Category: Biocultural Evolution

Language is widely held to underpin cumulative technology and social institutions. We argue that central to this power of language is one under-acknowledged feature: namely, the reflexivity of language.

Since the advent of phylogenetic linguistics, researchers have used a large number of phylogenetic comparative methods adapted from computational biology to model and analyze the dynamics of change of a wide range of linguistic features.

The (inter-)dental non-sibilant fricatives, consonants articulated with the tongue tip or blade against or between the front teeth, are rare among the world’s languages but, nevertheless, are present in the sound inventories of some of the most spoken languages in existence.

Laterality and the evolution of handedness have been of significant scholarly investigation across a wide variety of disciplines, including animal behaviour, neurobiology, developmental psychology, archaeology, and language evolution.

Ape knapping experiments complement human knapping experiments as a source of behavioral data to build hypotheses about the learning mechanisms underlying the acquisition of knapping skills in extinct hominins.

Based on an extensive review of 25 years of experiments on stone knapping and, more specifically, on the percussive activity involved, we argue that a functional framework warrants a better understanding of goal-directed action and stone knapping in particular.

Knee osteoarthritis is commonly thought to be caused by joint tissue wear and tear produced by physical activity. Activities that subject knees to repetitive impacts characterized by high rates of loading are believed to be especially harmful.

This paper critically evaluates the range of skeletal attributes available for identifying activity patterns in the past. Our investigation is contextualized in the study of Phaleron, an Archaic Greek site where non-elite individuals were buried.

In the introductory chapter of this edited volume, I argue that paleoanthropological research on hominin behavioral evolution tends to overlook the conceptual distinction between a species’ basic anatomical capacity to carry out a certain physical task (e.g., the ability to climb), its evolved biomechanical efficiency in performing that activity (e.g., arboreal climbing efficiency), and each individual’s habitual physical activities (e.g., frequency and intensity of climbing throughout life).

Establishing meaningful links across biological and cultural lines of evidence constitutes the core objective of research on human evolution, as this process enables the understanding of the complex environmental factors driving hominin behavioral adaptations.