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Chapter 18 - Cultural Evolution: From Tools to Art and Genes

from Part IV - Evolutionary Transitions: From Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2021

Norman Owen-Smith
Norman Owen-Smith
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

This chapter describes adaptive advances in cultural artefacts in the form of stone or bone tools and rock art and relates them to genetic linkages among local populations. The earliest Odowan cores and flakes gave way to bifacial Acheulian points and cleavers and later to finely crafted artefacts inaugurating the Middle Stone Age, associated with the emergence of modern humans. During the late Pleistocene further cultural advances were exhibited by inhabitants of coastal caves in the south-western Cape when the interior was largely uninhabited. The use of spear and arrow points fostered the movement out of Africa and may have contributed to extinctions among large grazers. Genomic evidence reinforces movements by language groups spreading herding and farming through Africa. Khoe-San and Hadza people retained the hunter-gatherer lifestyle into modern times. Rock art depicts the ritual significance of large mammals in their culture. African people lived alongside abundant wild herbivores until Europeans brought guns.

Keywords

OldowanAcheulianMiddle Stone Agerock arthunter-gatherersbows and arrowsherdingpopulation bottlenecksKhoe-SanHadza
Type
Chapter
Information
Only in Africa
The Ecology of Human Evolution
 , pp. 301 - 328
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Suggested Further Reading

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Plummer, T. (2004) Flaked stones and old bones. Biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 47:118–164.Google Scholar

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