Further thoughts on the genetic argument for handaxes
Further thoughts on the genetic argument for handaxes
The Acheulean handaxe has always been considered a social phenomenon. Corbey et al.35 provide a major challenge to this argument, arguing quite rightly, that it has never been independently established that handaxe temporal depth is a product of intergenerational social learning. They take a number of assumptions integral to the social argument and suggest, using parsimony, that a genetic explanation is equally as plausible for each of them. Complex structures, in hierarchically nested routines of action, can be built in the natural world by organisms following predetermined genetic sequences of actions triggered by external circumstances. However, there are some important points that the genetic argument dismisses that demonstrate an unequivocal social origin for the Acheulean handaxe. This article identifies those points and restores them to the debate. Parsimony affirms a social basis for handaxes and does not require a theoretical genetic predisposition.
Acheulean, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, culture, genetics, handaxe
220-236
Mcnabb, John
59e818b1-3196-4991-93eb-75ed9c898e71
September 2020
Mcnabb, John
59e818b1-3196-4991-93eb-75ed9c898e71
Mcnabb, John
(2020)
Further thoughts on the genetic argument for handaxes.
Evolutionary Anthropology, 29 (5), .
(doi:10.1002/evan.21809).
Abstract
The Acheulean handaxe has always been considered a social phenomenon. Corbey et al.35 provide a major challenge to this argument, arguing quite rightly, that it has never been independently established that handaxe temporal depth is a product of intergenerational social learning. They take a number of assumptions integral to the social argument and suggest, using parsimony, that a genetic explanation is equally as plausible for each of them. Complex structures, in hierarchically nested routines of action, can be built in the natural world by organisms following predetermined genetic sequences of actions triggered by external circumstances. However, there are some important points that the genetic argument dismisses that demonstrate an unequivocal social origin for the Acheulean handaxe. This article identifies those points and restores them to the debate. Parsimony affirms a social basis for handaxes and does not require a theoretical genetic predisposition.
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 October 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 December 2019
Published date: September 2020
Keywords:
Acheulean, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, culture, genetics, handaxe
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Local EPrints ID: 437784
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437784
ISSN: 1060-1538
PURE UUID: b3053c4f-e4e4-474d-a174-0674f7425f17
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Date deposited: 17 Feb 2020 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:51
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