The interpersonal origins of language: Social and linguistic implications of an archaeological approach to language evolution

The development of the interpersonal functions of language is a key step in language ontogeny. Archaeological evidence of hominids moving raw materials across the landscape suggest that changes in the interpersonal communication abilities of hominids represent major events in human language evolution. The earliest hominids moved raw materials short distances, suggesting home-range sizes, social complexity and interpersonal abilities similar to those of primates. A transition from primate communication to a protolanguage is indicated by a large increase in raw-material transfer distances at about 1.2 million years ago. The increase in transfer distances results from the ability to pool social and environmental information using a protolanguage. The transition to human language is suggested by the emergence of long-distance exchange networks during the African Middle Stone Age. The operation of exchange networks requires the full panoply of human interpersonal communication abilities, such as the use of symbols in social contexts, expression of displacement, the expression of multiple degrees of intentionality and recursiveness. The results of computer simulations show that this transition from protolanguage to full language may have resulted from language adapting itself rather than any specific biological or cultural mutation

Future Directions for Research into Open Sites and Rockshelters in the Inland Pilbara

Archaeological work on Aboriginal sites in the inland Pilbara has been going on for over 30 years. The purpose of this paper is to show that the research themes currently driving consulting work in the inland Pilbara are in need of updating and to suggest some future directions

What Can Archaeology Do With Boyd and Richerson's Cultural Evolutionary Program?

In a famous letter, the economist Alfred Marshall outlines a method for economic theorising: "(1) Use mathematics as shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry (2) Keep to them till you have done (3) Translate into English (4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life (5) Burn the mathematics (6) If you cannot succeed in 4 then burn 3." (Pigou 1925). If Marshall's method is relevant to the way Boyd and Richerson work, then their new book is evidence that their theorising has reached an advanced stage. In their new book Not by Genes Alone (hereinafter, NBGA) there are none of the dense maths that distinguished their influential book Culture and the Evolutionary Process (1985), instead there are numerous examples drawn from the human sciences. The main point of this new book is to show that Darwinian evolutionary theory and methods are essential and productive tools for the analysis of human culture. This is a theme that Boyd and Richerson have been promoting since the late 1970s, but NBGA presents a more accessible account of their cultural evolutionary program and outlines a manifesto for future research. The book is aimed at readers in social science and humanities departments, with no graphs, only a single equation buried in the endnotes, axiom-like chapter headings, and case studies drawn from across the human sciences. The publication of this new synthesis of their ideas provides a good opportunity to review the main arguments of Boyd and Richerson's work as described in NBGA and evaluate the impact their program has had on archaeological research

Millys Cave: Evidence for Human Occupation of the Inland Pilbara during the Last Glacial Maximum

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) peaked in Australia around 18,000 BP. At this time, many previously-occupied archaeological sites in the northwest quarter of the Australian continent show signs of abandonment or reduced occupation. Previously-reported evidence from the inland Pilbara on LGM activity is ambiguous and has been interpreted to mean both abandonment and continuous occupation. Excavations at Millys Cave have revealed the first unambiguous evidence for human occupation in the inland Pilbara during the LGM. Stone artefact data from Millys Cave indicate that the occupants exploited a smaller territorial area during the LGM compared with later periods, but did not substantially alter their land-use system. Population size probably changed very little but social networks and aggregation activities were reduced during the LGM

Pleistocene Exchange Networks as Evidence for the Evolution of Language

Distances of raw-material transportation reflect how hominid groups gather and exchange information. Early hominids moved raw materials short distances, suggesting a home range size, social complexity and communication system similar to primates in equivalent environments. After about 1.0 million years ago there was a large increase in raw-material transfer distances, possibly a result of the emergence of the ability to pool information by using a protolanguage. Another increase in raw-material transfer occurred during the late Middle Stone Age in Africa (after about 130,000 years ago), suggesting the operation of exchange networks. Exchange networks require a communication system with syntax, the use of symbols in social contexts and the ability to express displacement, which are the features of human language. Taking the Neanderthals as a case study, biological evidence and the results of computer simulations of the evolution of language, I argue for a gradual rather than catastrophic emergence of language coinciding with the first evidence of exchange networks

What did they cook? A preliminary investigation into culinary practices and pottery use in the central part of the Korean peninsula during the mid to late Holocene

This study attempts to understand prehistoric human subsistence in Korean peninsula through the preliminary initiation of organic geochemical analyses on potsherds. While traditional approaches focus on reconstructing the ancient pot function or relative chronology, organic geochemical analyses on archaeological potteries endeavors to be precise about the types of food groups that were cooked or stored in a pot by attempting to identify the specific organic compounds trapped in the clay matrix. Since organic compounds are often preserved in direct association with archaeological pots, organic geochemical analyses have become an important method of investigation which archaeologists use to better understand the function of ceramic artifacts such as pottery and local diets. The sherd samples for the analyses in this paper were collected from the two prehistoric habitation sites located in the central part of the Korean peninsula: Kimpo-Yangchon site and Eupha-ri site. The main habitation period of the former is around 2800 BP (B. Kim et al. 2013), and the latter site was occupied around 1900 BP (H. Wang et al. 2013). We show that terrestrial animals are strongly represented in the organic residues, suggesting that views of a crop-dominated diet might need revision. Our results provide a critical clue to understand ancient subsistence of the central part of the Korean peninsula

Editorial and Announcements for IPPA Bulletin 30, 2010

None available

Element concentrations and magnetic susceptibility of anthrosols: indicators of prehistoric human occupation in the inland Pilbara, Western Australia.

The study of archaeological sediments is an important source of information on how humans lived at a site. Attributes of human site use such as frequency of visit and duration of stay can be explored by measuring changes in phosphorus (determined using X-ray fluorescence) and carbon concentrations in sediments and magnetic susceptibility of sediments in combination with analysis of other sediment attributes, stone artefacts and faunal remains. This study concludes that increases in phosphorus and carbon concentrations and the discard rate of stone artefacts at Marillana A rockshelter in the inland Pilbara, Western Australia, indicate an increase in the frequency of site use with no change in the function of the site. This is interpreted as representative of an increase in regional population density