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Cultural Change, Demography, and the Archaeology of the Last 100 kyr in Southern Africa

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Africa from MIS 6-2

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the role of demography in cultural innovation and transmission . Some authors have suggested that changes in population size may be associated with the appearance and disappearance of the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort , c. 75–60 ka, and that the advanced cognitive and behavioral skills attested by these industries underpinned the expansion of early modern humans out of Africa. Our ability to test demographic hypotheses in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) is limited, because we still have only a few well-excavated sites from the relevant periods. Turning to the much better documented record of Holocene hunter-gatherers in southern Africa, I explore this line of argument using the appearance and disappearance of the mid-Holocene microlithic “Wilton” as a model. Estimates of relative population sizes based on archaeological evidence from the Holocene do not fit the predictions of the model, calling into question its utility in the MSA.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Alex Mackay for helpful comments on this chapter, and Sally Adam for drawing the map.

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  1. Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Judith Sealy

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  1. Judith Sealy
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Correspondence to Judith Sealy .

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  1. University of Cambridge, McDonald Inst. for Archaeological Rsch, United Kingdom

    Sacha C. Jones

  2. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, ANN ARBOR, Michigan, USA

    Brian A. Stewart

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Sealy, J. (2016). Cultural Change, Demography, and the Archaeology of the Last 100 kyr in Southern Africa. In: Jones, S., Stewart, B. (eds) Africa from MIS 6-2. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_4

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