BIO 358 Lecture 18: BIO 358 Topic 18
14 Jun 2018
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Topic 18: The behaviorally modern human revolution as an historical process
Notes:
1) The behaviorally modern human revolution as an historical process
a) Summary this far
i) Adaptive revolutions → adaptive sophistication inc, size of social unit inc, predict new coercive
technology capable of managing COI at that scale prior to that new adaptive revolution and inc
adaptive sophistication
b) Looking to learn something new… back up and look at each adaptive revolution by itself
c) Origin of homo—throwing stones was original adaptive revolution
i) Adaptive sophistication w/ oschwalean hand axes etc
ii) Period of adaptive stasis w/ no new weapons
d) Where we at now??? What do we predict to see
i) New weapon capable of managing COI at a new scale
ii) New social scale made possible
iii) Inc. adaptive sophistication
(1) More ppl capable of cooperation → more teamwork and more specialization!
(2) Trade fruits of labor if social groups are larger new weapon that can manage COI at a new
scale
(a) Public market exchange (public sphere):
e) Why does adaptive sophistication go up?
i) We are cooperating to compete, forcing adaptive soph level to go up as adaptive opportunity
comes along
(1) What can be exchanged can be stolen → must be able to monitor market
2) The behaviorally modern human revolution: The NEXT Scale
a) Showed video of inuit artic Canada
i) Simplicity of tools
ii) Local knowledge
(1) Talk about ppl dying and learning from the dying
iii) Teamwork
(1) Ppl lookin out, ppl collecting, etc.
iv) The reason (supplement seal diet)
v) Support of the village AND opportunity in village making this an adaptive opportunity despite
danger
(1) Adaptive opportunity that allows you to increase your personal risk taking bc you have a
support of the human village to care for your offspring suppose anything happens to you
vi) Humans can be adaptively sophisticated even on a small scale
1) Behaviorally modern human revolution—where and when?
a) Behaviorally mhr ~ 40-50kya
b) Individual abilities of social animals is not what drives the staircase up, but the scale of our social
cooperation
c) The BHMR should happen following making a weapon and the possibility of inc scale of socal coop
d) Neanderthals and stuff
i) Looking at a map of the phylogenetic tree of human ancestry
(1) Austral africanus → east Africa
(2) Then sign of homo 2mya, comes homo erectus → explodes into Africa and asia
(a) Adaptive revolution in a way that the scale of our ability to adapt to any environment has
increased
