Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T01:11:30.779Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Handaxes: products of sexual selection?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Marek Kohn  and
Steven Mithen
Marek Kohn
Affiliation:
14 York Villas, Brighton BN1 3TS, England marek.kohn@mcr1.poptel.org.uk
Steven Mithen
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AA, England s.j.mithen@reading.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Why were handaxes made and why was their shape symmetrical and regular? These and many other questions are considered here, in a paper tackling hominid social behaviour and sexual selection.

Keywords

handaxessexual selectionmate choiceLower Palaeolithic technologyknapping
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 281 , September 1999 , pp. 518 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiello, L. 1996. Hominine preadaptations for language and cognition, in Mellars, P. & Gibson, K. (ed.), Modelling the early human mind.: 89–99. Cambridge: McDonald Institute.Google Scholar
Aiello, L. & Dunbar, R.I.M.. 1993. Neocortex size, group size and the evolution of language, Current Anthropology 34: 184–93.Google Scholar
Aiello, L. & Wheeler, P.. 1995. The expensive tissue hypothesis, Current Anthropology 36: 199–221.Google Scholar
Asfaw, B., Beyene, Y., Suwa, G., Walter, R.C., White, T., Woldegabriel, G. & Yemane, T.. 1992. The earliest Acheulian from Konso-Gardula, Ethiopia, Nature 360: 732–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashton, N. & David, A. (ed.). 1994. Stories in stone. Lithics Studies Society. Occasional Paper 4.Google Scholar
Ashton, N.M. & Mcnabb, J.. 1992. The interpretation and context of the High Lodge flint industries, in Ashton, N.M., Cook, J., Lewis, S.G. & Rose, J. (ed.), High Lodge: Excavations by G. de G. Sieveking 1962 & J. Cook 1988: 164–8. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Ashton, N.M. & Mcnabb, J.. 1994. Bifaces in perspective, in Ashton, & David, (ed.): 182–91.Google Scholar
Ashton, N.M., Mcnabb, J., Lewis, S.G. & Parfitt, S.A.. 1994. Contemporaneity of the Clactonian and Acheulian flint industries at Bamham, Suffolk, Antiquity 68: 585–9.Google Scholar
Austin, L. 1994. The life and death of a Boxgrove biface, in Ashton, & David, : 119–26.Google Scholar
Barker, A. 1998. A quantitative study of symmetry in handaxes. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Reading.Google Scholar
Bergman, C.A. & Roberts, M.B. 1988. Flaking technology at the Acheulian site of Boxgrove, West Sussex (England), Revue Archeologique de Picardie 1–2: 105–13.Google Scholar
Bosinski, G. 1996. Stone artefacts of the European Lower Palaeolithic, in Roebroeks, & van Kolfschoten, (ed.): 263–7.Google Scholar
Buss, D. 1994. The evolution of desire: human mating strategies. New York (NY): Basic Books.Google Scholar
Byrne, R. & Whiten, A.. 1988. Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Byrne, R. & Whiten, A.. 1992. Cognitive evolution in primates: evidence from tactical deception, Man (n.s.) 27: 609–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callow, P. 1994. The Olduvai bifaces: technology and raw materials, in Leakey, & Roe, (ed.): 235–53.Google Scholar
Calvin, W. 1993, The unitary hypothesis: a common neural circuitry for novel manipulations, language, plan-ahead and throwing, in Gibson, K.R. & Ingold, T. (ed.), Tools, language and cognition in human evolution: 230–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dennell, R. 1994. Comment on ‘Technology and society during the Middle Pleistocene’ by Mithen, S., Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4: 3–32.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. 1991. Consciousness explained. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Dunbar, R.I.M. 1993. Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in primates, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16: 681–735.Google Scholar
Fisher, R.A. 1930. The genetical theory of natural selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Foley, R. & Lee, P.. 1989. Finite social space, evolutionary pathways, and reconstructing hominid behaviour, Science 243: 901–6.Google Scholar
Foley, R. & Lee, P.. 1991. Ecology and energetics of encephalization in hominid evolution, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London) Series B 334: 223–2.Google ScholarPubMed
Gamble, C. 1992. Comment on ‘Dense forests, cold steppes and the Palaeolithic settlement of Northern Europe’, by Roebroeks, W., Conrad, N.J. & van Kolfschoten, T., Current Anthropology 33: 569–72.Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 1997. Handaxes and palaeolithic individuals, in Ashton, N., Healey, F. & Pettitt, P. (ed.), Stone Age archaeology: 105–9. Oxford: Oxbow Books. Monograph 102.Google Scholar
Goss, R.J. 1983. Deer antlers: Regeneration, function and evolution. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gowlett, J. 1984. Mental abilities of early man: A look at some hard evidence, in Foley, R. (ed.), Hominid evolution & community ecology: 167–92. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Grafen, A. 1990. Biological signals as handicaps, Journal of Theoretical Biology 144: 517–46.Google Scholar
Hawkes, K., O’Connell, J.F. & Blurton-Jones, N.G.. 1997. Hadza women’s time allocation, offspring provisioning, and the evolution of long post-menopausal life-spans, Current Anthropology 38: 551–78.Google Scholar
Hayden, B. 1979. Palaeolithic reflections: lithic technology and ethnographic excavation among Australian Aborigines. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. AIAS new series 5.Google Scholar
Inzian, M-L., Roche, H. & Tixier, J.. 1992. Technology of knapped stone. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Isaac, G. 1977. Olorgesailie. Chicago (IL): Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, P. 1980. Experimental butchery with modern stone tools and its relevance for Palaeolithic archaeology, World Archaeology 12: 153–65.Google Scholar
Jones, P. 1981. Experiment implement manufacture and use: a case study from Olduvai Gorge, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London series B 292: 189–95.Google Scholar
Jones, P. 1994. Results of experimental work in relation to the stone industries of Olduvai Gorge, in Leakey, & Roe, : 254–98.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. 1980. Experimental determination of stone tool uses: a microwear analysis. Chicago (IL): Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. & Toth, N.. 1981. Microwear polishes on early stone tools from Koobi Fora, Kenya, Nature 203: 464–5.Google Scholar
Knight, C., Power, C. & Watts, I.. 1995. The human symbolic revolution: A Darwinian explanation, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 5: 75–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohn, M. 1999. As we know it: coming to terms with an evolved mind. London: Granfa.Google Scholar
Leakey, M. 1971. Olduvai Gorge 3: Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960–1963. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leakey, M. & Roe, D. (ed.). 1994. Olduvai Gorge 5: Excavation in Beds Ill-TV and the Masele Beds 1968–71. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leakey, R. 1995. The origins of humankind. London: Phoenix.Google Scholar
Manning, J.T. & Hartley, M.A.. 1991. Symmetry and ornamentation are correlated in the peacock’s train, Animal Behaviour 42: 1020–21.Google Scholar
Manning, J.T. & Chamberlain, A.T.. 1993. Fluctuating asymmetry, sexual selection and canine teeth in primates, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, series B 251:83–7.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. 1996. The Neanderthal legacy. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
McHenry, H.M. 1994. Behavioural ecological implications of early hominid body size, Journal of Human Evolution 27: 77–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McHenry, H.M. 1996. Sexual dimorphism in fossil hominids and its socio- ecological implications, in Steele, J. & Shennan, S. (ed.), The archaeology of human ancestry: 91–109. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mcnabb, J. & Ashton, N.. 1995. Thoughtful flakers, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 5: 289–301.Google Scholar
Miller, G.F. 1993. Evolution of the human brain through runaway sexual selection. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Miller, G.F. 1997. How mate choice shaped human nature: A review of sexual selection and human evolution, in Crawford, C. & Krebs, D.L. (ed.), Handbook of evolutionary psychology: ideas, issues and applications: 87–129. Mahwah (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J.C. 1996. Studying biface butchery at Boxgrove: roe deer butchery with replica handaxes. Lithcs 16: 64–9.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. 1994. Technology and society during the Middle Pleistocene, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4: 3–33.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. 1996. The prehistory of the mind. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. In press. Palaeoanthropological perspectives on the evolution of a theory of mind, in Baron-Cohen, S., Tager Flusberg, H. & Cohen, D. (ed.), Understanding other minds: perspectives from autism and cognitive neuroscience (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Møller, A.P. 1988. Female choice selects for male sexual tail ornaments in the monogamous swallow, Nature 332: 640–42.Google Scholar
Møller, A.P. 1990. Fluctuating asymmetry in male sexual ornaments may reliably reveal male quality, Animal Behaviour 40:1185–7.Google Scholar
Møller, A.P. 1992. Patterns of fluctuating asymmetry in weapons: evidence for reliable signalling of quality in beetle horns and bird spurs, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, series B, 245: 1–5.Google Scholar
Nishida, T., Hasegawa, T., Hayaki, H., Takahata, Y. & Uehara, S.. 1992. Meat-sharing as a coalition strategy by an alpha male chimpanzee, in Nishida, T., McGrew, W. C., Marler, P., Pickford, M. & de Waal, F.B.M. (ed.), Topics in primatology 1: Human origins: 159–74. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
O’Brien, E. 1981. The projectile capabilities of an Acheulian handaxe from Olorgesailie, Current Anthropology 22: 76–9.Google Scholar
O’Connell, J.F., Hawkes, K. & Blurton-Jones, N.G.. 1999. Grandmothering and the evolution of Homo erectus, Journal of Human Evolution 36: 461–85.Google Scholar
Parsons, P.A. 1992. Fluctuating asymmetry: A biological monitor of environmental and genomic stress, Heredity 68: 361–4.Google Scholar
Pelegrin, J. 1993. A framework for analysing prehistoric stone tool manufacture and a tentative application to some early stone industries, in Berthelet, A. & Chavaillon, J. (ed.), The use of tools by human and non-human primates: 302–14. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Power, C. & Aiello, L.. 1997. Female proto-symbolic strategies, in Hager, L.D. (ed.), Women in human evolution: 153–71. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ridley, M. 1993. The Red Queen: sex and the evolution of human nature. New York (NY): Viking.Google Scholar
Roberts, M.B. 1986. Excavation of the Lower Palaeolithic site at Amey’s Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, West Sussex. A preliminary report, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 52: 215–46.Google Scholar
Roberts, M.B., Gamble, C.S. & Bridgeland, D.R.. 1996. The earliest occupation of Europe: the British Isles, in Roebroeks, & van Kolfschoten, : 165–92.Google Scholar
Roberts, M.B., Parfitt, S.A., Pope, M.I. & Wenban-Smith, F.F.. 1997. Boxgrove, West Sussex: rescue excavations of a Lower Palaeolithic landsurface (Boxgrove Project B, 1989–91), Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 63: 303–58.Google Scholar
Roe, D. 1981. The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods in Britain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Roe, D. 1994. A metrical analysis of selected sets of handaxes and cleavers from Olduvai Gorge, in Leakey, & Roe, (ed.): 146–235.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W., Conrad, N.J. & Van Kolfschoten, T.. 1992. Dense forests, cold steppes and the Palaeolithic settlement of Northern Europe, Current Anthropology 33: 551–86.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W. & Van Kolfschoten, T. (ed.). 1996. The earliest occupation of Europe. Leiden: University of Leiden. Analecta Praehistoria Leidensia 27.Google Scholar
Ruff, C.B., Trinkaus, E. & Holliday, T.W.. 1997. Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo, Nature 387: 173–7.Google Scholar
Schick, K. & Toth, N.. 1993. Making silent stones speak: human evolution and the dawn of technology. New York (NY): Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Stanford, C.B., Wallis, J., Mpongo, E. & Goodall, J.. 1994. Hunting decisions in wild chimpanzees, Behavior 131: 1–20.Google Scholar
Svoboda, J. 1992. Comment on ‘Dense forests, cold steppes and the Palaeolithic settlement of Northern Europe’, by Roebroeks, W., Conrad, N.J. & van Kolfschoten, T., Current Anthropology 33: 569–72.Google Scholar
Thieme, H. 1997. Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany, Nature 385: 807–10.Google Scholar
Thornhill, R. & Gangestad, S.. 1994. Human fluctuating asymmetry and sexual behaviour, Psychological Science 5: 297–302.Google Scholar
Thornhill, R. & Gangestad, S.. 1996. The evolution of human sexuality, Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11: 98–102.Google Scholar
Trivers, R.L. 1972. Parental investment and sexual selection, in Campbell, B.G. (ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man: 139–79. Chicago (IL): Aldine.Google Scholar
Valoch, K. 1984. Le Taubachien, sa géochronologie, paléocologie et sa paléoethologie, L’Anthropologie 88: 193–208.Google Scholar
Villa, P. 1983. Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene record from Southern France. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
De Waal, F. 1992. Chimpanzee politics: power and sex among the apes. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Walker, A. & Shipman, P.. 1996. The wisdom of the bones. London: Phoenix.Google Scholar
White, M.J. 1998. On the significance of Acheulian biface variability in southern Britain, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64: 15–44.Google Scholar
Whiten, A. & Byrne, R.R. 1997. Machiavellian intelligence II: Extensions and evaluations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, R. 1994. The moral animal: evolutionary psychology and everyday life. New York (NY): Pantheon.Google Scholar
Wymer, J. 1968. Lower Palaeolithic archaeology in Britain. London: John Baker.Google Scholar
Wymer, J. 1974. Clactonian and Acheulian industries from Britain: their character and significance, Proceedings of the Geological Association 85: 391–421.Google Scholar
Wymer, J. 1983. The Palaeolithic age. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Wymer, J. 1988. Palaeolithic archaeology and the British Quaternary sequence, Quaternary Science Reviews 7: 79–98.Google Scholar
Wynn, T. 1979. The intelligence of later Acheulian hominids, Man (n.s.) 14: 371–91.Google Scholar
Wynn, T. 1989. The evolution of spatial competence. Urbana (IL): University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Wynn, T. 1993. Two developments in the mind of early Homo, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12: 299–322.Google Scholar
Wynn, T. 1995. Handaxe enigmas, World Archaeology 27: 10–23.Google Scholar
Wynn, T. & Tierson, F.. 1990. Regional comparison of the shapes of later Acheulian handaxes, American Anthropologist 92: 73–84.Google Scholar
Zahavi, A. 1975. Mate selection a selection of handicap, Journal of Theoretical Biology 53: 205–14.Google Scholar
Zahavi, A. & Zahavi, A. 1997. The handicap principle. New York (NY): Oxford University Press.Google Scholar