This article identifies key aspects of the metaphysical paradigms under which European Paleolithic archaeological research is conducted and contrasts the anthropological approaches typical of ...anglophone New World workers with those of the "history-like" natural science-based traditions of Latin Europe. Because the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe is thought by many to correspond to the biological replacement of Neandertals by modern humans over the ten millennia bracketing 40 kyr B.P., generalizations about the archaeological transition invoked in support of biological replacement are examined and are found to lack empirical support. Patterns in lithic technology, typology, raw material variability, reduction strategies, blank frequencies, bone and antler technologies, Paleolithic art, subsistence strategies, and settlement patterns all indicate a temporal-spatial mosaic of changing monitors of human adaptation over the transition interval that cannot be reconciled with any construal of a relatively abrupt and complete biological replacement.
We present a review of the history of scientific inquiry into modern human origins, focusing on the role of the "American Anthropologist". We begin during the mid-20th century, at the time when the ...problem of modern human origins was first presented in the "American Anthropologist" and could first be distinguished from more general questions about human and hominid origins. Next, we discuss the effects of the modern evolutionary synthesis on biological anthropology and paleoanthropology in particular, and its role in the origin of anthropological genetics. The rise of human genetics is discussed along two tracks, which have taken starkly different approaches to the historical interpretation of recent human diversity. We cover varying paleoanthropological interpretations, including paleoanthropologists' reactions to genetic interpretations. We hope to identify some of the crucial inflection points in which the debate went astray, to rectify some of the points of misunderstanding among current scientists, and to clarify the likely path ahead.
Mitochondrial Eve refuses to die Gibbons, A
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
1993-Feb-26, Volume:
259, Issue:
5099
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Peer reviewed
Paleoanthropologist Milford Wolpoff argued that the maternal ancestry of all modern humans cannot be traced to a woman who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago, but molecular anthropologist Maryellen ...Ruvolo offered an estimate of when Eve lived.
Evolution enough for everyone Svitil, Kathy A
Discover (Chicago, Ill.),
06/2001, Volume:
22, Issue:
6
Magazine Article
Currently, there are two theories on evolution--one believes that Homo sapiens descended from a single female "Eve" whose progeny spread around the globe, replacing more archaic species, some 100,000 ...years ago, while the other believes that humanity emerged as much as 2 million years ago in many places as people colonized the world. In an interview, anthropologist Milford Wolpoff debates his view on evolution and explains how the Eve theory has no scientific basis.
Richmond reviews Debating Humankind's Place in Nature, 1860-2000: The Nature of Paleoanthropology by Richard G. Delisle with introductory and concluding essays by Milford H. Wolpoff and Bernard Wood.
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