Re: Questions about the Upper Paleolithic

"Klein7, on the other hand, proffers the notion that it was probably a
biological change brought about by mutations that played the key role
in the
emergence of behaviorally modern humans. His biologically based
explanation
implies that a major neural reorganization of the brain resulted in a
significant enhancement in the manner in which the brain processed
information. This is a difficult hypothesis to test since brains do not
fossilize. But it is significant that no changes are seen in the shape
of
the skulls between earlier and later Homo sapiens. It can only be
surmised
from the archaeological record, which contains abundant evidence for
ritual
and art, that these Upper Paleolithic/Late Stone Age peoples possessed
language abilities equivalent to our own. For many anthropologists this
represents the final evolutionary leap to full modernity." "

This continues the idea that some sort of genetic improvement
of the brain occured in H.erectus which resulted in the traits we deem
"modern" and human.
If one compares the basic structure of the pelvic floor in the
great apes, to that of H.sapiens, there are substantive changes which
altered the reproductive behavior.
That is, the behavior of estrus was eliminated in the human
female.
This changed the female half of the mating behavior and allowed
H.sapiens to resume the vertebrate default behavior of male
vocalization for courtship. Vocalization alters the structure of the
infant human brain as well as directly leading to language.
Females without estrus allow the formation of group cooperation
rather than the gorilla-like sequestering of the female by jealous
dominant males.
As Aiello has noted, a marker of pelvic change can be found in
the increase of the lordosis curve in ancestral hominids.
Arne

.

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