Evolutionary Anthropology最新文献

{"title":"What Is the Acheulean?","authors":"Marie-Helene Moncel,&nbsp;Carolina Cucart-Mora,&nbsp;Marta Arzarello,&nbsp;Nick Ashton,&nbsp;Javier Baena,&nbsp;Deborah Barsky,&nbsp;Ignacio de la Torre,&nbsp;Nena Galanidou,&nbsp;Paula García-Medrano,&nbsp;Christine Hertler,&nbsp;Gadi Herzlinger,&nbsp;Thomas Ingicco,&nbsp;Hao Li,&nbsp;Dongdong Ma,&nbsp;Marina Mosquera,&nbsp;Andreu Ollé,&nbsp;Shanti Pappu,&nbsp;Shuwen Pei,&nbsp;Chun Tian,&nbsp;Wei Wang,&nbsp;Christopher J. Bae","doi":"10.1002/evan.70029","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Acheulean represents the longest cultural period known to human history, lasting globally for more than 1.75 million years. It may have emerged as early as 1.95 Ma in Africa, spreading throughout much of the continent and then into Eurasia and lasting up to 350–200 ka in western Europe and South Asia, and even later in eastern Asia. Originally defined in the 1870s, the term Acheulean is one of the earliest and most contested classifications in prehistoric archaeology. Almost 150 years after its first appearance, it remains a source of continuous debate. This paper summarizes roundtable discussions that took place at the <i>Musée de l'Homme</i> (Paris) in November 2025 that focused on the meaning of the Acheulean and the diversity of its manifestations across Eurasia. Some 20 researchers, from various institutions across Europe, Asia, and the Pacific participated in this event, during which it became clear that the Acheulean had different meanings to the participants. Among the major points raised during the meeting was the question of how different specialists differentiate the Acheulean from the older Oldowan techno-complex, with specificities emerging from each of their respective regions of study. The geographic origins and hominin species' attribution of the Acheulean toolmakers were also brought to the fore since important questions have been raised in the last decades by the growing record of hominin taxa that existed during this timeframe across Eurasia and the relatively late arrival of this techno-complex in Europe. These issues become even more important when we consider the recent evidence emanating out of Asia, which indicates that hominins were present well before their earliest appearance in Europe. The purpose of this paper is not only to make a statement regarding how to define the Acheulean, but also to illustrate its diversity across Eurasia.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13066721/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147647092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attachements: Enquête sur nos liens au-delà de l'humain [Attachments: An Inquiry Into Our Bonds Beyond the Human] By Charles Stépanoff, Paris: La Découverte, 2024. 640 pp. Paperback. 27 Euros. ISBN: 10: 234808113X","authors":"Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra","doi":"10.1002/evan.70030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attachements: Enquête sur nos liens au-delà de l'humain [Attachments: An Inquiry Into Our Bonds Beyond the Human] By Charles Stépanoff, Paris: La Découverte, 2024. 640 pp. Paperback. 27 Euros. ISBN: 10: 234808113X","authors":"Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra","doi":"10.1002/evan.70030","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147668304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biomechanics and Evolution of the Primate Tongue","authors":"Yeganeh Sekhavati,&nbsp;Kaleb C. Sellers,&nbsp;Callum F. Ross","doi":"10.1002/evan.70026","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70026","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Primate tongue morphology and function are critical to understanding the evolution of feeding, swallowing, and vocalization. In this paper, we examine the primate tongue as a muscular hydrostat with regionally specialized neuromuscular compartments. We integrate anatomical, kinematic, and biomechanical modeling approaches to analyze how muscle architecture and fiber orientation drive complex tongue deformations during functional behaviors. We evaluate the hydraulic mechanisms underlying tongue-base retraction, highlight species-specific adaptations in macaques and humans, and review primate tongue kinematics across distinct feeding stages. Finally, we synthesize recent advances in biomechanical modeling and experimental studies of tongue kinematics and their contributions to advancing three-dimensional analyses of tongue movement during feeding and speech.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13045644/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147595502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lithic Miniaturization Provides a Signature of an MIS4-3 Southern Dispersal of Homo sapiens","authors":"Ceri Shipton","doi":"10.1002/evan.70027","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fossil and artefactual evidence shows <i>Homo sapiens</i> in Eurasia well before 75 ka. However, genetic evidence suggests all extant non-African populations derive almost all of their ancestry from a dispersal that only diverged in the last 60–50 ka. In northern Eurasia, the Upper Paleolithic with its laminar blade knapping provides an archeological signature of this dispersal, but no equivalent is yet established for southern Asia, Wallacea, and Sahul. This paper suggests that lithic miniaturization may provide such a signature as it appears across these southern regions from around 50 ka. It can be traced back to the southwestern edge of Asia at 55 ka, and then coastal east Africa at 68 ka. In both these cases it is also associated with laminar blade technology. Lithic miniaturization is implicated in behaviors including bow-and-arrow hunting, compound tools, hair-shaving, and scarification. The ecological and social implications of these behaviors may have given later <i>Homo sapiens</i> a competitive advantage over both other hominins and earlier dispersals of our own species.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12965195/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147367058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Databases, Biobanks and International Consortia: Major Resources for Human Population Genomics and Biological Anthropology","authors":"Sergio Aguado,&nbsp;Candela L. Hernández","doi":"10.1002/evan.70025","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70025","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Human Genome Project, together with the subsequent advent of diverse repositories for storing, sharing, and analyzing biological data, represented a revolution in the way genetic research is conducted. The overwhelming landscape of omics data resources available today provides an exceptional opportunity to drive innovations in human genetics. Here, we report an updated compilation of 117 open-access and active resources containing DNA, RNA, protein and phenotypic data, viewed through the lens of a population geneticist. A deep inspection of these resources from both spatial and temporal perspectives allows us to identify trends in the use of large-scale biological data, as well as the current and future challenges in the field—including the implementation of new technologies, the call for greater diversity in the sampled populations, and the imperative role of bioethics. Addressing these issues requires the integration of biology and medicine, along with the crucial insights gained from population-based research.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146144075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microbial Contributions to Primate Reproduction","authors":"Silvia Carboni,&nbsp;Abigail E. Asangba,&nbsp;Amanda D. Melin","doi":"10.1002/evan.70023","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70023","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Reproduction is a complex process, and microbes play a far greater role than previously imagined. This review explores the ways that microbiomes influence the rich tapestry of reproductive processes and outcomes within the primate lineage, including pre-copulatory and post-copulatory mechanisms. We discuss microbiomes in a sexual selection framework, specifically how they might influence mate choice and sexual competition across multiple sensory modalities. We then consider how copulatory behavior and mating systems may in turn shape reproductive microbiomes. Moving to post-copulatory processes, we discuss the potential impact of microbes on cryptic choice and sperm competition and call for additional research in this area. Finally, we explore the influence of microbes on pregnancy outcomes, emphasizing evolutionary perspectives often overlooked in clinical research. Importantly, we compare human studies to those on nonhuman primates, bridging the two areas of inquiry and outlining future research directions. Our aim is to highlight the vast potential for microbes to contribute to all stages of reproduction, and to inspire creative, synthetic future research that moves forward this fascinating area of inquiry.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.70023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145971578","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Individual-Level and Controlled Methodological Framework in Primate Thanatology","authors":"Malgorzata E. Arlet,&nbsp;Das Sayantan,&nbsp;Ashvita Anand,&nbsp;Ants Kaasik,&nbsp;Lynne A. Isbell,&nbsp;Mewa Singh","doi":"10.1002/evan.70022","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70022","url":null,"abstract":"<p>How primates sense, cognize, and respond to death, and are affected by it, are broad research themes within primate thanatology. When primate thanatology adopts a comparative framework, it can illuminate the diversity and evolutionary continuity of psycho-neuro-emotional responses to death and dying across primate species, including humans. Evolutionary or comparative thanatology has recently gained momentum, but it lacks methodological consistency, quantitative rigor, and coherent reporting standards. We attempt to address the lack of standardized approaches by introducing an individual-level comparative framework and employing standard ethological methods, accompanied by well-defined behavioral variables. We argue that the proposed framework can capture individual-specific responses to conspecific death and enable hypothesis-driven studies. The framework is essential to examine the large number of hypotheses that have accumulated in the field.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.70022","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145795226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The 11th Annual Northeastern Evolutionary Primatologists (NEEP) Meeting","authors":"Thomas C. Wilson","doi":"10.1002/evan.70021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70021","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The 11th annual Northeastern Evolutionary Primatologists (NEEP) meeting was hosted by The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and held at the Penn Museum from November 7th to November 8th, 2025. Reflecting NEEP's commitment to fostering the next generation of researchers, much of the conference's featured work was presented by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early career scientists. To kick off the conference, Caroline Jones (Penn) introduced this year's keynote speaker, Dr. Samar Sayeda (American Museum of Natural History). Sayeda's presentation, “<i>From Bones to Behaviour: Evolution of the Human Hand</i>”, explored her research on the functional morphology and evolution of fossil hominin postcrania, highlighting how variations in hand structure and locomotion reveal the diverse behavioral adaptations of early humans. Sayeda first introduced how the human hand transitioned from exhibiting short thumbs to long, dexterous thumbs, and while that is well understood, Sayeda argues that we still are uncertain about when and how humans lost the locomotory use of hands (i.e. knuckle-walking). More importantly, she argues that this time period should be compared to when and how tool use evolved in hominins. To address these questions, Sayeda analyzed both external and internal hand morphology of extant and fossil primates. She then compared these to locomotor and hand behavior. Unlike previous research that analyzed the carpals, Sayeda focused her attention on the phalanges and bone density on both the palmar and dorsal surfaces to predict hand behavior in early hominin species. Her results indicate that some <i>Australopithecus</i> species and <i>Homo habilis</i> both exhibit more “ape-like” hands. In contrast, <i>Au. sediba</i> and <i>H. naledi</i> both have a mix of “ape-like” and “human-like” traits, but not the same combination. <i>Au. sediba</i> shows the possibility of dexterity, but traits that are suggestive of arboreal locomotion are preserved. <i>H. naledi</i> shows traits indicative of ape-like climbing behaviors, as well as evidence of the human-like ability to grip small objects or tools. Her analysis of <i>H. floresiensis</i>' hand reveals a unique pattern not seen in any other species; however, Sayeda reminds us of how <i>H. floresiensis</i> is already a unique case in hominin evolution. Sayeda's findings support the idea that the transition to dexterity-focused hands was a gradual, mosaic process. Furthermore, her data suggest that tool use may have emerged before the appearance of the genus <i>Homo</i>. Moving forward, Dr. Sayeda is interested in extending her analysis to include more fossils, as well as including extant monkey species.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.70021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145626355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When Rituals Fail: Rationalization, Bayesianism, and Predictive Processing","authors":"Ze Hong","doi":"10.1002/evan.70020","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70020","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Why do rituals persist in human societies despite their frequent and observable failures to produce intended outcomes? This paper advances a two-part argument to explain this resilience. First, at the individual level, I argue that belief in ritual efficacy is maintained through Bayesian-rational processes, where the invocation of auxiliary hypotheses absorbs disconfirming evidence and shields central beliefs from significant revision. Importantly, such protection is not complete. Each failure produces a small but non-zero erosion of individual confidence. Second, I address the resulting population-level puzzle: why does such incremental doubt not accumulate into widespread skepticism and the eventual collapse of ritual systems? I argue that social features and informational dynamics (e.g., memory biases, the underreporting of failure, pluralistic ignorance) as well as the protective “design” of rituals themselves systematically inhibit the aggregation of doubt across individuals and generations. By linking individual cognition with population dynamics, this account explains the remarkable resilience of ritual systems in the face of persistent empirical failure.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"34 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145446194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}