Abstract
This chapter begins with the assumption that the analytical categories we impose on the world—including the deep past—are arbitrary constructs invented for heuristic purposes rather than discovered innate properties. I argue that such partitioning is and always was affected by political realities—extant or envisioned—which clearly demonstrate the “virtual” rather than intrinsic reality of such “Rubicons.” I further argue that when we fail to acknowledge this, we assign unwarranted significance to our constructs and waste precious research resources analyzing them. I illustrate these points by discussing the “Modernity” conundrum—the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition—that has been the subject of innumerable muddled and ultimately largely sterile debates over the last 25 years or so.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adler, D.S., Bar-Oz, G., Belfer-Cohen, A., and Bar-Yosef, O., 2006, Ahead of the Game: Middle and Upper Paleolithic Hunting Behaviors in the Southern Caucasus. Current Anthropology 47: 89–118.
Agadzhanian, A.K., 2001, Prostranstvennaia struktura mamontovoj fauny Severnoj Evrazii. In Mamont I ego okruzhenie: 200 let izucheniia, edited by A.Yu. Rozanov, pp. 220–243. GEOS, Moscow.
Aiello, L.C. and Dunbar, R.I.M., 1993, Neocortex Size, Group Size, and the Evolution of Language. Current Anthropology 35: 73–96.
Alekseev, V.P., 1993, Ocherki Ekologii Cheloveka. Nauka: Moscow.
Balme, J. and Bowdler, S., 2006, Spear and Digging Stick. The Origin of Gender and Its Implications for the Colonization of New Continents. Journal of Social Archaeology 6: 379–401.
Barton, R.N.E., Currant, A.P., Fernandez-Jalvo, Finlayson, J.C., Goldberg, P., Machphail, R., Pettitt, P., and Stringer, C.B., 1999, Gibraltar Neanderthals an Results of Recent Excavations in Gorham’s, Vanguard and Ibex caves. Antiquity 73: 13–23.
Bar-Yosef, O., 2000, The Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic in Southwest Asia and Neighboring Regions. In The Geography of Neandertals and Modern Humans in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean, edited by O. Bar-Yosef and D. Pilbeam, pp. 107–156. Peabody Museum Bulletin 8.
Bar-Yosef, O., 2002, The Upper Paleolithic Revolution. Annual Reviews in Anthropology. 31: 363–393.
Bar-Yosef, O. and Kuhn, S., 1999, The Big Deal about Blades: Laminar Technologies and Human Evolution. American Anthropologist 101: 322–338.
Bar-Yosef, O., Belfer-Cohen, A., Meshveliani, D.S., Adler, D.S., Tushabramashvili, N., Boaretto, E., Mercier., N., and Weiner, S., 2002, The Middle-Upper Paleolithic Boundary in the Western Caucasus. Journal of Human Evolution 42: A4–A5
Bar-Yosef, O., Belfer-Cohen, A., and Adler, D.S., 2006, The Implications of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Chronological Boundary in the Caucasus to Eurasian Prehistory. Anthropologie (Brno) XLIV: 49–60.
Balala, G., 1988, The Evolution of Technology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Berger, T.D. and Trinkaus, E., 1995, Patterns of Trauma Among The Neanderthals. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 841–852.
Bietti, A., 1997, The Transition to Anatomically Modern Humans: The Case of Peninsular Italy. In Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, edited by G.A. Clark and C. M. Willermet, pp. 132–147. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Binford, L.R., 2001, Constructing Frames of Reference. University of California Press, San Francisco.
Bocherens, H., Billiou, D., Pattou-Mathis, M., Otte, M., Bennean, D., Toussaint, M., and Mariotti, A., 1999, Paleoenvironmental and Paleodietary Implications of Isotopic Biochemistry of Neanderthal and Mammal Bones in Scladina Cave, Layer 4 (Sclayn, Belgium). Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 599–607.
Bocherens, H. and Drucker, D.E., 2003, Reconstructing Neandertal Diet from 120,000 to 30,000 BP Using Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopic Abundances. In Le rôle de l’environment dans le comportements des chausseurs-cuillieurs préhistoriques, edited by M. Patou-Mathis and H. Bocherens. 1-8. British Archaeological Reports. International Series 1105.
Bocherens, H., Drucker, D.G., Billiou, E., Patou-Mathis, M., and Vandermeersch, B., 2005, Isotopic Evidence for Diet and Subsistence Pattern of the Saint-Césaire Neanderthal: Review and use of a multi-source mixing model. Journal of Human Evolution 40: 71–87.
Boëda, E., Connan, J., and Muhensen, S., 1998, Bitumen Hafting Material on Middle Paleolithic Artifacts from the El Kowm Basin, Syria. In Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, edited by T. Akezawa, K. Aoki, and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. 181–204. Plenum Publishing, New York.
Bordes, F., 1968, The Old Stone Age. World University Library, New York.
Boriskovskij, P. I., (ed.) 1984, Paleolit SSSR. Nauka Publishing, Moscow.
Boriskovskij, P. I. (ed.) 1989 Paleolit Kavkaza i Severnoj Azii. Nauka Publishing, Leningrad.
Brace, C.L., 1997, Modern Human Origins: Narrow Focus or Broad Spectrum? In Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, edited by G.A. Clark and C. M. Willermet, pp. 11–27. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Brantingham, P.J., Krivoshpkin, A. I., Jinzeng, L, and Tserendagva, Ya., 2001, The Initial Upper Paleolithic in Northeast Asia. Current Anthropology 42: 735–747.
Brightman, R., 1996, The Sexual Division of Foraging Labor: Biology, Taboo, and Gender Politics. Comparative Studies of Society and History 38: 687–729.
Brumbach, H. J. and Jarvenpa, R., 1997, Woman the Hunter: Ethnoarchaeological Lessons from Chipewyan Life-Cycle Dynamics. In Women in Prehistory. North America and Mesoamerica, edited by C. Claassen and R. A. Joyce, pp. 17–32. The University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Butzer, K.W., 1991, An Old World Perspective on Potential Mid-Wisconsinan Settlement of the Americas. In The First Americans: Search and Research, edited by T.D. Dillehay and D. J. Meltzer, pp. 137–156. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Cain, C.R., 2006, Implications of the Marked Artifacts of the Middle Stone Age of Africa. Current Anthropology 47: 675–681.
Cårciumaru, M., 1998, Le Paléolithique moyen dans le grottes des Carpates Méridionales. In Anatolian Prehistory at the Crossroads of Two Worlds, edited by M. Otte, pp. 57–76. E.R.A.U.L. 85.
Caspari, R. and Sang-Hee, L., 2004, Older Age Becomes Common in Late Human Evolution. PNAS 101: 10895–10900.
Chabai, V.P. and Monigal, K., eds. 1999, The Middle Paleolithic of Western Crimea, Vol. 2. E.R.A.U.L. 87.
Chase, P.G., 2001, Multilevel Information Processing, Archaeology, and Evolution. In In the Mind’s Eye, edited by A. Nowell, pp. 121–136. International Monographs in Prehistory. Archaeological Series 13, Ann Arbor.
Churchill, S.E., 1998, Cold Adaptations, Heterochrony, and the Neanderthals. Evolutionary Anthropology 7: 46–61.
Clark, G.A. 1997a, Through a Glass Darkly. In Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, edited by G.A. Clark and C. M. Willermet, pp. 60–76. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Clark, G.A., 1997 b, Aspects of Early Hominid Sociality: An Evolutionary Perspective. In Rediscovering Darwin: Evolutionary Theory and Archaeological Explanation, edited by C. M. Barton and G. A. Clark, pp. 209–231. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association #7.
Collier, J.F. and Rosaldo., M.Z., 1981, Politics and Gender in Simple Societies. In Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality, edited by S. B. Ortner and H. Whitehead. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Condemi, S., 2000, The Neanderthals: HomoNeanderthalensis or Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis? Is There a Contradiction Between the Paleogenetic and the PaleoanthroPological Data? In The Geography of Neandertals and Modern Humans in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean, edited by O. Bar-Yosef and D. Pilbeam, pp. 287–295. Peabody Museum Bulletin 8.
D’errico, F., Zilhao, J., Julien, M., Baffier, D., and Pelegrin. J., 1998, Neanderthal Acculturation in Western Europe? A Critical Review of the Evidence and Its Interpretatons. Current Anthropology 39, Supplement: S1–S 44.
D’errico, F., Julien, M., Liolios, D., Vanhaeren, M., and Baffier, D., 2003, Many Awls in Our Argument. Bone tool Manufacture and Use in the Chåtelperronian and Aurignacian Levels of the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure. In The Chronology of the Aurignacian and Transitional Technocomplexes. Dating, Stratigraphies, Cultural Implications. Trabahos de Arqueologia 33, edited by J. Zilhao and F. D’Errico, pp. 247–270. Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia, Lisbon.
Derevianko, A.P. (ed.). 1997, The Paleolithic of Siberia. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago.
Derevianko, A.P. and Rybin, E.P., 2003, The Earliest Representation of Symbolic Behavior by Paleolithic Humans in the Altai Mountains. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 15(3): 27–50.
Derevianko, A.P., Agadzhanyan, A.K., Baryshnikov, G. F., Dergacheva, M.I., Duypal, T.A., Malaeva, E.M., Markin, S.V., Molodin, V.I., Nikolaev, S.V., Orlova,L.A., Petrin, V.T., Postinov, A.V., Ul’ianov, V.A., Fedeneva, I.K., Foronova, I.V., and Shun’kov, M.V., 1998, Arkheologia, geologia i paleogeografiya pleistotsenaiI golotsena Gornogo Altaia. Izdatel’stvo Instituta arkheologii i etnografii SO RAN, Novosibirsk.
Dobres, M.A., 2000, Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology. Blackwell, Oxford.
Donald, M., 1998, Hominid Enculturation and Cognitive Evolution. In Cognition and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Symbolic Storage, edited by C. Renfrew and C. Scarre, pp. 7–17. McDonald Institute Monographs, Cambridge.
Efimenko, P.P., 1938, Pervobytnoe Obshchestvo. 2nd ed. Gosudarstvennoe Sotsial’no-Ekonomicheskoe Izdatel’stvo, Leningrad.
Feblot-Augustins, J., 1993, Mobility Strategies in the Late Middle Paleolithic of Central Europe. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12: 211–265.
Finlayson, C., 1999, Late Pleistocene Human Occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Iberian Archaeology 1: 59–68.
Finlayson, C., 2004, Neanderthals and modern humans: An ecological and evolutionary perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Fizet, M., Mariotti, A., Bocherens, H., Lange-Badre, B., Vandermeersch, B., Boreal, J.P., and Bellon, G., 1995, Effect of Diet, Physiology and Climate on Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope of Collagen in a Late Pleistocene Anthropic Palaeoecosystem: Marillac, Charenta, France. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 67–79.
Foley, R. and Lee, P., 1996, Finite Social Space and the Evolution of Human social Behavior. In The Archaeology of Human Ancestry, edited by J. Steele and S. Shennan, pp. 47–66. Routledge, London.
Frayer, D.F., 1986, Cranial Variation of Mladec and the Relationship Between Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic Hominids. Anthropologie (Brno) 23: 243–256
Gamble, C., 1986, Paleolithic Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Gamble, C., 1994, Timewalkers. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Gamble, C., 1999, Paleolithic Societies of Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Gamble, C., 2007, Origins and Revolutions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Gamble, C. and Steele, J., 1999, Hominid Ranging Patterns and Dietary Strategies. In Hominid Evolution. Lifestyles and Survival Strategies, edited by H. Ullrich, pp. 396–409. Edition Archaea, Weimar.
Gamble, C. and Roebroeks, W., 1999, The Middle Palaeolithic: A point of Inflection. In The Middle Paleolithic Occupation of Europe, edited by C. Gamble and W. Roebroeks, pp. 3–22. University of Leiden Press, Leiden.
Garber, P.A., 1987, Foraging Strategies Among Living Primates. Annual Review of Anthropology 16: 339–364.
Gaudzinski, S., 1999a, Middle Palaeolithic Bone Tools from the Open-Air Site Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Germany). Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 125–141.
Gaudzinski, S., 1999b, The Faunal Record of the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe: Remarks on Human Interference. In The Middle Paleolithic Occupation of Europe, edited by C. Gamble and W. Roebroeks, pp. 215–233. University of Leiden Press, Leiden.
Geertz, C., 1973, The Interpretation of Culture. Basic Books, New York.
Geist, V., 1978, Life Strategies, Human Evolution, Environmental Design. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Gilman, A., 1996, Explaining the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. In Contemporary Archaeology in Theory, edited by R.W. Preucel and I. Hodder, pp. 220–239. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Goebel. T., 1999, Pleistocene Human Colonization and Peopling of the Americas: An Ecological Approach. Evolutionary Anthropology 8: 208–226.
Golovanova, L.V., Hoffecker, J.F., Kharitonov, V.M., and Romanova, G.P., 1999, Mezmaiskaya Cave: A Neanderthal Occupation in Northern Caucasus. Current Anthropology 40: 77–86.
Gosden, C., 1994, Social Beings and Time. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Graves-Brown, P., 1996, Their Commonwealths are Not as We Supposed. In The Archaeology of Human Ancestry, edited by J. Steele and C. Gamble, pp. 347–360. Routledge, London.
Gregory, C.A., 1982, Gifts and Commodities. Academic Press, London.
Grichuk, V.P., 1992, Vegetation During the Maximum Cooling of the Last Glaciation. In Atlas of Paleoclimates and Paleoenvironments of the Northern Hemisphere, edited by B. Frenzel, M. Pecsi, and A.A. Velichko, pp. 123, map. p. 55. Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Science and Gustav Fischer Verlag, Budapest – Stuttgart.
Grigor’ev, G.P. 1968, Nachalo verkhnego Paleolita I proizkhozhdenie Homo Sapiens. Nauka, Leningrad.
Hartmann, H., 1981, The Family as Locus of Gender, Class, and Political Struggle: The Example of Housework. Signs 6: 366–394.
Hawkes, K., 1996, Foraging Differences Between Men and Women. In The Archaeology of Human Ancestry, edited by J. Steele and C. Gamble, pp. 282–305. Routledge, London.
Hawkes, K., O’Connell,. J.F., and Blurton Jones, N.G., 2001, Hunting and Nuclear Families: Some Lessons from the Hadza About Men’s Work. Current Anthropology 42: 681–709.
Henshilwood, C.S., D’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T., Mercier, N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I., Wintle, A.G., 2002, Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. Science 295: 1278–1280.
Henshilwood, C.S. and Marean, C.W. 2003, The Origin of Modern Human Behavior: Critique of the Models and Their Test Implications. Current Anthropology 44: 627–651.
Higham, T., Ramsey, C.B., Karavanic, I., Smith, F.H., and Trinkaus, E., 2006, Revised Direct Radiocarbon Dating of the Vindija G1 Upper Paleolithic Neandertals. PNAS 103: 553–557.
Holiday, T.W., 1997, Postcranial Evidence of Cold Adaptation of European Neanderthals. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 104: 245–258.
Hovers, E. and Belfer-Cohen, A., 2006, “Now You See it, Now You Don’t” Modern Human Behavior in the Middle Paleolithic. In Transitions Before the Transition, edited by E. Hovers and S. Kuhn. Springer, New York.
Hrdy, S.B., 1999, Mother Nature. Ballantine Books, New York.
Hublin, J-J. 1998, Climate Changes, Paleogeography, and the Evolution of Neanderthals. In Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, edited by T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. 295–310. Plenum Press, New York.
Hublin, J.-J., Spoor, F., Braun, M., Zonneveld, F., and Condemi, S., 1996, A Late Neanderthal Associated with Upper Paleolithic Artefacts. Nature 381: 224–226.
Ingold, T., 1987, The Appropriation of Nature. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.
Ingold, T., 1994, Introduction to Social Life. In Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by T. Ingold., pp. 737–755. Routledge, London.
Ingold, T., 1999, On the Social Relations of the Hunter-Gatherer Band. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers, edited by R.B. Lee and R. Daly, pp. 399–410. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Julien, M. and Connet, N., 2005, Espaces, Territoires et Comportements des Châtelperroniens et Aurignaciens de la Grotte du Renne à Arcy-Suyr-Cure (Yonne). In Comportements des homes du Paléolithique moyen et supérieur en Europe: territories et milieux. Actes du Collogue du G.D.R. 1945 du CNRS, Paris, 8–10 janvier 2003, edited by D. Vialou,. J. Renault-Miskovsky, and M. Patou-Mathis, pp. 133–146. ERAUL 111, Liège.
Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J., and Hurado, A.M., 2000, A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence, and Longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology 9: 156–184.
Klein, R., 1999, The Human Career. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Klejn, L., 1977, A Panorama of Theoretical Archaeology. Current Anthropology 18: 1–42.
Klejn, L., 2001, Arkheologicheskaia periodizatsiia: podkhody I kriterii. In Vremya Poslednikh Neandertal’tsev, edited by L.B. Vishniatskij Stratum plus1: 485–515. St. Petersburg, Russia and Kishinev, Moldova.
Kolen, J., 1999, Hominids Without Homes: on the Nature of Middle Palaeolithic Settlement in Europe. In The Middle Palaeolithic Occupation of Europe, edited by W. Roebroeks and C. Gamble, pp. 139–176. University of Leiden Press, Leiden.
Kozlowski, J.K., 2000, The Problem of Cultural Continuity Between the Middle and the Upper Paleolithic in Central and Eastern Europe. In The Geography of Neandertals and Modern Humans in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean, edited by O. Bar-Yosef and D. Pilbeam. Peabody Museum Bulletin 8, pp. 77–105.
Kozlowski, J.K., 1998, The Middle and the Early Upper Paleolithic around the Black Sea. In Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, edited by T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. 461–482. Plenum Press, New York.
Kranzberg, M., 1989, One Last Word – Technology and History. In Context. History and the History of Technology, edited by S.H. Cutcliffe and R.C. Post. Leigh University Press and Association of University Presses, Bethlehem, and London.
Krause, J., Orlando, L., Serre D., Viola, B., Prufer, K., Richards, M.P., Hublin, J-J., Hånni, C., Derevianko, A.P., and Pååbo, S., 2007, Neanderthals in Central Asia and Siberia. Nature 449: 902–904.
Kuhn, S.L. and Stiner, M.C., 1998, Middle Paleolithic “Creativity”: Reflections on an Oxymoron. In The Prehistory of Creative Thought. Edited by S. Mithen, pp. 143–164. Routledge, London.
Kuhn, S.L. and Stiner, M.C., 2006, What’s a Mother to Do? The Division of Labor among Neandert Als and Modern Humans in Eurasia. Current Anthropology 47: 953–980.
Kuz’min, Y.V. and Orlova, L.A. , 1998, Radioarbon Chronology of the Siberian Paleolithic. Journal of World Prehistory 12: 1–54.
La Fontaine, J.S., 1981, The Domestication of the Savage Male. Man N. S. 16: 333–349.
Lahr, M. M., 1996. The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Lahr, M. M., 1997, The Evolution of Modern Human Cranial Diversity. Interpreting the Patterns and Process. In Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, edited by G.A. Clark and C. M. Willermet, pp. 304–318. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Lancaster, J.B., 1986, Human Adolescence and Reproduction: An Evolutionary Perspective. In School Age Pregnancy and Parenthood, edited by J.B. Landcaster and B.A. Hamburg, pp. 17–37. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Leigh, S.R., 2004, Brain Growth, Life History, and Cognition in Primate and Human Evolution. American Journal of Primatorlogy 62: 139–164.
Lee, R.B. and De Vore, I. 1968, Man, the Hunter. Aldine, Chicago.
Lemmonier, P., 1986, The Study of Material Culture Today: Toward an Anthropology of Technical Systems. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 5: 147–186.
Lemmonier, P., 1992, Elements for an Anthropology of Technology. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Lemmonier, P., 1993, Introduction. In Technological Choices, edited by P. Lemmonier, pp. 1–35. Routledge, London.
Liubin, V.P., 1993, Chronostratigrafiia paleolita Kavkza. Rossijskaia Arkheologiia 2: 5–14.
Lordkipanidze, D.. 1997, Zaselenie gornoi territorii gominidami (vzgliad s Kavkaza), in Chelovek zaseliaet planetu Zemlia, edited by A.A. Velichko and O. Soffer, pp. 78–84. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
Lovejoy, O., 1981, The Origin of Man. Science 211: 261–268.
Markova, A.K., Smirnov, N. G., Kozharinov, N.G., Kozantseva, A.V., Simakova, N.E., and Kitaeva, L. M., 1995, Late Pleistocene Distribution and Diversity of Mammals in Northern Eurasia. Paleontologia i Evolucio, t. 28–29: 5–143. Institut Paleontologic Dr. M. Crusafont. Diputacio de Barcelona, Barcelona.
Marks, A.E. and Chabai, V.P., (eds.) 1998, The Middle Paleolithic of Western Crimea Vol. 1 Liege: E.R.A.U.L. No. 84.
McBrearty, S. and Brooks, A.S., 2000, The Revolution that Wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origins of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453–563.
Mc Bryde, I., 1987, Goods from another country: Exchange Networks and The People of the Lake Eyre Basin. In Australians to 1788, edited by D.J. Mulvaney and J. Peter White, pp. 253–273. Weldon, Syme & Associates, Sydney.
Mech, L.D., 1970, The Wolf. The Natural History Press, New York.
Mellars, P., 1996, The Neanderthal Legacy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J.
Mellars, P., 2005, The Impossible coincidence. A Single-Species Model for the Origins of Modern Human Behavior in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 14: 12–27
Mellars, P., 2006, Archaeology and the Dispersal of Modern Humans in Europe: Deconstructing the “Aurignacian.” Evolutionary Anthropology 15: 167–182.
Meshviliani, T., Bar-Yosef, O., and Belfer-Cohen, A., 2004, The Upper Paleolithic in Western Georgia. In The Early Upper Paleolithic beyond Western Europe, edited by J. Bratingham and S. Kuhn, pp.129–143. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Minnegal, M., 1997, Consumption and Production. Current Anthropology 25: 1–45
Mithen, S., 1996, The Prehistory of the Mind: A Serach for the Origins of Art, Science and Religion. Thames and Hudson, London.
Mulvaney, J. and Kaminga, J., 1999, Prehistory of Australia. Smithsonian Press, Washington, DC.
Musil, R., 1985, Paleobiography of Terrestrial Communities in Europe During the Last Glacial. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae XLI B , No. 1–2.
Noble, W. and David, I., 1996, Human Evolution, Language and Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
O’Connell, J.F., Hawkes, I.K., Lupo, K.D., and Blurton Jones, N.G., 2002, Male Strategies and Plio-Pleistocene Archaeology. Journal of Human Evolution 43: 831–872.
Pettitt, P.B., 1999, Disappearing From the World: An Archaeological perspective on Neanderthal Extinction. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 18: 217 –240.
Richards, M.P., Pettitt, P., Trinkaus, E., Smith, F.H., Paunovic, M., and Karavanic, I., 2000, Neanderthal Diet at Vindija and Neanderthal Predation: The Evidence from Stable Isotopes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 97: 7663–7666.
Richards, M.P., Pettitt, P., Stiner, M.C., and Trinkaus, E., 2001, Stable Isotope Evidence for Increasing Dietary Breadth in the European Mid-Upper Paleolithic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 98: 6528–6532.
Riches, B., 1982, Northern Nomadic Hunter-Gatherers. Academic, New York.
Rochman, M. and Steele, J., eds., 2003, Colonization of Unfamiliar Landscapes: The archaeology of adaptation. Routledge, London
Roebroeks, W., Kolen, J., and Rensik, E., 1988, Planning Depth, Anticipation and the Organization of Middle Paleolithic Technology: The “Archaic Natives” Meet Eve’s Descendants. Helinium 28: 17–34.
Sacket, J., 2000, Human Antiquity and the Old Stone Age: The Nineteenth Century Background to Paleoanthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology 9: 37–49.
Shafer, J. and Ranov, V., 1998, Middle Paleolithic Blade Industries and the Upper Paleolithic of Central Asia. In Anatolian Prehistory at the Crossroads of Two Worlds. Vol. 1, edited by M. Otte. E.R.A.U.L. 85: 785–814.
Sherratt, A., 1997, Climatic Cycles and Behavioural Revolutions: The Emergence of Modern Humans and the Beginning of Farming. Antiquity 71: 271–287.
Skinner, M., 1996, Developmental Stress in Immature Hominines from Late Pleistocene Eurasia: Evidence from Enamel Hypoplasia. Journal of Archaeological Science 23: 833–852.
Smith, F.H., Trinkaus, E., Pettitt, P.B., Karavanic, I., and Paunovic, M., 1999, Direct Radiocarbone Dates from Vindija G1 and Velika Pecina Late Pleistocene Hominid Remains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Vol. 96: 12281–12286.
Smuts, B.B., 1999, Sex and Friendship in Baboons. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Soffer, O., 1989, The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition on the Russian Plain. In The Human Revolution, edited by P. Mellars and C. Stringer, pp. 714–742. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
Soffer, O., 1993, Upper Paleolithic Adaptations in Central and Eastern Europe and Man/Mammoth Interactions. In From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Paleolithic – Paleoindian Adaptations, edited by O. Soffer and N.D. Praslov, pp. 31–51. Plenum Press, New York.
Soffer, O., 1994, Ancestral Lifeways in Eurasia – the Middle and Upper Paleolithic Records. In Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans, edited by M.H. Nitecki and D.V.Nitecki, pp. 101–120. Plenum Press, New York.
Soffer, O., 1995, Artistic Apogees and Biological Nadirs: Upper Paleolithic Cultural Complexity Reconsidered. In Nature et Culture, edited by M. Otte. Liege, Belgium: ERAUL. 68: 617–627.
Soffer, O., 2000, The last Neanderthals. In Early Humans at the Gates of Europe, edited by D. Lordkipanidze, O. Bar-Yosef, and M. Otte, pp. 139–146. E.R.A.U.L. 92
Soffer, O. and Gamble, C.S., (eds.), 1990, The World at l8 000 BP: Northern Latitudes. Vol. l. Allen & Unwin, London.
Stiner, M., 1994, Honor Among Thieves. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J.
Stiner, M., 2002, Carnivory, Coevolution, and the Geographic Spread of the Genus Homo. Journal of Archaeological Research 10: 1–63.
Stiner, M.C., Munro, N.D., Surovell, T.A., Tchernov, E., and Bar-Yosef, O., 1999, Paleolithic Population Growth Pulses Evidenced by Small Animal Exploitation. Science 282: 190–194.
Straus, L.G., 1997, The Iberian Situation Between 40,000 and 30,000 B.P. in Light of European Models of Migration and Convergence. In Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, edited by G.A. Clark and C.M. Willermet, pp. 235–252. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Stringer, C.B., 2006, The Neanderthal – H.sapiens Interface in Eurasia. In Neanderthals Revisites: New Approaches and Perspectives, edited by K. Harvati and T. Harrison, pp. 315–324. Springer, The Netherlands.
Stringer, C.B. and Gamble. C., 1993, In Search of the Neanderthals. Thames and Hudson, New York.
Strum, S.S. and Latour, B., 1987, Redefining the Social Link: from Baboon to Humans. Social Science Information 26: 783–802.
Thieme, H.B. Urban, D.M., and T. Van Kalsfchoten. 1993, Schöningen (Nordharzvorland). Eine altpälaolitische Fundstelle aus dem mittlern Eiszeitalter. Archaeologisches Korrespondenzblatt 23: 147–163.
Thomas, J., 1998, Some Problems with the Notion of External Symbolic Storage, and the Case of Neolithic Material Culture in Britain. In Cognition and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Symbolic Storage, edited by C. Renfrew and C. Scarre, pp. 149–160. McDonald Institute Monograph, Cambridge.
Torrence, R., ed., 1989. Time, Energy, and Stone Tool. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Toussaint, M., Otte, M., Bonjean, D., Bocherens, H., Falgueres, C., and Yokoyama, Y., 1998, Les restes humains neandertaliens immatures de la couche 4A de la grotte Scladina (Andenne, Belgique). Earth & Planetary Sciences 236: 737–742.
Trigger, B. 1989. A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Trinkaus, E., 1981, Neanderthal Limb Proportions and Old Adaptation. In Aspects of Human Evolution, edited by C.B. Stringer, pp. 187–224. Taylor and Francis, London.
Trinkaus, E., 1984, The Shanidar Neanderthals. Academic Press, New York.
Trinkaus, E., 1995, Neanderthal Mortality Patterns. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 121–142.
Trinkaus, E., 2005, Early Modern Humans. Annual Review of Anthropology. 34: 207–230.
Trinkaus, E., 2006, Modern Human versus Neandertal Evolutionary Distinctiveness. Current Anthropology 47: 597–620.
Trinkaus, E., Russ, C.B., and Churchill, S.E., 1998, Upper Limb Versus Lower Limb Loading Patterns Among Near Eastern Middle Paleolithic Hominids. In Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, edited by T. Akazawa, K. Aoki, and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. 391–404. Plenum Press, New York.
Van Andel, T. and W. Davies eds. 2004. Neanderthals and Modern Humans in the European Landscape During the Last Glaciation: Archaeological results of the Stage 3 Project. The McDonald Institute for Cambridge, Archaeological Research Press.
Vasil’ev, S.A., 2001, Problema perekhoda ot srednego k verkhnemu Paleolitu v Sibiri, in Neandertal’skie refugiumy I arkhaichnyj obraz zhizni. In Vremya Poslednikh Neandertal’tsev, edited by L.B. Vishniatskij Stratum plus 1: 178–210. St. Petersburg, Russia and Kishinev, Moldova.
Wadley, L., 2003, How Some Archaeologists Recognize Culturally Modern Behaviour. South African Journal of Science 99: 247–250.
Wolpoff, M.H., 1996, Paleoanthropology. 1996–1997 ed. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Wolpoff, M.H., Mannheim, B., Mann, A., Hawks, J., Caspari, R., Rosenbert, K.R., Frayer, D.W., Gill, G.W., and Clark, G., 2004, Why Not the Neanderthals? World Archaeology 36: 527–546.
Wood, B. and Richmond, B.G., 2000, Human Evolution: Taxonomy and Paleobiology. Journal of Anatomy 196: 19–60.
Zeller, A.C., 1987, A Role of Children in Hominid Evolution. Man N.S. 22: 528–557.
Zilhao, J., 2001, Anatomically Archaic, Behaviorally Modern: The Last Neanderthals and their Destiny. Drieëntwintigste Kroon-Voordrocht Nederlands Museum, Amsterdam.
Zilhao, J., 2006, Neandertals and Moderns Mixed, and It Matters. Evolutionary Anthropology 15: 183–195.
Zilhao, J., 2007, The Emergence of Ornaments and Art: An Archaeological Perspective on the Origins of “Behavioral Modenity.” Journal of Archaeological Research 15: 1–54.
Zilhao, J. and D’Errico, F., 2003, The chronology of the Aurignacian and Transitional Technocomplexes. Where Do We Stand?. In The Chronology of the Aurignacian and Transitional Technocomplexes. Dating, Stratigraphies, Cultural Implications. Trabahos de Arqueologia 33, edited by J. Zilhao and F. D’Errico, pp. 313–349. Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia, Lisboa.
Acknowledgments
This contribution is an ongoing project, one that I have been writing and revising for at least ten years. It is also one that I will, most likely, continue to revise and “evolve” in the next decade as well. An earlier version was published in 2000, and a revised version of that paper was presented at the 2001 CALPE conference in Gibraltar. I presented an updated version at the 2006 UISPP Congress in Lisbon. In working through the topic of “modernity,” I have benefited greatly from discussions with many colleagues, four of whom deserve special gratitude: Meg Conkey, Alma Gottlieb, Steve Leigh, and Milford Wolpoff. I also thank my anonymous reviewers for pressing me to think more deeply.
My years on research in Central and Eastern Europe were seminal and supported over the years by various Fulbright fellowships, grants from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Wenner-Gren Foundation of Anthropological Research, as well as the National Geographic Society. My research was also supported in part by grants from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), with funds provided by the United States Department of State through the Title VIII Program and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Finally, my home institution, the University of Illinois, has continuously been supportive of my research as well. None of these organizations is responsible for the views expressed and all are thanked for their support.
Finally, I dedicate this chapter to the memory of Alex Marshack—a generous and stimulating colleague who may not have agreed with my thesis, but we would have had a great time discussing and debating it.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Soffer, O. (2009). Defining Modernity, Establishing Rubicons, Imagining the Other—and the Neanderthal Enigma. In: Camps, M., Chauhan, P. (eds) Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76487-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76487-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-76478-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-76487-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)