Evolution And History

The Human Origins Debate 205

Average brain size actually peaked in Neandertals at 10

percent larger than the contemporary human average.

The reduction to today’s average size correlates with a

reduction in brawn, as bodies have become less massive

overall. Modern faces and jaws are, by and large, smaller

as well, but there are exceptions. For example, anthropol-

ogists Milford Wolpoff and Rachel Caspari have pointed

out that any definition of modernity that excludes Nean-

dertals also excludes substantial numbers of recent and

living Aborigines in Australia, although they are, quite

obviously, a contemporary people. The fact is, no multi-

dimensional diagnosis of anatomical modernity can be

both exclusive of archaic populations and inclusive of all

contemporary humans.^3

Defining modernity in terms of culture also raises

some questions. The appearance of modern-sized brains

in archaic Homo was related to increased reliance on cul-

tural adaptation, but the Upper Paleolithic was a time of

great technological innovation. The emphasis on cultural

adaptation led to the development of more complex tool

kits; Upper Paleolithic tool kits are known for a prepon-

derance of blade tools, with flint flakes at least twice as

long as they are wide. The earliest blade tools come from

sites in Africa, but these tools do not make up the major-

ity of the tool types until well into the Upper Paleolithic.

The Upper Paleolithic archaeological record also contains

a proliferation of expressive arts.

Ultimately, technological improvements may also have

reduced the intensity of selective pressures that had pre-

viously favored especially massive robust bodies, jaws,

and teeth. With new emphasis on elongated tools having

greater mechanical advantages, more effective techniques

of hafting, a switch from thrusting to throwing spears, and

development of net hunting, there was a marked reduction

in overall muscularity. In addition, as the environment

changed to milder conditions from the extreme cold that

prevailed in Eurasia during the last Ice Age, selective pres-

sure for short stature as an adaptation to conserve body

heat may have also diminished.

The Human Origins Debate

On a biological level, the great human origins debate

can be distilled to a question of whether one, some, or

all populations of the archaic groups played a role in the

evolution of modern Homo sapiens. Those supporting

the multi regional hypothesis argue for a simultaneous

local transition from H. erectus to modern H. sapiens

Europeans, their brow ridges were a bit more prominent,

and their teeth and jaws were as large as those of Neander-

tals. Some (a skull from the original Cro-Magnon site, for

instance) even display the distinctive occipital bun of the

Neandertals on the back of the skull.^1 Nor were they par-

ticularly tall, as their height of 5 feet 7 or 8 inches (170–175

centimeters) does not fall outside the Neandertal range.

Similarly, early Upper Paleolithic skulls from Brno, Mla-

dec, and Predmosti, in the Czech Republic, retain heavy

brow ridges and Neandertal-like muscle attachments on

the back of the skull.^2

Although the Cro-Magnons and Upper Paleolithic

peoples from Africa and Asia are now routinely re-

ferred to as “anatomically modern,” it is surprisingly

difficult to be precise about what we mean by this. We

think of people with brains the size of modern people,

but this had already been achieved by archaic H. sapiens.

© David L. Brill©^
Da
vid

L.
Brill

With a high forehead, the Cro-Magnon skull is more like contempo-

rary Europeans compared to the prominent brow ridge and sloping

forehead seen in the Neandertal skull. Whether these differences in

skull shape account for their cultural differences rather than their

relative age is hotly debated. The more recent Cro-Magnon skull even

preserves evidence of cultural continuity in diet with local contem-

porary French people. This skull has evidence of a fungal infection,

perhaps from eating tainted mushrooms. Mushrooms are a delicacy

in this region of France to this day.

(^1) Brace, C. L. (1997). Cro-Magnons “R” us? Anthropology Newsletter
38 (8), 1.
(^2) Bednarik, R. G. (1995). Concept-mediated marking in the Lower Paleo-
lithic. Current Anthropology 36, 627; Minugh-Purvis, N. (1992). The inhab-
itants of Ice Age Europe. Expedition 34 (3), 33–34.
(^3) Wolpoff, M., & Caspari, R. (1997). Race and human evolution: A fatal at-
traction (pp. 344–345, 393). New York: Simon & Schuster.