THE CREATIVE REVOLUTION

Behavioral Modernity

<aside> ❓ What makes us different from other animals?

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• Symbolic, abstract thinking
• Regularized, shared systems of communication
• Elaborations of social norms and specialized roles
• Wide-spread cooperation, even among non-kin
  • Outside of Darwinian modes of thinking
• Research focused on Europe
• Scholars into 1980s viewed Europe as the center for behaviorally modern humans
• (supposedly) ANATOMICAL modernity happens in Africa, but MIND modernity happens when they get to Europe...(yea ok lol)
• Around 40,000 years ago (same time as when Neanderthals disappearing)

Europe: A Remote Cul De Sac

• Creative revolution began around the same time anatomically modern humans were developing in Africa
• Behavioral modernity may extend to different kinds of humans, like Neanderthals and Denisovans
• THIS PAPER CHANGED THE WAY ARCHEOLOGISTS THOUGHT ABOUT US

Major Questions

• Does behavioral modernity develop in tandem with anatomical modernity?
• Is behavioral modernity limited to AMH (H. sapiens)?
• Does behavioral modernity develop slowly (an evolution) or suddenly (a revolution)