rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Homo sapiens Is as Homo sapiens Was
    sub title: behavioral variability versus "behavioral modernity" in paleolithic archaeology
  title info:
    title: Behavioral variability versus "behavioral modernity" in paleolithic archaeology
  name:
    name part: Shea, John J.
    role:
      role term: creator
  type of resource: text
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: us
    place:
      place term: Chicago
    publisher: University of Chicago
    date issued: 2011
    issuance: continuing
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: print
    extent: pp. 1-35
  abstract: Paleolithic archaeologists conceptualize the uniqueness of Homo sapiens in terms of Òbehavioral modernity,Ó a quality often conflated with behavioral variability. The former is qualitative, essentialist, and a historical artifact of the European origins of Paleolithic research. The latter is a quantitative, statistically variable property of all human behavior, not just that of Ice Age Europeans. As an analytical construct, behavioral modernity is deeply flawed at all epistemological levels. This paper outlines the shortcomings of behavioral modernity and instead proposes a research agenda focused on the strategic sources of human behavioral variability. Using data from later Middle Pleistocene archaeological sites in East Africa, this paper tests and falsifies the core assumption of the behavioral-modernity conceptÑthe belief that there were significant differences in behavioral variability between the oldest H. sapiens and populations younger than 50 kya. It concludes that behavioral modernity and allied concepts have no further value to human origins research. Research focused on the strategic underpinnings of human behavioral variability will move Paleolithic archaeology closer to a more productive integration with other behavioral sciences.
  abstract: Paleolithic archaeologists conceptualize the uniqueness of Homo sapiens in terms of ìbehavioral modernity,î a quality often conflated with behavioral variability. The former is qualitative, essentialist, and a historical artifact of the European origins of Paleolithic research. The latter is a quantitative, statistically variable property of all human behavior, not just that of Ice Age Europeans. As an analytical construct, behavioral modernity is deeply flawed at all epistemological levels. This paper outlines the shortcomings of behavioral modernity and instead proposes a research agenda focused on the strategic sources of human behavioral variability. Using data from later Middle Pleistocene archaeological sites in East Africa, this paper tests and falsifies the core assumption of the behavioral-modernity conceptóthe belief that there were significant differences in behavioral variability between the oldest H. sapiens and populations younger than 50 kya. It concludes that behavioral modernity and allied concepts have no further value to human origins research. Research focused on the strategic underpinnings of human behavioral variability will move Paleolithic archaeology closer to a more productive integration with other behavioral sciences.
  note: John J. Shea.
  note: En: Current Anthropology. Vol. 52, No. 1, 2011. pp. 1-35.
  subject:
    topic: ARQUEOLOGIA
  subject:
    topic: PERIODO PALEOLITICO
  subject:
    topic: CONDUCTA HUMANA
  subject:
    topic: PALEOANTROPOLOGIA
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Current anthropology
    identifier: 029906
  record info:
    record content source: UAHC_CL
    record creation date: 110707
    record change date: 20170803123139.0
    record identifier: 029909