Why handaxes just aren't that sexy: a response to Kohn &amp; Mithen (1999)

Machin, Anna

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00097362

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, this innovation is matched at times by greater symmetry in tool forms, particularly among Acheulean bifaces. Such symmetry has attracted comment from a cognitive perspective (Hodgson 2009;Wynn 1979) as well as interpretations of sexual selection (Kohn & Mithen 1999;Machin 2008;Nowell & Chang 2009) and has been compared to the attention skills found in strong emotional bonding between dyads (Dunbar 2010b; Gamble 2010).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Brain and the Shape of the Palaeolithic

Gamble

Gowlett

Dunbar

2011

CAJ

130

132

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is often the case in interdisciplinary accounts of human evolution that archaeological data are either ignored or treated superficially. This article sets out to redress this position by using archaeological evidence from the last 2.5 million years to test the social brain hypothesis (SBH) -that our social lives drove encephalization. To do this we construct a map of our evolving social complexity that concentrates on two resources -materials and emotions -that lie at the basis of all social interaction. In particular, novel cultural and biological mechanisms are seen as evolutionary responses to problems of cognitive load arising from the need to integrate more individuals and sub-units into the larger communities predicted by the SBH. The Palaeolithic evidence for the amplification of these twin resources into novel social forms is then evaluated. Here the SBH is used to differentiate three temporal movements (2. and their varied evolutionary responses are described in detail. Attention is drawn to the second movement where there is an apparent disconnect between a rise in encephalization and a stasis in material culture. This disconnect is used to discuss the co-evolutionary relationship that existed between materials and emotions to solve cognitive problems but which, at different times, amplified one resource rather than the other. We conclude that the shape of the Palaeolithic is best conceived as a gradient of change rather than a set of step-like revolutions in society and culture.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Brain and the Shape of the Palaeolithic

Gamble

Gowlett

Dunbar

2011

CAJ

130

132

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In short, the overall role of symmetry in eliciting positive reactions to potential mates, a clear prerequisite for the sexy handaxe theory, was not conclusively demonstrated (Hodgson, 2009;Hodgson, 2010;Nowell and Chang, 2009;Nowell and Chang, 2010). The role of material culture in acting as an extended phenotype was therefore called into question (Machin, 2008;Machin, 2009;Machin et al, 2007). For the moment, the sexy handaxes remain unselected wallflowers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Acheulean is defined by its iconic tool type, the handaxe, and a suite of other large cutting tools (LCTs). These tools retain information on technical and procedural practices concerned with the manufacture of these butchery tools and carcass processing knives. The Acheulean straddles the period in which more ancient hominin species (H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis) give way to archaic H. sapiens (sensu lato) amongst whom the ancestor of modern humans may be found. The roots of modern behaviour may be present in these handaxe making hominin species, and the handaxes themselves, through proxy data such as bilateral symmetry, may chart hominin cognitive evolution as researchers such as T. Wynn and F. Coolidge (2016), amongst others, have argued. But the search for the earliest consistent application of symmetry, and its persistence thereafter has been hampered by the lack of large datasets, spanning the temporal extent of the Acheulean, and analysed through a single consistent methodology.Our paper has two aims. The first, and in the absence of a large comparative data set of earlier Acheulean handaxes, is to assess the degree to which symmetry is consistently applied to the making of handaxes in the later Acheulean (=<0.5 mya), a time when bilateral planform symmetry should already be an integral component in handaxe making. The dataset we select is the British Acheulean from MIS 13 -MIS 3/4. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time handaxe symmetry has been assessed on a large body of British Acheulean handaxes. Our second aim is to present a relatively simple and low tech methodology for the analysis of handaxes

show abstract

“…The duration of the handaxe tradition has led some researchers to even think that handaxe manufacture may have been more related to sexual selection than functionality (Kohn and Mithen, 1999; for a critical view see Machin, 2008). The functional meaning of handaxes has remained elusive for so long that some researchers even argued that handaxes may have served as blanks for flake extraction (Potts, 1989;Davidson and Noble, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%