Introduction to ‘Theoretical Pathways’: Thinking About Human Endeavour During the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic

Abstract

In this brief introduction, we present and contextualise ‘theoretical pathways’ elaborated in this special issue, in terms of understanding humanity from a deep-time perspective. The participating authors discuss a wide range of approaches related to thinking about human endeavour during the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic ranging from the constraints of technological niches and Material Engagement Theory to aspects of palaeo-neurology, agent-based models of self-domestication and co-evolutionary model building. Together, the contributions demonstrate that current theoretical approaches that aim to explain deep-time human endeavour require multi-disciplinary approaches, and that for some researchers, the trend is to move away from the symbolic standard or models of sudden mutation. By doing so, each contribution, in its own way, enhances our understanding of ‘being’ or ‘becoming’ human during the time slice between 300,000 and 30,000 years ago. The work represented here makes it increasingly clear that a singular or particular aspect did not ‘give birth’ to Homo sapiens in Africa during the Middle Stone Age and/or in Eurasia during the Middle Palaeolithic. Instead, humanity in all its complexity was probably shaped by a broad range of factors and processes that took place over an extended period.

Multi-proxy speleothem-based reconstruction of mid-MIS 3 climate in South Africa

“…The southern region of South Africa is a key region for the study of human evolution. Homo sapiens was anatomically modern as early as 300,000 years ago, however, no evidence for 'modern' behavior at that time can be inferred from behavioral proxies in the archeological record (Hublin et al, 2017;Högberg and Lombard, 2021). Episodes of significant cultural changes, seemingly not related to subsistence requirements, have been identified during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) with artifacts such as engraved ochre, an ochre processing kit, engraved ostrich eggshells, bifacial points, and perforated marine shell beads (Henshilwood et al, 2011;e.g.…”