Culturing the Paleolithic Body

Nowell, April; Cooke, Amanda

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198813781.013.20

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…First, major biological life-differences exist between Homo sapiens and many pre-modern hominins. These may have fundamentally constrained learning opportunities and the material culture-mediated affordance familiarity we have demonstrated here (Nowell, 2016 ; Nowell & White, 2012 ). In addition, an interesting pattern is also emerging from the archaeological record: there is, at present, suggestive evidence for miniatures early in human evolution (Assaf, 2021 ; Stapert, 2007 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution

et al. 2021

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Cultural evolutionary theory conceptualises culture as an information-transmission system whose dynamics take on evolutionary properties. Within this framework, however, innovation has been likened to random mutations, reducing its occurrence to chance or fortuitous transmission error. In introducing the special collection on children and innovation, we here place object play and play objectsespecially functional miniaturesfrom carefully chosen archaeological contexts in a niche construction perspective. Given that play, including object play, is ubiquitous in human societies, we suggest that plaything construction, provisioning and use have, over evolutionary timescales, paid substantial selective dividends via ontogenetic niche modification. Combining findings from cognitive science, ethology and ethnography with insights into hominin early developmental life-history, we show how play objects and object play probably had decisive roles in the emergence of innovative capabilities. Importantly, we argue that closer attention to play objects can go some way towards addressing changes in innovation rates that occurred throughout human biocultural evolution and why innovations are observable within certain technological domains but not others.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution

et al. 2021

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“…The maturation rate of Neandertals is further supported by a recent study of the rib cages of four young Neandertals (Mezmaiskaya 1, Le Moustier 2, Dederiyeh 1, and Roc de Marsal) ranging in age from a newborn to approximately 3 years old at time of death, which demonstrate faster thoracic growth than exhibited by early modern humans (García-Martínez et al 2020). Overall, more robust limbs and wider torsos would have made Neandertal infants appear stockier than their H. sapiens counterparts (García-Martínez et al 2020; see also Nowell 2021). Similarly, using virtual histology, Mahoney and colleagues (2021) studied prenatal and early postnatal growth in five deciduous teeth from three Neandertals from the site of Krapina in Croatia.…”

Section: Early Growth and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neandertal grandmothers especially would have been involved in caring for their young grandchildren, allowing their adult daughters to participate in resource provisioning, including hunting. Despite care from grandmothers, some Neandertal children experienced stress related to weaning (Kubicka et al 2022, p. 543;Nowell 2021;Rosas et al 2006). Although not all Neandertals were inbred, most lived in smaller effective breeding populations than early H. sapiens.…”

Section: Early Growth and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Neandertals

Nowell

2023

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

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In this article, I first provide an overview of the Neandertals by recounting their initial discovery and subsequent interpretation by scientists and by discussing our current understanding of the temporal and geographic span of these hominins and their taxonomic affiliation. I then explore what progress we have made in our understanding of Neandertal lifeways and capabilities over the past decade in light of new technologies and changing perspectives. In the process, I consider whether these advances in knowledge qualify as so-called Black Swans, a term used in economics to describe events that are rare and unpredictable and have wide-ranging consequences, in this case for the field of paleoanthropology. Building on this discussion, I look at ongoing debates and focus on Neandertal extinction as a case study. By way of discussion and conclusion, I take a detailed look at why Neandertals continue to engender great interest, and indeed emotion, among scientists and the general public alike. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 52 is October 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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“…Archaeologically, ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene (Nowell & Cooke, 2021 ; Sehasseh et al ., 2021 ; Stiner, 2014 ) and recent evidence points toward their autonomous adoption by Neanderthals ( e.g. , Frayer et al ., 2020 ; Moro Abadía & Nowell, 2015 ; Peresani et al ., 2013 ; Romandini et al ., 2014 ; Zilhão, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial

Gravel-Miguel

Cristiani

Hodgkins

et al. 2022

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant’s grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant’s community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community.

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Culturing the Paleolithic Body

Cited by 11 publications

References 6 publications

Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution

Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution

Rethinking Neandertals

The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial

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