Francesco d'Errico, Ivan Colagè, Larissa M. Straffon, Andrea Bender
{"title":"The emergence and complexification of symbolic practices in the Homo lineage: an archaeological and cognitive perspective","authors":"Francesco d'Errico, Ivan Colagè, Larissa M. Straffon, Andrea Bender","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70189","url":null,"abstract":"Recent archaeological discoveries, reviewed in this essay, challenge traditional views on the emergence of human symbolic cognition. Once believed to have originated in Europe around 40,000 years ago, new evidence shows it emerged much earlier across diverse regions. Geometric engravings from Blombos Cave in South Africa date back 77,000 years, while body ornaments over 140,000 years old have been found in North Africa, with similar artifacts from Africa and the Middle East ranging from 120,000 to 70,000 years ago. Human remains from Africa suggest a gradual accretion of modern anatomical traits starting 300,000 years ago, challenging the idea of a sudden cognitive leap due to speciation. Neanderthals also displayed symbolic behaviours such as using pigments, creating ornaments, engravings, burials, and symbolic cave spaces. Evidence of interbreeding between Upper Pleistocene <jats:italic>Homo</jats:italic> populations further indicates that symbolic cognition was not unique to <jats:italic>Homo sapiens</jats:italic> . These findings suggest that cognitive evolution was a gradual process shaped by regional ecological and cultural dynamics. This novel view on the emergence of symbolic cognition underscores the role of cultural transmission and niche construction in the development of symbolic capacities, rather than a single species‐specific event.","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148809932","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":"Mortal relationality: waria family care and the ethics of dying in Bali","authors":"Sylvia Tidey","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70195","url":null,"abstract":"Can a good death occur for those who balance on the edges of grievability? In Bali, where death marks a transition within the cycles of reincarnation, a good death depends on the mortuary care performed by intimate others – care that may be foreclosed to those whose lives are shaped by stigma. Through the death of Claudia, a Balinese Hindu <jats:italic>waria</jats:italic> (transgender woman) living with HIV, this article examines how dying well is inseparable from the ethical navigation of life. Drawing on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork on HIV/AIDS‐related care among gay and <jats:italic>waria</jats:italic> Indonesians, I ask when the relational, moral, and temporal labours of end‐of‐life care begin? Bringing anthropological studies of end‐of‐life care into conversation with existential philosophy, I develop the concept of <jats:italic>mortal relationality</jats:italic> to describe the ethical mode through which life and death are lived as a continuous moral project. For those dwelling at the margins of social recognition, the ‘choreography of death’ starts long before dying begins. And for them, a <jats:italic>good</jats:italic> life is not necessarily a <jats:italic>long</jats:italic> life but one in which a good death, with its relational implications, remains possible.","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"159 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148810005","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":"Torres Colón, Gabriel Alejandro. Styles for flourishing: histories of survival in the racial niche. 304 pp., bibliogr. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024. $35.00 (paper)","authors":"Constancio R. Arnaldo","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70157","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148693335","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":"Verswijver, Gustaaf.The way of warriors: annotated narratives of the Mebengokre (Kayapo) in Brazil. 679 pp., bibliogr. Almeria: Turuti Books, 2023. R$319.80 (paper)","authors":"Vanessa R. Lea","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70168","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148589059","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":"Crockford, Susannah.Ripples of the universe: spirituality in Sedona, Arizona. 248 pp., bibliogr. Chicago: University Press, 2021. $33.00 (paper)","authors":"Josh Brahinsky","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70178","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148459766","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":"Keane, Webb. Animals, robots, gods: adventures in the moral imagination. 192 pp., bibliogr. London: Penguin Books, 2025. £10.99 (paper)","authors":"Pablo N. Rojas‐Bahamonde","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70181","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"81 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148499154","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":"Stacey, Paul.State of slum: precarity and informal governance at the margins in Accra. 225 pp., bibliogr. London: Zed Books, 2019. £32.99 (paper)","authors":"Patrick Brandful Cobbinah","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70155","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"256 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148459769","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":"Morimoto, Ryo. Nuclear ghost: atomic livelihoods in Fukushima's gray zone. 356 pp., bibliogr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2023. £25.00 (paper)","authors":"Satsuki Takahashi","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70150","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148459771","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":"Beoku‐Betts, Josephine & Fredline A.M'Cormack‐Hale (eds) War, women and post‐conflict empowerment: lessons from Sierra Leone. 304 pp., bibliogr. London: Bloomsbury, 2022. £85.50 (hardback)","authors":"Jacqueline Knörr","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.70185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.70185","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148499109","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}