Evolutionary Anthropology最新文献

{"title":"Why Anthropologists Should Study Dogs","authors":"Kyle C. M. Smith","doi":"10.1002/evan.70050","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70050","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While primates have traditionally been a focus of evolutionary anthropologists, the domestic dog represents a valuable complementary model due to its long shared evolutionary history with humans. The advantages of studying dogs are particularly evident in four key areas: (1) analyzing evolutionary adaptations, (2) understanding humanity's past, (3) examining humanity's cultural diversity, and (4) assessing factors that influence human health. Dogs have convergently evolved social cognition and local adaptations (including altitude adaptations and the ability to digest starches and lactose) that parallel those of humans, making them valuable models for testing evolutionary hypotheses. The global spread of dogs also illuminates human population histories, and isotopic analyses of dog remains can be proxies for human dietary data when sampling human remains is infeasible or inappropriate. Dogs' near-universal presence across human societies and exposure to the same real-world environments further make them uniquely powerful models for studying cultural variation and health.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13662499/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149185276","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":"Losing Sleep, Becoming Human","authors":"Christopher Lynn","doi":"10.1002/evan.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70052","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149205410","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":"Art or Scribbles? In the Eye of the Beholder: The Evolutionary Emergence of Visual Communication By Iain Davidson, Interdisciplinary Evolution Research 11. Cham: Springer Nature, 2025, 446 pp. ISBN: 978-3-03-190457-8 (hardback), ISBN: 978-3-03-190460-8 (paperback), ISBN: 978-3-03-190458-5 (ebook).","authors":"Antonis Iliopoulos","doi":"10.1002/evan.70049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70049","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149084156","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":"Primate Play and the Classificatory Making of Human Nature","authors":"Iulia Bădescu","doi":"10.1002/evan.70047","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70047","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Primate play is often interpreted as a developmental activity through which immature individuals acquire capacities used later in life. This essay uses play to examine a wider process in behavioral research: how classification helps produce behavioral data and shapes the explanations those data can support. It asks how juvenile actions are classified as play and become evidence for claims about development, evolution, and “human nature.” I argue that the same analogies to adult behavior that help recognize and organize juvenile actions as play later reappear in explanations of the roles or capacities that play is proposed to develop. Examples show how such developmental hypotheses become entangled with culturally familiar narratives of gender and human evolution, particularly as scientific claims circulate publicly. A comparative anthropology of play should keep these evidentiary steps visible, distinguish adult analogies from demonstrated developmental outcomes, and situate play within immature primates' immediate social and material worlds.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148814352","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":"Through Time and Across Traits: Evaluating Explanations of Human Evolution","authors":"Miki Ben-Dor,&nbsp;Ran Barkai","doi":"10.1002/evan.70046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70046","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We argue that current explanatory practice misses two situations that can arise in any lineage, not only ours. The first is dynamic: traits continue changing in one direction when a lineage's own niche construction keeps enlarging the problem it faces. The second is unifying: many traits change together and may require one explanation rather than several. Both cases bear on Tinbergen's four questions, the test of explanatory completeness, and both require extending his function question: what is a trait for? An answer that names a problem of fixed size cannot explain continued change. We call a problem of rising magnitude a gradient, and one that serves many traits a unifying gradient. We set out five questions that any complete gradient explanation must answer, map the major hypotheses of human evolution onto this scheme, and use our Prey-Size Decline hypothesis as a worked example. The proposed framework does not depend on that example.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.70046","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148784667","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":"Exploring the Semantic Bog of Definitions of Domestication","authors":"Charles R. Clement","doi":"10.1002/evan.70045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.70045","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The concept of domestication is important for the biological and social sciences but is framed within Western scientific paradigms that exclude other epistemologies. All human societies engage in multispecies relationships shaped by their own ontologies with intentional and unintentional human actions that often result in what Western scientists call domestication. This essay reviews some historical and contemporary definitions of domestication, incorporating ethnographic insights from some Amazonian Indigenous Peoples, to reveal how universal definitions obscure human agency and cultural diversity. The essay critiques recent expansions of domestication's scope to all multispecies interactions involving humans and highlights pathways and practices across agroecological contexts. Recognizing other ontologies and epistemologies, and contextualizing domestication within specific human-plant-animal relationships can challenge colonial narratives and foster clearer definitions. This approach enriches our understanding of domestication by embracing its complexity and cultural variability, while promoting more inclusive scientific discourse.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148783776","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":"The Early Homo Conundrum: Challenges and Potential Solutions","authors":"Clément Zanolli,&nbsp;David M. Alba,&nbsp;Thibaut Caley,&nbsp;Marine Cazenave,&nbsp;Isabelle Crevecoeur,&nbsp;Ignacio de la Torre,&nbsp;Anne Delagnes,&nbsp;Lucas K. Delezene,&nbsp;Florent Détroit,&nbsp;Renaud Joannes-Boyau,&nbsp;Adeline Le Cabec,&nbsp;Tina Lüdecke,&nbsp;Ann Margvelashvili,&nbsp;Charles Musiba,&nbsp;Simon Neubauer,&nbsp;Yonatan Sahle,&nbsp;Friedemann Schrenk,&nbsp;Matthew M. Skinner,&nbsp;Krister T. Smith,&nbsp;Alessandro Urciuoli,&nbsp;Brian Villmoare,&nbsp;Bernard Wood,&nbsp;Ottmar Kullmer","doi":"10.1002/evan.70043","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70043","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;In September 2025, 23 scholars met at a workshop in Bordeaux (France) organized by the University of Bordeaux and the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, to present and discuss their views on the origins and earliest phases of the evolution of the genus &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt;. The workshop, entitled “The early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; conundrum—Challenges and potential solutions” (hereafter “eH25”) took place a few months after the 25th anniversary of the publication of Wood and Collard's seminal papers published in 1999 and close to the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Ledi-Geraru mandible [&lt;span&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;].&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The possible origin of the genus was pushed back in time, from c. 1.9 Ma for &lt;i&gt;Homo habilis&lt;/i&gt; from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania [&lt;span&gt;2&lt;/span&gt;], to 2.8 Ma by the discovery of the LD 350-1 partial mandible from Ledi-Geraru in Ethiopia attributed to &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; sp. [&lt;span&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;]. The diversity and phylogenetic relationships of early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; continue to be contentious, with the likely presence of two extinct species in eastern Africa, referred to &lt;i&gt;H. habilis&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Homo rudolfensis&lt;/i&gt; [&lt;span&gt;3&lt;/span&gt;]. More than 25 years ago, Wood and Collard [&lt;span&gt;4, 5&lt;/span&gt;] published two key articles suggesting that: (1) the fossils ascribed to &lt;i&gt;H. habilis&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;H. rudolfensis&lt;/i&gt; most likely did not share the same last common ancestor (i.e., &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; might be polyphyletic), and (2) those species show no clear derived features of &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; and should be transferred to &lt;i&gt;Australopithecus&lt;/i&gt; [&lt;span&gt;4, 5&lt;/span&gt;]. Their proposal was largely ignored by the paleoanthropological community (e.g., [&lt;span&gt;6-9&lt;/span&gt;]), but debates about the phylogenetic relationships of &lt;i&gt;H. habilis&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;H. rudolfensis&lt;/i&gt; persist, mostly due to: (1) uncertainties around the taxonomic attribution of many purported “early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt;” specimens (review in [&lt;span&gt;9&lt;/span&gt;]); (2) considerable differences in chronology, ecology, culture, size and shape between early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; (Figure 1) and the type species of the genus (i.e., &lt;i&gt;Homo sapiens&lt;/i&gt;) that make the identification of (even a few) derived features challenging [&lt;span&gt;4, 10&lt;/span&gt;]; (3) a limited and fragmentary fossil record of early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; [&lt;span&gt;9&lt;/span&gt;]; (4) the potential existence of independent evolutionary pathways leading to similar morphologies (homoplasy) between late australopiths (i.e., Early Pleistocene species of &lt;i&gt;Australopithecus&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;Paranthropus&lt;/i&gt;) and early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; [&lt;span&gt;5, 10&lt;/span&gt;].&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 23 researchers who attended eH25 (the coauthors) include paleoanthropologists working on early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt;, in addition to archeologists, paleontologists, geochemists, geochronologists, and evolutionary biologists who provided a range of perspectives on the challenges involved in diagnosing and defining early &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/i&gt; species. The main questions that were discussed at the workshop were: when, where and from what taxon did &lt;i&gt;Homo&lt;/","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13436170/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148670915","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":"A Critical Endorsement","authors":"Bernard Wood,&nbsp;Daniel Biggs","doi":"10.1002/evan.70044","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70044","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Our contribution provides an overview of Wilfrid Le Gros Clark's early life and career, his developing interest in human evolution, and how invitations from Robert Broom and Louis Leakey encouraged him to visit South Africa to see the southern African hominin fossil evidence at firsthand. That experience converted Le Gros Clark from being skeptical of Dart and Broom's interpretations to being one of their foremost supporters. Le Gros Clark's conversion resulted in a brief but heated dispute involving Solly Zuckerman that led to Le Gros Clark focusing on the interpretation of the early fossil evidence for human evolution for the rest of his career, while Zuckerman shifted his attention to science policy. The combination of Le Gros Clark's considerable reputation and his steadfast support were crucial elements in the development of paleoanthropology within Africa.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13430107/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148664664","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":"Impacted Bones: Can Extant Primates Help Identify Tool Use in Early Hominins?","authors":"Rachel M. Hurwitz,&nbsp;Katarina Almeida-Warren,&nbsp;Susana Carvalho,&nbsp;Thomas A. Püschel","doi":"10.1002/evan.70042","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70042","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite recent advances pushing back the earliest record of tool use, how and when it first emerged in hominins, and the extent to which it featured amongst the numerous co-existing species, remain critical questions in paleoanthropology. In addition to analyzing fossils and lithic toolkits, novel strides in understanding this might be made by studying the skeletons of the great apes, as well as more distantly related tool-using primates and applying resultant findings to the fossil record via predictive modelling. We review current methods of extrapolating tool-use capabilities in extinct and extant taxa and provide an innovative methodological framework to analyze osteological remains for evidence of percussive tool use, using chimpanzees as a case study. We propose a shift in current methodological practice, wherein both sides of the body, rather than just one, should be routinely scanned to understand of the effect percussive tool use on primate bone. Key species, including long-tailed macaques (<i>Macaca fascicularis</i> ssp.), capuchins (<i>Sapajus</i> and <i>Cebus</i> sp.) and chimpanzees (<i>Pan troglodytes</i> ssp.), all of whom engage in lithic percussion, should be the work's focus. Due to bone's dynamic ability to respond to mechanical strain, percussive forms of tool use, like nut-cracking, could cause morphological changes in the dominant hands of tool users as compared to their non-dominant hand, or the hands of primates who do not engage in percussive behaviors. However, this potential “damage signature” has not been quantified. Thus, we propose a methodology for examining the effect of percussive tool use on primate bone by scanning skeletal remains bilaterally, analyzing directional asymmetry, and using machine learning to discern patterns of variation. Long-term, our proposed methodology may be extrapolated to examine the lasting impact of tool use on the bones of extinct hominins.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13382194/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148521254","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":"Diversifying Methods in Evolutionary Anthropology: Autophotography as a Tool for Quasi-Naturalistic Observation of Human Behavior","authors":"Emily H. Emmott,&nbsp;Masahito Morita","doi":"10.1002/evan.70037","DOIUrl":"10.1002/evan.70037","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A comprehensive evolutionary account of human behavior demands simultaneous consideration of biology, local ecology, and culture. Historically, evolutionary anthropology integrated these dimensions through naturalistic observations which offered direct insight into how behaviors unfold within everyday settings. However, in many contemporary contexts, traditional observations are impractical due to challenges in accessing private spaces, contributing to the decline of such methods. While evolutionary anthropologists have gradually pivoted to experimentation and larger datasets, the contextual richness afforded by direct observation is not readily replaced by other approaches. In response, and in light of renewed interest in investigating mechanisms and methodological diversification, we introduce and reflect on <i>autophotography</i>—a visual method in which participants document aspects of their lives through photographs—as a pragmatic, quasi‑naturalistic observational tool for evolutionary anthropology. Within its limitations, this creative, participant‑led approach may help recover some strengths of naturalistic observation while adapting to contemporary field sites.</p>","PeriodicalId":47849,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Anthropology","volume":"35 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/evan.70037","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148363148","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}