Abstract
Like many other scientific fields, paleoanthropology has been revolutionized by the late twentieth-century breakdown and reformulation of traditional disciplinary boundaries. Human paleontologists, who once dominated the field, must now draw increasingly on research by molecular geneticists, geochronologists, archeologists, and other specialists to address major paleoanthropological questions. As illustrated by the contributions to this volume, the multidisciplinary approach has especially influenced the fascinating and highly controversial issue of modern human origins. With these contributions in mind, my purpose here is to summarize the major competing explanations for modern human origins and to outline how genetics, geochronology, and archeology can help to choose between them.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambrose, S. H. n.d. Chronology of the Later Stone Age in East Africa. Submitted.
Bar-Yosef, O. 1989. Upper Pleistocene cultural stratigraphy in southwest Asia, 154–80. In The Emergence of Modem Humans: Biocultural Adaptations in the Later Pleistocene, ed. E. Trinkaus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bar-Yosef, O., B. Vandermeersch, B. Arensburg, A. Belfer-Cohen, P. Goldberg, H. Laville, L. Meignen, Y. Rak, J. D. Speth, E. Tchernov, A.-M. Tillier, and S. Weiner. 1992. The excavations in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel. Current Anthropology 33:497–550.
Beaumont, P. B., H. de Villiers, and J. C. Vogel. 1978. Modern man in sub-Saharan Africa prior to 49000 years BP: A review and evaluation with particular reference to Border Cave. South African Journal of Science 74:409–19.
Bischoff, J. L., N. Soler, J. Maroto, and R. Julia. 1989. Abrupt Mousterian/Aurignacian boundary at c. 40 ka BP: Accelerator 14C dates from L’Arbreda Cave (Catalunya, Spain). Journal of Archaeological Science 16:563–76.
Bräuer, G. 1984. The “Afro-European sapiens-hypothesis” and hominid evolution in East Asia during the Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 69:145–65.
Bräuer, G. 1992. Africa’s place in the evolution of Homo sapiens, 83–98. In Continuity or Replacement: Controversies in Homo sapiens Evolution, ed. G. Bräuer and F. H. Smith. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.
Brooks, A. S., P. E. Hare, J. E. Kokis, G. H. Miller, R. D. Ernst, and F. Wendorf. 1990. Dating Pleistocene archeological sites by protein diagenesis in ostrich eggshell. Science 248:60–64.
Cabrera Valdes, V., and J. L. Bischoff. 1989. Accelerator 14C dates for early Upper Paleolithic (Basal Aurignacian) at El Castillo Cave (Spain). Journal of Archaeological Science 16:577–84.
Cann, R. L. 1992. A mitochondrial DNA perspective on replacement or continuity in human evolution, 65–73. In Continuity or Replacement: Controversies in Homo sapiens Evolution, ed. G. Bräuer and F. H. Smith. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.
Cann, R. L., M. Stoneking, and A. C. Wilson. 1987. Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution. Nature 325:31–36.
Clark, G. A. 1992. Continuity or replacement? Putting modern human origins in an evolutionary context, 183–205. In The Middle Paleolithic: Adaptation, Behavior, and Variability, ed. H. L. Dibble and P. Mellars. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Clark, G. A., and J. M. Lindly. 1989. The case for continuity: Observations on the biocultural transition in Europe and western Asia, 626–76. In The Human Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modem Humans, ed. P. Mellars and C. Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Freeman, L. G. 1992. Mousterian facies in space: New data from Morín Level 16, 113–25. In The Middle Paleolithic: Adaptation, Behavior, and Variability, ed. H. L. Dibble and P. Mellars. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Grün, R., and C. B. Stringer. 1991. Electron spin resonance dating and the evolution of modern humans. Archaeometry 33:153–99.
Harrold, F. B. 1989. Mousterian, Châtelperronian and Early Aurignacian in Western Europe: Continuity or discontinuity? 677–713. In The Human Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modem Humans, ed. P. Mellars and C. Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hedges, S. B., S. Kumar, K. Tamura, and M. Stoneking. 1992. Human origins and analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. Science 255:737–39.
Howells, W. W. 1976. Explaining modern man: Evolutionists versus migrationists. Journal of Human Evolution 5:477–95.
Jones, R. 1992. The human colonisation of the Australian continent, 289–301. In Continuity or Replacement: Controversies in Homo sapiens Evolution, ed. G. Bräuer and F. H. Smith. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.
Klein, R. G. 1973. Ice-Age Hunters of the Ukraine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Klein, R. G. 1989. The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Li Tianyuan, and D. A. Etler. 1992. New Middle Pleistocene hominid crania from Yunxian in China. Nature 357:404–7.
Maddison, D. R., M. Ruvolo, and D. L. Swofford. 1992. Geographic origins of human mitochondrial DNA: Phylogenetic evidence from control region sequences. Systematic Biology 41:111–24.
Marks, A. E. 1992. Typological variability in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic, 127–42. In The Middle Paleolithic: Adaptation, Behavior, and Variability, ed. H. L. Dibble and P. Mellars. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Mellars, P. 1989. Technological changes at the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition: Economic, social and cognitive perspectives, 338p–65. In The Human Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modem Humans, ed. P. Mellars and C. Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Mercier, N., H. Valladas, O. Bar-Yosef, B. Vandermeersch, C. Stringer, and J.-L. Joron. 1993. Thermoluminescence date for the Mousterian burial site of Es-Skhul, Mt. Carmel. Journal of Archaeological Science 20:169–74.
Mercier, N., H. Valladas, J.-L. Joron, J. L. Reyss, F. Lévêque, and B. Vandermeersch. 1991. Thermoluminescence dating of the late Neanderthal remains from Saint-Césaire. Nature 351:737–39.
Morlan, R. E. 1987. The Pleistocene archaeology of Beringia, 267–307. In The Evolution of Human Hunting, ed. M. H. Nitecki and D. V. Nitecki. New York: Plenum.
Pope, G. G. 1992. Craniofacial evidence for the origin of modern humans in China. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 35:243–98.
Rightmire, G. P. 1984. Homo sapiens in sub-Saharan Africa, 295–325. In The Origin of Modem Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence, ed. F. H. Smith and F. Spencer. New York: Alan R. Liss.
Rogers, A. R. n.d. Genetic evidence for a Pleistocene population explosion. Unpublished manuscript.
Rogers, A. R., and H. C. Harpending. 1992. Population growth makes waves in the distribution of pairwise differences. Molecular Biology and Evolution 9:552–69.
Sherry, S. T., A. R. Rogers, H. Harpending, H. Soodyall, T. Jenkins, and M. Stoneking. n.d. Pairwise differences of mtDNA reveal recent human population expansions. Unpublished manuscript.
Simmons, T., A. B. Falsetti, and F. H. Smith. 1991. Frontal bone morphometrics of southwest Asian Pleistocene hominids. Journal of Human Evolution 20:249–69.
Smith, F. H. 1992. The role of continuity in modern human origins, 145–56. In Continuity or Replacement: Controversies in Homo sapiens Evolution, ed. G. Bräuer and F. H. Smith. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.
Stringer, C. B. 1992. Replacement, continuity and the origin of Homo sapiens, 9–24. In Continuity or Replacement: Controversies in Homo sapiens Evolution, ed. G. Bräuer and F. H. Smith. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.
Stringer, C. B., J. J. Hublin, and B. Vandermeersch. 1984. The origin of anatomically modern humans in Western Europe, 51–135. In The Origin of Modern Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence, ed. F. H. Smith and F. Spencer. New York: Alan R. Liss.
Tchernov, E. 1988. The biogeographical history of the southern Levant, 159–250. In The Zoogeography of Israel, ed. Y. Yom-Tov and E. Tchernov. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Dr. W. Junk.
Tchernov, E. 1991. The Middle Paleolithic mammalian sequence and its bearing on the origin of Homo sapiens in the Southern Levant, 77–88. In Le Squelette Moustérien de Kebara 2, ed. O. Bar-Yosef and B. Vandermeersch. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Templeton, A. R. 1992. Human origins and analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. Science 255:737.
Thackeray, A. I. 1992. The Middle Stone Age south of the Limpopo River. Journal of World Prehistory 6:385–440.
Trinkaus, E. 1981. Neandertal limb proportions and cold adaptation, 187–224. In Aspects of Human Evolution, ed. C. B. Stringer. London: Taylor and Francis.
Trinkaus, E. 1989. The Upper Pleistocene transition, 42–66. In The Emergence of Modern Humans: Biocultural Adaptations in the Later Pleistocene, ed. E. Trinkaus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vigilant, L., M. Stoneking, H. Harpending, K. Hawkes, and A. C. Wilson. 1991. African populations and the evolution of human mitochondrial DNA. Science 253:1503–7.
White, R. 1989. Production complexity and standardization in Early Aurignacian bead and pendant manufacture: Evolutionary implications, 366–90. In The Human Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Humans, ed. P. Mellars and C. Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Wolpoff, M. H. 1992. Theories of modern human origins, 25–64. In Continuity or Replacement: Controversies in Homo sapiens Evolution, ed. G. Bräuer and F. H. Smith. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.
Wolpoff, M. H., and R. Caspari. 1990. On Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age hominid taxonomy. Current Anthropology 31:394–95.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Klein, R.G. (1994). The Problem of Modern Human Origins. In: Nitecki, M.H., Nitecki, D.V. (eds) Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1507-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1507-8_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1509-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1507-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive