Behaviorally Modern Humans: The Origin of Us
Current evidence indicates that multiple upright-walking, tool-dependent species in the genus Homo co-existed in the Old World (Africa, Asia and Europe) for most of the last 2 million years. Yet only one surviving species of Homo exists today. Even 100,000 years ago, at least four Homo species shared the Old World. One of the enduring questions of human origins is when, where and how we "Behaviorally Modern Humans" emerged and why and how we eventually replaced all the other human-like species. In the past, competing theories have generated much controversy and even some acrimonious debate. This symposium set aside such theories and debates and took a fresh look at the situation today. The focus was on critical examination of the available evidence from multiple sources, including climate proxies, geology, fossils, archaeology, linguistics, immunology, genetics and genomics, as well as evolutionary neuroscience/cognitive archaeology. While the symposium may not have come to any definitive conclusions, it offered the best interpretation of current evidence, and suggested research agendas for the future. [DOWNLOAD ABSTRACTS AND BIO FILES BELOW]
Event Sessions
Media for each talk can be played by clicking on icons in the "Media" column, or by clicking on the individual talk titles below and then the attachment file at the bottom of the page.
Date | Media | Session Title | Speakers | Abstract |
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Fri 5/10 | Welcome | Margaret Schoeninger | ||
Fri 5/10 |
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Background and Introductory Remarks | Ajit Varki | |
Fri 5/10 |
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African Climate of the Last 400,000 Years | Rick Potts |
Given East Africa’s role in the origin of Homo sapiens, this region’s climate history deserves attention, although pertinent models are lacking. Analysis of earth’s orbital dynamics... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Fossil Record of Anatomically Modern Humans | Chris Stringer |
Evidence points strongly to Africa as the major center for the genetic, physical and behavioral origins of both ancient and modern humans, but new discoveries are prompting a rethink of some... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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East African Archaeological Evidence | Alison Brooks, Sally McBrearty |
Apart from references to the oldest fossil hominins attributed to Homo sapiens, the East African record is often ignored in current scenarios of modern human origins in favor of the much... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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South African Archaeological Evidence | Lyn Wadley |
As archaeologists, we cannot access culture or cognition directly; we must interpret levels of cultural or cognitive complexity from circumstantial evidence or from technological evidence. The... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Interbreeding with Archaic Humans in Africa | Michael Hammer |
Early research on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) had a decisive role in the long-standing paleontological debate over human origins by providing a relatively simple picture of human evolutionary... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Relationships of Ancient African Languages | Christopher Ehret |
Almost all of the more than 1,000 African languages spoken today belong to just four families, Afroasiatic, Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoesan. Each family is relatively ancient, with... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Evidence for the Spread of Modern Humans | Ofer Bar-Yosef |
The presentation will briefly summarize the archaeological evidence for the dispersals of modern humans into Eurasia avoiding the assumptions that these events, whether short or continuous, were... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Interbreeding with Archaic Humans Outside Africa | Richard Green |
Neanderthals and Denisovans are the closest extinct ancestors of modern humans. High-quality genome sequence is now available from both and has revealed multiple instances of admixture between... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Stone Tools and Cognition: Lessons from Australia | Iain Davidson |
In this talk I will address four topics: What is cognition?; Can we learn anything from brains?; What was the cognitive ability of the Last Common Ancestor?; and, How can we learn from... more |
Fri 5/10 |
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Wrap-Up and Overview | Alison Brooks | |
Fri 5/10 |
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Question and Answer Session | Ajit Varki, Alison Brooks | |
Fri 5/10 | Closing Remarks | Fred Gage |
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