The articles in this issue represent the pursuit of a
new understanding of the human past, one that can replace
the neo-saltationist view of a human revolution with models that can account for the complexities of the archaeological
record and of human social lives. The articulation of
archaeological, philosophical, and biological perspectives
seems to offer a strong foundation for exploring available
evidence, and this was the rationale for collecting these
particular articles. Even at this prel…
Read moreThe articles in this issue represent the pursuit of a
new understanding of the human past, one that can replace
the neo-saltationist view of a human revolution with models that can account for the complexities of the archaeological
record and of human social lives. The articulation of
archaeological, philosophical, and biological perspectives
seems to offer a strong foundation for exploring available
evidence, and this was the rationale for collecting these
particular articles. Even at this preliminary stage there is a
coherence emerging in proposals: the origin and operation of
symbolically rich, complexly signaling human social systems
was the consequence of the long-term evolution of
multiple components of perceiving and negotiating social
interactions, a contingent outcome of myriad adaptive shifts
rather than a single event.