Wits University Press

Summary

Abstract

On the basis of the etho-archaeological research conducted within a team project coordinated by the author and entitled ‘Men and Primates in Perspective’, the different degrees of semiotisation at work in tool fabrication and use among chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and the implications that these might have for understanding behaviour and cognition of early hominids are discussed. Primatologists demonstrated several years ago not only that traditions or cultures exist among non-humans, but also that a significant number of phenomena believed to be special attributes of the genus Homo (tool making, carnivory, self-consciousness, meta-representation …) must henceforth be tackled in a more extensive taxonomic context: that of hominoids. We argue that the same goes for the existence of representations, defined as forms independent of content or content independent of functions, which authors tend now to examine within a broader specific and temporal framework than imagined thus far. In this contribution the question of human cultural modernity is broached on the basis of techniques, representation, and semiosis of primate societies, whether human or not, illustrating this theme with the ethological and archaeological data published in the literature and findings made in West Africa during the past four years by the author, on the question of body techniques and on elementary actions on matter, as research in these domains allows us to avoid the problems inherent in the tool and the language (or symbol) that have masked all debates for more than a century.

Resumé

Sur la base des travaux étho-archéologiques que je dirige dans le cadre de l’équipe ‘Hommes et Primates en Perspective’, je montrerai les différents degrés de sémiotisation à l'oeuvre dans la fabrication et l'utilisation des outils chez les chimpanzés (Pan troglodytes) et les implications qu'ils peuvent avoir pour les Hominidés anciens. En effet, depuis quelques années nous avons pu démontrer l'existence de traditions ou de cultures chez des non-humains. De même, un grand nombre de phénomènes que l'on pensait être le propre du genre Homo (fabrication d'outils, carnivorie, conscience réfléchie, méta-représentations …) doivent désormais s'appréhender dans un espace d'espèces plus étendu: celui des Hominoïdes.

Summary

Abstract

An analysis is presented of several Mousterian industries of Acheulian tradition from Western Europe dated to the first half of IOS 3 and manufactured by Neanderthals before the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. It is shown that some behaviours previously thought to be characteristic of recent behaviours associated with anatomically modern humans were in fact shared with another species. Among those are: the variability of Mousterian technologies across time and space; the use of Upper Palaeolithic methods of production immediately prior to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe; and the long-term planning of knapping activities across the territory.

This paper also demonstrates that some of these specific behaviours (the scheduling of lithic tool production within the territory) might eventually have been abandoned by Neanderthals, while others (the use of a volumetric method of producing blanks) were kept alive by them.

These results show that models of the development of behavioural ‘modernity’ have to take into consideration every line of evidence, including the testimony of the behaviour of anatomically non-modern humans. We do not have to consider a priori that anatomically modern humans were better suited or were the only ones capable of behavioural ‘modernity’. On the contrary, it is necessary to demonstrate how they were better adapted than Neanderthals. Evolutionary trajectories might be punctuated, and resulting from a combination of biological and contingent events which created a patchwork of changes.

Résumé

Le lien causal entre la ‘modernité’ culturelle, synthèse des changements comportementaux qui deviendront la norme à la fin du Pléistocène, et la modernité biologique doit être discuté à partir de l'ensemble des documents dont nous disposons. L’étude des comportements des Néandertaliens avant l'arrivée des hommes anatomiquement modernes en Europe, en s'appuyant sur les industries lithique MTA de la première moitié du stade isotopique 3, montre que des comportements d'abord jugés spécifiques de notre espèce ont en fait été partagés avec les Néandertaliens. Elle montre également que certains de ces comportements, comme l'organisation à long terme de l'activité de taille dans le territoire, ont été finalement abandonnés par les Néandertaliens, tandis que d'autres, comme l'utilisation d'une méthode de taille volumétrique, ont été conservés par les mêmes Néandertaliens.

Summary

Abstract

Kromdraai A and B are two Plio-Pleistocene sites within thirty metres of each other and within two kilometres from Sterkfontein in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, South Africa. Hominid remains representing nine individuals have been recovered from Kromdraai B, and until recently all of these were attributed to Paranthropus robustus. No hominid remains have been recovered as yet from Kromdraai A (KA), but stone tools have been recovered from both Kromdraai A and Kromdraai B, representing Developed Oldowan and early Acheulean industries.

Recent work suggests that early Homo is represented at Kromdraai B. The possibility that robust australopithecines used artefacts is not excluded. A hypothesis is presented to suggest that hominids at KA scavenged from carcasses of animals killed by large carnivores such as Dinofelis.

Résumé

Kromdraai A et B sont deux sites d’âge Plio-Pléistocène, distants de trente mètres, et situés à environ deux kilomètres de Sterkfontein, en Afrique du Sud, dans une zone inscrite sur la liste du Patrimoine Mondial de l'Unesco: le Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. Des restes d'hominidés fossiles représentant neuf individus ont été découverts à Kromdraai B (KB) et étaient, encore récemment, attribués à Paranthropus robustus. Aucun reste d'hominidé n'a encore été découvert à Kromdraai A (KA). Des outils en pierre proviennent des deux sites et correspondent à de l'Oldowayen évolué et de l'Acheuléen ancien. Une étude récente suggère la présence d’Homo habilis à KB. Nous proposons que les hominidés de KA pratiquaient le charognage sur des carcasses d'animaux tués par des grands carnivores tels que Dinofelis et n'excluons pas la possibilité que Paranthropus robustus soit l'artisan des outils découverts dans ce site.

Introduction

In April 1965, Professor Phillip Tobias delivered his Presidential Address to the South African Archaeological Society of South Africa, on the subject ‘Australopithecus, Homo habilis, tool-using and tool-making’. He described newly discovered hominid fossils in the context of morphology and phylogeny, and stated a case ‘for associating the new hominine species, Homo habilis, with the Oldowan culture’.

Summary

Abstract

The popular literature on human evolution suggests that trunk erectness and the appearance of permanent bipedalism implies a freeing of the hands. The hands, no longer having locomotor constraints, acquired a more important dexterity in the handling of objects, including tools. Observations of wild chimpanzees show, however, that tool use does not correlate with the acquisition of trunk erectness and permanent bipedalism. Manipulating objects can be done in a sitting position. But trunk erectness and the acquisition of permanent bipedalism will undoubtedly increase the capacity to handle objects, either standing still or moving.

Permanent bipedality in extinct species can only be studied using postcranial skeletons of Plio-Pleistocene or upper Miocene hominids. South Africa has one of the most important fossil hominid postcranial collections. The site of Sterkfontein alone has yielded three partial skeletons of australopithecines (Australopithecus africanus). That of Sts 14 has been employed to reconstruct the vertebral column and pelvis of ‘Lucy’ (AL288-1) (Australopithecus antiquus seu afarensis) from Ethiopia. Sts 14 was discovered in 1947 by R. Broom and J.T. Robinson, pioneers of palaeoanthropology in South Africa. South Africa has also yielded another type of Plio- Pleistocene hominid, Paranthropus robustus. They show many resemblances to Australopithecus africanus but have anatomical characteristics in their postcrania by which they differ. These characteristics might be useful in revealing a specific adaptation to their mode of locomotion and thus to their type of bipedality. Australopithecus africanus and paranthropines are divergent from other types of hominid from East Africa. These anatomical and functional differences must have implications for their behaviour, as in the way they handled or made objects and/or tools.

Some authors consider the South African paranthropines capable of making tools. This hypothesis, in particular, has been supported by the study of a phalanx of the thumb from Swartkrans. The discovery of phalanges of other hominids, like that reported for Orrorin tugenensis, makes it possible to review this conclusion.

Résumé

Classiquement, on trouve dans les ouvrages de vulgarisation que le redressement du corps et donc de l'apparition de la bipédie permanente ont entraîné une libération des mains. Ces mains n'ayant plus de contraintes locomotrices ont acquis une dextérité plus importante dans la manipulation d'objets et d'outils.

Summary

Abstract

A number of natural processes occurring during the life of an animal or after its death can produce pseudotools, mimics of human-made objects. A number of purported bone tools from Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites have been published without any validating microscopic analysis of the bone surfaces showing possible traces of manufacture and use. This paper discusses the evolutionary significance of bone tool technology and summarises results of research on the use of bone tools by early hominids between one and two million years ago (Mya). It attempts to establish formal criteria for the identification of minimally modified bone tools by characterising the modifications produced by known human and non-human agents, and applying these criteria to the purported bone tool collections from Swartkrans, Sterkfontein and Olduvai Gorge. A number of experiments involving a variety of tasks were conducted in order to increase the range of diagnostic features available. New analytical techniques have been developed for the quantification of microscopic use-wear, and a wide range of taphonomic and morphometric variables have been used to isolate idiosyncratic populations of specimens for which a robust argument can be made for their identification as tools. South and East African early hominid sites dated to between 1,8 Mya and 1 Mya have yielded what appear to be very different types of bone tools. The former are characterised by long bone shaft fragments and horn-cores of medium to large-sized bovids, collected by hominids after weathering, and possibly used in specialised digging activities. Most fragments were used as such, though a few horn-cores were modified by grinding the tips to points on sandstone or compact abrasive sediment. Those from East Africa mainly consist of freshly broken, or more rarely, complete irregular bones from very large mammals, used as such, or modified by flaking. Irregular bones or epiphyses appear to have been used as hammers, while the others were apparently involved in a variety of light- and heavy-duty activities. Based on the bone tool manufacturing techniques recorded in the two regions, there appear to be no significant differences between the cognitive abilities of the hominid users.

Summary

Abstract

Many scholars have sought to relate the findings and interpretations of archaeology to the evolution of the brain and mind. In effect, such studies venture a statement that the techniques and symbols explicit and implicit in the archaeological record are related, more or less directly, to the cognitive abilities, mental competences and intelligences of evolving hominins, ancient and modern. It has however been evident for some time that it is not only from the archaeological record that we may glean evidence on the evolution of hominin intelligence. The size and form of endocranial casts of fossil hominins have added grist to the mill of those probing the evolution of hominin cerebration. The analogy and in a hopeful mood the homology between the brains and behaviours of human and non-human primates, and those inferred for our remote ancestors, have provided new pointers in the analysis of culture. Indeed they question the validity of the very concept of culture, as understood during most of the twentieth century. Ethological studies have shown some close resemblances between human and ape behaviours. Just over fifty years ago, the apparently human preserve of tool-using and tool-making led Kenneth Oakley to speak of Man the Tool-Maker, while he could write ‘… it is evident that man may be distinguished as the tool-making primate …’. Yet, in the 1980s and 1990s, Jane Goodall, Frédéric Joulian, William McGrew and C. and H. Boesch cast a flood of new light on the implemental activities of wild chimpanzees, just as H. Khroustov, in Moscow, did for chimpanzees in captivity in the early 1960s. Joulian went on to contest the longcherished paradigm that ‘culture’ is an exclusively human realm. The pursuit by various groups of West African chimpanzees of nut-cracking in some populations, but not in others of the same species, strongly suggested that such behavioural traits were transmitted by epigenetic means. In a word, they were learned behaviour of a kind which, conventionally, has been assigned to human cultural behaviour. Based on our analysis of H. habilis endocasts and on a review of the inferred cultural and social aspects of this hominin, it is argued here that H. habilis was able to speak.

Résumé

Nombre de scientifiques ont cherché à rattacher découvertes et interprétations archéologiques à l’évolution du cerveau et de l'intellect.

Summary

Abstract

Since the discovery in 1959 of the first specimens allocated to Homo habilis in the Olduvai Gorge, no consensus has been achieved concerning the status of the species Homo habilis, and the taxonomic allocation of the specimens of early Homo. Four hypotheses have been expressed: (1) the specimens from Olduvai, East Turkana and Omo belong to the same palaeo-species: Homo habilis sensu lato; (2) the hypodigm is heterogeneous: two species could be defined in that group, Homo habilis sensu stricto and Homo rudolfensis; (3) these species do not belong to the genus Homo but to the genus Australopithecus; or (4) it would be more appropriate to include the specimens of Homo rudolfensis in the genus Kenyanthropus. The goal of this study is to re-evaluate the hypotheses concerning the taxonomy of the specimens attributed to early Homo, and to test whether they belong anatomically to the genus Homo or to another genus.

A morphological comparative study, a craniofacial variation study and numerical cladistic analyses were carried out on the original Plio-Pleistocene specimens. The Operational Taxonomic Unit used in this analysis is defined by the specimen and not by the species (as often used) in the absence of consensus on the content of the hypodigm of the species Homo habilis.

The results of this analysis show that based on the cranial specimens: (1) two species can be distinguished: habilis and rudolfensis; (2) the specimens belonging to these two taxa are included in the Homo clade; (3) the conclusions concerning the revision of the genus Homo and the inclusion of the specimens of Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis in the genus Australopithecus or Kenyanthropus are questionable.

Résumé

Il n'existe actuellement aucun consensus concernant la taxinomie et la constitution de l'hypodigme de Homo habilis Leakey et al., 1964. Quatre hypothèses majeures sont aujourd'hui avancées à partir des restes crâniens et mandibulaires attribués classiquement à Homo habilis sensu lato: (1) tous les spécimens appartiennent à un seul et même taxon : Homo habilis; (2) deux espèces peuvent être identifiées dans ce groupe : Homo habilis sensu stricto et Homo rudolfensis; (3) ces spécimens n'appartiennent pas au genre Homo mais au genre Australopithecus; (4) les spécimens de l'espèce rudolfensis devraient être mis dans le genre Kenyanthropus.

Summary

Abstract

This paper deals with some of the implications of the discovery of four ape-like teeth from the Middle Miocene (12,5 Ma) and Late Miocene (6–5,9 Ma) of Kenya. An unworn, isolated lower molar from Member B of the Ngorora Formation (12,5 Ma), Tugen Hills, Kenya, differs markedly from lower molars of Middle and Early Miocene large hominoids but is closer in morphology to chimpanzee molars (peripheralised cusps, buccolingually compressed lingual cusps, thin enamel, large and deep occlusal basin, reduced buccal cingulum). If the tooth is part of the chimpanzee clade then it is important for estimating the timing of the dichotomy between chimpanzees and hominids and suggests that this event would have occurred several million years earlier than is currently estimated by most researchers.

An incomplete, unworn isolated upper molar, an upper central incisor and a lower molar from the Lukeino Formation (6–5,9 Ma), Tugen Hills, Kenya, are morphologically closer to those of Gorilla gorilla than to any other fossil or extant hominoid with which they were compared. The upper molar is a large tooth (mesio-distal length 14 mm) with peripheralised cusps, bucco-lingually wide distal fovea, fairly voluminous trigon basin and high dentine penetrance, all features which suggest affinities with gorillas. Its enamel thickness (1,6–1,7 mm on the hypocone) is similar to that of gorilla molars. It differs markedly from molars of the early hominid, Orrorin tugenensis, which occurs at the same site, which are smaller, have more centralised cusps, smaller trigon basin, reduced distal fovea and low dentine penetrance. The Kapsomin molar differs from teeth of australopithecines for much the same reasons, even if its dimensions overlap with those of Australopithecus antiquus and Praeanthropus africanus. It is highly divergent from chimpanzee teeth, not only in its dimensions, but also in its morphology. An upper central incisor from Kapsomin is large and wedge-shaped in lateral view without the lingual fossa that characterises teeth of hominids and chimpanzees. It is close in size and morphology to those of gorillas.

If the species from which the Kapsomin and Cheboit teeth came is part of the gorilla clade, then there are important implications for the timing of events in gorilline evolution, and they make it less likely that European genera such as Ouranopithecus are ancestral to African apes or hominids.

Summary

Abstract

There now seems little doubt that Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans from Africa. The counterintuitive character of this stems from the fact that Neanderthals were a highly successful species specially adapted to these cold temperate and cold environments, but were replaced by a species evolved in the tropics. Explaining this evolutionary event mandates the integration of the ecological conditions for hominin evolution in western Eurasia and tropical Africa wedded to a bio-behavioural perspective that seamlessly joins the evidence for archaeology, physical anthropology, and human biology. Drawing on ecological theory and evidence for physiological and behavioural differences between modern humans and Neanderthals, I construct a model that argues that Neanderthals evolved a bio-behavioural faunal exploitation strategy that was high risk, high cost, high return and was focused on the pursuit of larger mammals than later appearing modern humans. Modern humans evolved in Africa a strategy that was more low risk, low cost, and focused on more consistent returns, overall more generalised, and based on technological flexibility coupled to knowledge transmission through language. Its routes lie in the development of a strategy to cope with the high diversity of plant foods in Africa, and their spatial and temporal variations. Neanderthals and modern humans evolved distinct adaptational paths characterised by distinct faunal exploitation strategies that, when juxtaposed together in initial sympatry after the migration of modern humans into Eurasia, resulted in modern humans usurping the niche space of Neanderthals and forcing them into extinction.

Résumé

Il y a désormais peu de doute sur le fait que l'homme de Néandertal a été remplacé en Europe par des populations modernes provenant d'Afrique. Le caractère contre intuitif de ce constat vient du fait que les Néandertaliens étaient une espèce particulièrement adaptée aux milieux tempérés et froids, mais qu'elle a été remplacée par une espèce qui a évolué dans les tropiques. L'explication de cet événement demande que l'on conjugue les conditions écologiques de l’évolution des hominidés en Eurasie occidentale et en Afrique tropicale avec une perspective sur le comportement biologique qui permette de relier progressivement les données de l'archéologie, de l'anthropologie physique et de la biologie humaine.

Summary

Abstract

One of the factors contributing to human dominance among animals is the ability to translate intelligence and imagination into tangible technology. During the last two million years, members of the human lineage have doubled their brain size, despite the fact that neural tissue is metabolically expensive, suggesting that strong selective pressures were driving the process. Some of these were clearly the advantages bestowed by technology, such as the management of fire and the use of more and more sophisticated tools and weapons.

But if technology can bestow such valuable advantages, why have many other animals not followed this course to the same extent? It seems to me that there are at least five obvious constraints that would apply to any candidate for the role of a ‘technologically competent animal’. Although some are applicable only if the candidate were a mammal, they are:

Summary

This Round Table is a celebration of Franco–South African collaboration in the fields of palaeoanthropology and archaeology. In this cooperative endeavour, we who pursue our lives and researches in South Africa have been at the receiving end of extraordinary largesse from France, mediated with sagacity and imagination by the Embassy of France in South Africa and the CNRS. This conference is the latest manifestation of this fruitful inter-hemispheric interaction. It is our hope that the research opportunities and facilities which South Africa is able to offer in abundance and the ‘Open House’ policy towards visiting researchers and students which we have pursued for nearly half a century may effect a certain symmetry in this relationship.

It is symbolic of this cross-pollination that this symposium has been organised by a French scientist, Francesco d'Errico, and a South African one, Lucinda Backwell. For their combined efforts, coupled with their manifest organisational skills, we who participated in the meeting are deeply indebted. To them and their helpers, a sincere expression of thanks is due.

Personally, I convey my gratitude to the organisers for their very kind thought in dedicating the Round Table to myself, a most touching and generous gesture which I deeply appreciate.

A fitting time was chosen for the holding of this conference: worthy of celebration is the fact that fifty years ago Francis Crick and James Watson published their historic paper announcing the double helix model for the structure of DNA; another cause of rejoicing is the award of a Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for 2002 to Sydney Brenner, who obtained his first four degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand and is also a Doctor of Science honoris causa of this University. In part commemoration of both these historic events, a meeting is to be held next week, in tandem with this one, on the Human Genome in Africa, organised by Dr Wilmot James of the South African Human Sciences Research Council.

Cette Table Ronde est une célébration de la collaboration franco-sud-africaine dans les domaines de la paléoanthropologie et de l'archéologie.

Summary

Our European world, especially in its western part, is a cul-de-sac into which human waves, arriving from the east or the south under unknown impulses, have come to mix and superpose their sediments (Breuil, 1912, 170).

Impression at the end of day: Europe as much a cul-de-sac and as confused as South Africa (C. Van Riet Lowe, 3. 10. 1931. Notebook ‘France 1931’, RARI archives n° 19/81).

Abstract

The longstanding relationships that developed between the French and South African research traditions in prehistoric archaeology were mostly based on shared goals and perspectives, but also included moments of tension and misunderstanding. Focusing here on the crucial decades of the 1920s to 1940s, and on both the publications and the archival sources of such major actors as John Goodwin, C. Van Riet Lowe and Henri Breuil, my aim in this paper is to show that these interactions were essentially productive for both parties. In the case of the famous ‘African terminology’ devised by Goodwin and Van Riet Lowe, it appears that French scholars had actually welcomed these propositions as fully compatible with their own modes of archaeological designation and reasoning – and therefore that its presentation as a deliberate alternative to the European scheme was primarily a rhetorical disciplinary tactic. This differs from the case of lithic technology, where South African scholars of the times made genuinely innovative contributions to the study of stone artefact raw materials, production and use. The originality of these advances is due, in my view, to two factors – the presence of the Bushman, and the absence of flint. Though their specific origins have since largely been forgotten, these ideas left their mark on leading French prehistorians, and developed in subsequent generations into a full-fledged technological approach. The historical appraisal of these decades-long interactions can thus shed light on the production of archaeological knowledge, and also confirm the potential and scope for further collaborations between these two research traditions.

Résumé

Les liens qui se sont développés au fil des décennies entre les traditions de recherches préhistoriques françaises et sud-africaines étaient principalement fondés sur des objectifs et des perspectives communs, mais ont connu aussi des moments de tensions et de discorde.

Summary

Abstract

Microscopic residue analysis was conducted on a number of stone tools from Sibudu Cave to obtain more information on specific use of certain tool types at the site. Plant residues were preserved better than residues of animal origin. The presence of ochre as a use-related residue and use-wear traces were well represented. The soils were found to be slightly acidic, a factor that may have contributed favourably to the exceptional preservation of organic remains at the site. Although culturally modern behaviour has not been specifically inferred from this data, the potential exists to answer questions relating to patterned tool use and specific activity areas within the site.

Résumé

Une analyse de résidus microscopiques présents sur un certain nombre d'outils en pierre provenant de la Grotte de Sibudu a été réalisée en vue d'obtenir des informations sur la fonction de certains types d'outils. Les résidus végétaux sont mieux conservés que ceux d'origine animale. Les traces d'utilisation sont bien conservées sur le pièces analysées et souvent associées à des traces d'ocre Nous avons constaté que les sols étaient légèrement acides, facteur qui pourrait avoir contribué favorablement à la conservation exceptionnelle de restes organiques sur ce site. Même si la question de l’émergence de la modernité culturelle n'est pas directement abordée à partir de ces données, celles-ci recèlent néanmoins des informations pertinentes pour répondre à des questions en relation avec cette problématique telles que la fonction des outils et l'existence de zones d'activités spécialisées au sein du site.

Introduction

Residue analysis has been conducted on stone tools from a number of southern African sites to date (Lombard, 2001; Tomlinson, 2001; Williamson, 1997) as well as sites elsewhere in the world (Fullagar et al., 1997; Hardy et al., 2001; Tuross & Dillehay, 1995; Loy & Dixon, 1998). The applicability of persistent residues in determining site use and subsistence strategies of prehistoric people is finding wider acceptance. Residue types identified in this study included animal tissues, blood, hair, collagen and plant tissue remains, cellulosic fibres, resins and exudates, starch grains and starchy residues, as well as mineral deposits like ochre. Sibudu Cave has a long occupation sequence with an interesting and complex stratigraphy (Wadley, 2001a) that provides a relatively closed environment ideal for the preservation of microscopic organic residues.

Summary

Abstract

We can reconstruct human history using a number of different methods. In the absence of written records, scholars have made use of information from disciplines including linguistics, archaeology, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology, history and palaeoanthropology to reconstruct their prehistory. The most direct account of our past is inferred from the fossil record. Skeletal remains have been instrumental in establishing the evolution of human ancestors in Africa, and they have also provided important information about the evolution of modern Homo sapiens.

Study of the genetic variation of humans, the concern of the field of molecular anthropology, attempts to produce objective data with which to provide new insights about human history. From a molecular-genetic perspective, it is clear that the DNA found in contemporary individuals has been passed down to them from previous generations. It is also clear that in every generation, some DNA sequences are not passed on because some individuals have no children or the sequence fails to be transmitted during meiosis. Therefore, the genealogy of a DNA sequence will trace back to fewer and fewer ancestors until it comes together in one common ancestor. Genetic studies, including those of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA studies, have suggested that this ancestor lived in Africa, about 100–150 Kya (thousand years ago).

Genetic studies are also providing insights into what makes humans different from our closest primate relative, the chimpanzee. It is becoming more evident that in addition to genomic differences, differences in the level of expression of certain genes could be responsible for producing the morphological and adaptive changes found between humans and chimpanzees.

Résumé

Il est possible de retracer l'histoire de l'humanité en utilisant différentes méthodes. Pour retracer la préhistoire les scientifiques ont fait usage, en l'absence de traces écrites, d'informations provenant de disciplines telles que la linguistique, l'archéologie, l'anthropologie physique, l'anthropologie culturelle, l'histoire et la paléoanthropologie. La manière la plus directe pour faire état de ce cheminement est de faire appel aux fossiles. Les fossiles ont joué un rôle décisif pour déterminer l'origine africaine de notre lignée et nous informer sur l'origine de notre espèce.

L’étude de la variabilité génétique humaine, qui fait partie du domaine de l'anthropologie moléculaire, se propose de produire des données objectives nous donnant un nouvel aperçu de l'histoire de l'humanité. La génétique moléculaire nous enseigne que Nos contemporains ont hérité leur ADN des générations précédentes.

Summary

Anything that will get people to think and feel for themselves, that will stop them delegating these functions to the politicians, is important to our survival. Theatre has a role to play in this.

The words are those of Athol Fugard, responding to the South African government's censorship policy and the proposed artistic boycott of South Africa.

While South Africa's democracy swept these censorship restrictions away, the ‘inner censors’, located in minds that avoid horror and pain, remain.

On the first pages of this published version of Tshepang are the words ‘Based on twenty thousand true stories’.

With this unadorned, stark statement, Lara Foot Newton is in agreement with Fugard. Theatre continues to play an important role in presenting the darker side of human nature.

‘Nothing ever happens here. Niks,’ says Simon of the small rural South African town in which Tshepang is located. What bitter, sad, dramatic irony.

Here, as in Thornton Wilder's Our Town or Van Triers’ Dogville or Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, we learn about the physical and emotional state of the town through the actions, attitudes and events of a few characters, each representing different aspects of a microcosm. It is through the recounting of the sole narrator, Simon, that we learn the stories and histories of some of the town's inhabitants (himself included).

This fictitious, but typical, town has fallen on very hard times. Unemployment is rife and the weather stiflingly hot. There is the custom in the community for men to take ‘houvroue’, women who are both servants and concubines. Alcoholism is endemic. Sex is presented as dissolute. It is a place of sad, hard lives, without direction or a future.

Three events are central to the story.

The first is an incident from the distant past – the terrible beating of Alfred Sorrows, a three-year-old boy, by his father's houvrou, for urinating in his pants because he was laughing so much.

The second is the rape of Ruth's nine-month-old infant, Siesie, and the subsequent arrest of six men charged with the crime and later released when the identity of the real perpetrator becomes known. As a result the ‘town of shame’ gains notoriety. Media and police descend on it and, with the infamy comes a short-lived period of economic activity.

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5398 results in Wits University Press

Significant tools and signifying monkeys: the question of body techniques and elementary actions on matter among apes and early hominids

Summary

Late Mousterian lithic technology: its implications for the pace of the emergence of behavioural modernity and the relationship between behavioural modernity and biological modernity

Summary

Early Homo, ‘robust’ australopithecines and stone tools at Kromdraai, South Africa

Summary

Vertebral column, bipedalism and freedom of the hands

Summary

The origin of bone tool technology and the identification of early hominid cultural traditions

Summary

Tools and brains: which came first?

Summary

Personal names index

Characterising early Homo: cladistic, morphological and metrical analyses of the original Plio-Pleistocene specimens

Summary

Implications of the presence of African ape-like teeth in the Miocene of Kenya

Summary

Contents

From the tropics to the colder climates: contrasting faunal exploitation adaptations of modern humans and Neanderthals

Summary

Subject index

Essential attributes of any technologically competent animal

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Keynote address

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The history of a special relationship: prehistoric terminology and lithic technology between the French and South African research traditions

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Subsistence strategies in the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu Cave: the microscopic evidence from stone tool residues

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List of participants

Contribution of genetics to the study of human origins 276

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Acknowledgements

Introduction

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