[Archport] Fwd: Is Bead Find Proof Modern Thought Began in Africa?

[Graca Cravinho <graca@hermite.cii.fc.ul.pt>]

Title: Fwd: Is Bead Find Proof Modern Thought Began in Africa?

>
> Nationalgeographic.com
> Is
> Bead Find Proof Modern Thought Began in Africa?
>
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0331_040331_ostrichman.html
>
> Hillary Mayell
> for National Geographic News
> March 31, 2004
>
> Ostrich-eggshell beads found in Africa show that human beings were
> capable of symbolic thinking much earlier than previously thought, a
> team of scientists reports.
> Anatomically modern humans (homo
> sapiens)-people who looked pretty much like we do now-arose in
> Africa around 130,000 years ago. The question debated by
> archaeologists and anthropologists is: How smart were
> they?
>
> One
> school of thought holds that while early human ancestors became
> anatomically modern while still in Africa, the development of modern
> behavioral traits lagged, emerging relatively suddenly only about
> 45,000 years ago. Around that time waves of modern humans began
> leaving Africa and colonizing the rest of the world.
>
> Proponents of the cultural-lag idea suggest that a sudden genetic
> change, an increase in population density that spurred technological
> and cultural innovation, or other factors triggered the exodus out of
> Africa and the explosion of cultural change which occurred in
> Europe.
>
> Others argue that "behavioral modernity" evolved in Africa
> and has a much longer history.
>
> The ostrich-eggshell beads recovered from a site in the Serengeti
> National Park in Tanzania are believed to be about 70,000 years old,
> according to a team of scientists.
>
> The team is speaking today at the annual meeting of the
> Paleoanthropology Society taking place this week in Montreal. The
> research was supported in part by the National Geographic Society's
> Committee for Research and Exploration and the Leakey Foundation.
>
> If the dates are correct, there was modern human behavior in Africa
> about 35,000 years earlier than previously thought, strengthening the
> argument that "behavioral modernity" evolved hand-in-hand
> with anatomical modernity.
>
> Beads are "unambiguous examples of symbolic behavior," said
> Curtis Marean, one of the paper's presenters. Marean is an
> anthropologist at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State
> University. "Once we get some definitive dating, [the find] could
> have a major impact on the evolution of symbolic thinking."
>
> Defining Modernity
>
> Complicating the debate is the fact that there is no consensus
> definition for what constitutes modern behavior.
>
> Beadmaking is considered evidence of symbolic thinking because-whether
> used for jewelry to show status or group identity or used in trade-it
> has little to do with survival. Other traits thought of as
> "modern" include the ability to plan ahead, innovate
> technologically, establish social and trade networks, create art, and
> adapt to changing conditions and environments.
>
> Late Stone Age (beginning about 45,000 years ago) sites in Europe
> abound with cave paintings, sophisticated bone tools, and evidence of
> complex burial rituals, which signal symbolic thinking.
>
> During the late Stone Age people began constructing permanent shelters
> rather than depending on caves. They figured out how to catch large
> fish and hunt more aggressively, and they developed weapons that could
> be thrown.
>
> Tools made out of bones or antlers are commonly found at late Stone
> Age sites, and they are more specialized and complex than the stone
> tools of the middle Stone Age (beginning about 280,000 until 45,000
> years ago) found in Africa.
>
> Until recently very little evidence of symbolic thinking during the
> middle Stone Age has been found in Africa. There are advocates of the
> idea that the capability was always there, but that it wasn't
> expressed. There have been no fundamental changes in human anatomy in
> the last 50,000 years, and it simply took us this long to send people
> into space or develop computers, these advocates believe.
>
> Others argue that the record is scant in Africa because very little
> archaeological work has been done on the continent. By contrast,
> European archaeological sites have been mined extensively and for
> decades.
> This is beginning to change. Work published in 2001 described 28 bone
> tools and thousands of pieces of ocher-a mineral used to create paint
> for body decoration and cave painting-dated at roughly 70,000 years
> old found in Blombos Cave in South Africa. Two pieces of ocher appear
> to be marked with abstract lines that could be viewed as artistic
> _expression_.
>
> The archaeological record is also open to varying interpretations.
>
> Alison Brooks, an anthropologist at George Washington University in
> Washington, D.C., supports the idea of continuous innovation. She says
> archaeological evidence suggests that modern humans in Africa 120,000
> years to 50,000 years ago were transporting raw materials for
> distances up to 186 miles (300 kilometers). They were capable of
> fishing and created sophisticated tools and weapons, she says.
>
> Advocates of the gradual evolution of modern behavior argue that, as
> more sites in Africa are fully excavated, evidence will accumulate
> that indicates that cultural modernity was widespread in Africa during
> the middle Stone Age.
>
> Archaeological Great Divide
>
> Richard Klein, an anthropologist at Stanford University and author of
> several books on human origins, argues that modern behavior appeared
> rapidly, possibly as the result of a genetic change that facilitated
> our use of language.
>
> Regarding the disputed interpretation of the Blombos Cave artifacts,
> Klein said, "Art is in the eye of the beholder, and so there will
> always be debate about whether something is really art."
>
> Klein continued, "The real problem is that if you look at sites
> that are 40,000 years old or younger, art is everywhere, and everyone
> agrees it's art. You also find bone artifacts, complex burials, and
> other indicators of modernity. Beyond 40,000 years you might find one
> of these but never in a package, and nobody agrees."
>
> Ostrich-shell beads such as those found at the Serengeti site would
> certainly be evidence of a fully modern mind, Klein said. The problem
> is in establishing correct dates.
>
> Radiocarbon testing loses its efficacy on objects more than 50,000
> years old. Also contamination of an object with more recent
> radiocarbon, leading to an inaccurate date, is always a threat and
> difficult to detect. Furthermore, ground shifts, heavy rains, or a
> later site occupation could cause more modern objects to become mixed
> with those from an older site.
>
> Human origins specialists do all agree on one thing.
> "Ultimately it is going to take wider excavation
> to resolve the questions," Arizona State University's Marean
> said.
>
> Figure:
> Ostrich-eggshell beads recovered from a site in Tanzania are believed
> to be about 70,000 years old, according to a team of scientists. The
> scientists say the find sustains the theory that modern human behavior
> originated in Africa and much earlier than many experts
> believe.
> Picture courtesy Arizona State
> University
>
>

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