From Tools to Symbols

This collection of twenty-seven selected papers from a South African-French conference organised in honour of the well-known palaeo-anthropologist Phillip Tobias, provides a multidisciplinary overview of collaborative research of the palaeontological and archaeological evidence of the last five million years of human evolution.

A number of researchers have tried to characterise the anatomy and behavioural systems of early hominid and early modern human populations in an attempt to understand how we became what we are. Can archaeology, palaeo-anthropology and genetics tell us how and when human cultures developed the traits that make our societies different from those of our closest living relatives? In which cases are these differences substantial, and when do they simply reflect our definitions of culture, species, the image we have of their evolution or of ourselves? From Tools to Symbols, a collection of twenty-seven selected papers from a South African-French conference organised in honour of the well-known palaeo-anthropologist Phillip Tobias, provides a multidisciplinary overview of this field of study. It is based on collaborative research conducted in sub-Saharan Africa by South African, French, American and German scholars in the last twenty years, and represents an excellent synthesis of the palaeontological and archaeological evidence of the last five million years of human evolution.

AcknowledgementsProfile of Professor TobiasList of participantsForewordJustice Edwin CameronAddressBernard MalauzatKeynote addressPhillip V. TobiasSearching for common ground in palaeoanthropology, archaeology and geneticsFrancesco d’Errico and Lucinda R. BackwellThe history of a special relationship: prehistoric terminology and lithic technology between the French and South African research traditionsNathan SchlangerEssential attributes of any technologically competent animalCharles K. BrainSignificant tools and signifying monkeys: the question of body techniques and elementary actions on matter among apes and early hominidsFrédéric JoulianTools and brains: which came first?Phillip V. TobiasEnvironmental changes and hominid evolution: what the vegetation tells usMarion K. BamfordImplications of the presence of African ape-like teeth in the Miocene of KenyaMartin Pickford and Brigitte SenutDawn of hominids: understanding the ape-hominid dichotomyBrigitte SenutThe impact of new excavations from the Cradle of Humankind on our understanding of the evolution of hominins and their culturesLee R. BergerStone Age signatures in northernmost South Africa: early archaeology in the Mapungubwe National Park and vicinityKathleen Kuman, Ryan Gibbon, Helen Kempson, Geeske Langejans,Joel Le Baron, Luca Pollarolo and Morris SuttonVertebral column, bipedalism and freedom of the handsDominique GommeryCharacterising early Homo: cladistic, morphological and metrical analyses of the original Plio-Pleistocene specimensSandrine PratEarly Homo, ‘robust’ australopithecines and stone tools at Kromdraai, South AfricaFrancis Thackeray and José BragaThe origin of bone tool technology and the identification of early hominid cultural traditionsLucinda Backwell and Francesco d’ErricoContribution of genetics to the study of human originsHimla Soodyall and Trefor JenkinsAn overview of the patterns of behavioural change in Africa and Eurasia during the Middle and Late PleistoceneNicholas J. ConardFrom the tropics to the colder climates: contrasting faunal exploitation adaptations of modern humans and NeanderthalsCurtis W. MareanNew neighbours: interaction and image-making during the West European Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transitionDavid Lewis-WilliamsLate Mousterian lithic technology: its implications for the pace of the emergence of behavioural modernity and the relationship between behavioural modernity and biological modernityMarie SoressiExploring and quantifying technological differences between the MSA I, MSA II and Howieson’s Poort at Klasies RiverSarah WurzStratigraphic integrity of the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos CaveChristopher HenshilwoodTesting and demonstrating the stratigraphic integrity of artefacts from MSA deposits at Blombos Cave, South AfricaZenobia JacobsFrom tool to symbol: the behavioural context of intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from Diepkloof, Western CapeJohn Parkington, Cedric Poggenpoel, Jean-Philippe Rigaud and Pierre-Jean TexierChronology of the Howieson’s Poort and Still Bay techno-complexes: assessment and new data from luminescenceChantal Tribolo, Norbert Mercier and Hélène ValladasSubsistence strategies in the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu Cave: the microscopic evidence from stone tool residuesBonny S. WilliamsonSpeaking with beads: the evolutionary significance of personal ornamentsMarian VanhaerenPersonal names indexSubject index