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Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions as an important source of symbolic material culture with low preservation probability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2025

Andrew C. Gallup Open the ORCID record for Andrew C. Gallup [Opens in a new window]  and
Omar Tonsi Eldakar
Andrew C. Gallup*
Affiliation:
David S. Olton Behavioral Biology Program, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Omar Tonsi Eldakar
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA a.c.gallup@gmail.com oeldakar@gmail.com
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Sports, team games, and physical skill competitions appear to be a human universal and may have been prevalent throughout the hominin lineage. These activities are cognitively complex and can be associated with a distinctive and symbolic material culture. Yet, many of the artifacts used by foraging groups for sports, team games, and athletic competitions often have a low preservation probability.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e9
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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