middle ground’. A careful unpacking of data from traditional societies in Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas reveals geographical structuring of the global dataset, as well as considerable differences based on local crop assemblages. In sum, agro-pastoral, cereal-based societies in Africa and Eurasia exhibit a stronger tendency with respect to subsistence dependence on farming, while soci- eties in North America and those reliant on root crops and arboriculture in the wet tropics tend more towards a ‘middle ground’ that incorporates aspects of farming without abandoning foraging.

Stemmed obsidian tools (mata'a) are a ubiquitous component of the archaeological record of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and have long figured prominently within archaeological debates on the island's prehistory. Although they are one of the most common artifacts found on the island, much uncertainty exists regarding the uses and function of these tools. Most ethnohistoric and contemporary accounts have presented mata'a as spear-heads, and modern researchers have included this as evidence for a violent history of widespread warfare on the island. Recent studies, however, have shown that mata'a are unlikely to have been designed as weapons but possibly were more general purpose cutting tools or agricultural implements.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. P.M. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board. Data deposition: Illumina short read sequence data reported in this paper have been deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information Sequence Read Archive (study accession no. SRP064244). Annotated plastid genome sequences for taxonomic representatives have been deposited in GenBank database (accession nos. KT898803-KT898821).

The Remote Oceanic archipelagos from Vanuatu to Sāmoa were first occupied 3000 years ago by populations with Lapita pottery at over 100 colonization sites. In Sāmoa, however, the first millennium of settlement is comprised of only a few isolated archaeological sites, and only one with Lapita pottery. This unique archaeological record is typically explained as a result of isostatic subsidence that destroyed or displaced more numerous coastal colonization sites. Three additional hypotheses may account for this pattern. First, few coastal flats may have existed for settlement, limiting occupation of the archipelago. Second, terrestrial geological processes may have destroyed what were once more numerous sites. Third, the few early and isolated sites in Sāmoa may reflect a small population of colonists resulting from demographic processes, including wave-front population density, or the Allee effect. We conducted a preliminary examination of the first two alternative hypotheses through a programme of coring and excavation across three coastlines on 'Upolu island, Sāmoa. Subsurface sediment data suggest both hypotheses may be valid explanations in different coastal settings. We propose additional research to test this possibility.

One of the most noticeable, intense and long-lasting human adaptive explorations that occurred in the mid-Holocene was the specialisation in the exploitation of coastal resources that happened in the South of Chile and Argentina. There, the continental border is abrupt and jagged, rainy and covered by woods. In the mid-Holocene, and apparently quite suddenly, an intensification of the human use of littoral resources was developed, which differed considerably from what happened in the rest of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. This paper examines in particular the role of the peculiar environment of the area: its importance as a selective factor is evident, but it is not possible to identify within it the factor which determined the starting of the adaptation process.

Adaptation, a venerable icon in archaeology, often is afforded the vacuous role of being an ex-post-f used to "explain " the appearance and persistence of traits among prehistoric groups-a position that ha impeded development of a selectionist perspective in archaeology. Biological and philosophical definitions of adaptation-and by extension, definitions of adaptedness-vary considerably, but all are far removedfrom those usually employed in archaeology. The prevailing view in biology is that adaptations are features that were shaped by natural selection and that increase the adaptedness of an organism. Thus adaptations are separatedfrom other features that may contribute to adaptedness but are products of other evolutionary processes. Analysis of adaptation comprises two stages: showing that a feature was under selection and how the feature functioned relative to the potential adaptedness of its bearers. The archaeological record contains a wealth of information pertinent to examining the adaptedness of prehistoric groups, but attempts to use it will prove successful only if a clear understanding exists of what adaptation is and is not. human adaptations but also calls into question our understanding of principles that have received

A cultural argument is proposed to explain the origins and development of cultivation in different areas of the world. It is suggested that culturally valued foodstuffs which reflected cultural categories of edibility, taste and other forms of sensory appeal may have had more of an influence on the domestication of plants than the search for staple crops. The role of food processing, cooking and the exchange of foodstuffs in the development of cultivation and the diffusion of plants and animals is examined. Then ideas are examined against the existing evidence of cultivation from archaeological sites in S.

the barbed points made of biotic hard tissues in ethnographic collections from tierra del Fuego and from the palaeolithic of the Mediterranean basin of the Iberian peninsula are investigated. Following the guidelines in the work of gerd-christian Weniger (1995), we demonstrate that the criteria proposed in his original book are valid and that their application to the palaeolithic record overcomes the purely descriptive stage of the previous studies. Our analysis shows that few of the analysed barbed points were true harpoons. the differences between the different barbed points may be due to a chronological bias, but are certainly due to functional requirements.

Cultural transmission (CT) describes the myriad processes whereby information is transmitted from a transmitter to a recipient. Much empirical and modelling research suggests that there are many different pathways and biases through which such information is transmitted. In particular, the content, context, and mode of the transmission can structure variation over time and space in resulting information at a population level. These ideas can be applied to the archaeological record of all societies, but we explore how these ideas might inform specifically on hunting and gathering groups. CT theory suggests that hunter-gatherers, due to their smaller population sizes and simpler social structure, should be characterised by a more limited range and generally more simple material technologies, but display broader variation about a particular mean type, than other more densely populated societies. We exemplify some of these processes with two case studies from the North American Great Basin.

The identification of wheat grains to the species level is problematic in many archaeobotanical samples, yet this is key to better understanding wheat phylogeny and agricultural trajectories. This study was conducted to see if the pronounced differences in kernel texture (grain hardness) which exist among einkorn (very soft), emmer/durum (very hard), and bread wheat/spelt (soft) would manifest themselves after charring (carbonization). Grains of these three species were either broken and then charred, or charred and then broken (charring at 250, 270 and 400°C). All specimens were then examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy. At 250°C, grains broken before charring showed distension across the broken exposed endosperm surface. In the two soft wheats (Triticum monococcum, T. spelta; einkorn and spelt), starch granules were still evident, whereas in T. dicoccum, emmer, the fracture surface was nearly smooth. When charring occurred before breaking, a flat fracture face resulted. At 270°C, distension increased for grains broken before charring whereas in those broken after charring, the fracture plane was again perpendicular to the longitudinal axis and was present as an open sponge-like topography. At 400°C, distension was pronounced and represented ''puffing'' in grains that were broken before charring. Those that were charred and then broken produced a markedly open porous structure, but again with aspects of an angular fracture plane. In conclusion, several morphological features related to grain hardness, and therefore ploidy and genus were present at the lower charring temperatures. These differences largely disappeared at 400°C. Characteristics of the carbonized grains provide some diagnostic features as to possible food processing or damage during recovery.