Neolithization in Southwest Asia in a Context of Niche Construction Theory

Sterelny, Kim; Watkins, Trevor

doi:10.1017/s0959774314000675

Cited by 51 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…This is because, if confirmed, any attempted larger-scale mathematical study would presumably have a good start already by application of the well-known and widely applicable harmonic resonance equations (for different frequencies and dampening). In agreement with proposals by Sterelny and Watkins (2015), surely the most important causal parameter in the rapid WDT is human agency, which could be modelled as a central driving factor acting under resonance conditions within a wider network of natural (bioclimatic) processes. The factors leading to WD-resonance might have to be attenuated (dampened) to some extent, e.g., to allow for continued human selection of wild cereals during and followed the WDT.…”

Section: Outlook For Quantitative Modellingsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Interestingly, a similar repositioning of agricultural theory is envisioned by Sterelny and Watkins (2015), who contend that concepts underlying now widely applied biological niche construction theory (NCT) would also fit the description of the Neolithisation process, if only NCT were extended to encompass the more complex social worlds of human societies in the form of a cognitive-cultural (or informational) niche (Sterelny, Watkins 2015.673). We may abbreviate discussion of these issues by confirming directly that NCT has increasing importance in a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology, biology, evolutionary theory, genetics, palaeontology and biological physics, all the way through the alphabet to zoology, and thereby, naturally, for different species though other scientific disciplines might replace it by words such as amplification, bifurcation, psychological or mechanical stress, break in symmetry, genetic bottleneck, or genetic isolation.…”

Section: Punctuated Equilibrium (Pe)mentioning

confidence: 92%

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Niche Construction and Theory of Agricultural Origins. Case studies in punctuated equilibrium

Weninger

2017

Doc. praeh.

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IntroductionA central challenge to the theory of agricultural origins (TAO) concerns the integration and joint interpretation of the increasingly large amounts of numeric empirical data made available by participating scientific disciplines, for example, cultural studies, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, plant and animal genetics, radiometric dating, palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, and others. In a recently published study, Kristen Gremillion et al. (2014) have argued that it may be possible to unify the scientific results pertaining to TAO under the umbrella of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. To the same topic, Kim Niche construction and theory of agricultural origins. Case studies in punctuated equilibrium 7 of plants and animals, both microscopic and macroscopic, including humans (Gould, Eldredge 1977;Gould 1989;Jones et al. 1994;Laland et al. 2016;Saltz et al. 2016;Zeder 2016). NCT is equally promising for applications in archaeology, for which purpose even the elementary (unpretentious) renaming of the Neolithic Package as a mobile eco-system that is capable of environmental or climatic habitattracking may help students and researchers alike to achieve a qualitatively better understanding of the complex processes underlying Neolithisation. In the long run, however, quantitative modelling of archaeological NCT appears to be necessary. Punctuated Equilibrium (PE)In the following, let us explore what might happen in archaeological NCT discourse if concepts derived from the neo-darwinian theory of punctuated equilibrium (Gould, Eldredge 1977;Gould 2007) are taken into consideration. In contrast to classical Darwinian forecasting, the geological record shows not a slow and continuous fossil development (graduation), but instead long periods of stasis with no observable change. Then follows an abrupt switch from one species to the next (punctuation), with no apparent transition. According to Darwin's (and others'), explanation, the geological observation of a seemingly abrupt and quasi-instantaneous origination of new palaeontological species is caused by the notoriously imperfect character of the fossil record due to stratigraphic disturbance, incomplete preservation, and fragmentary research (Gould, Eldredge 1993.223). For PE theory, in contrast, the abrupt origination of species is the result neither of noisy or missing data, nor of an unobserved geographic switch in habitat, but the expected and meaningful consequence of a rapid genetic switch from one species to the next, following the law of natural selection. In a nutshell, most species originate in such brief moments of time, that expected 'transitions' have no apparent manifestation in the geological stratigraphy (Gould 2007).But how does PE work? As indicated above, many PE related processes are (today) subsumed under what is more commonly called the Theory of Complex Systems (or similar), but I propose we continue to use the term PE. An example from physics would be coulomb excitation, whereby a subatomic particle passes so close to an atomic nuc...

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Section: Outlook For Quantitative Modellingsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Punctuated Equilibrium (Pe)mentioning

confidence: 92%

Niche Construction and Theory of Agricultural Origins. Case studies in punctuated equilibrium

Weninger

2017

Doc. praeh.

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“…Sterelny and Watkins collaborated to confront and, at least to some extent, resolve the Holocene challenge (Sterelny and Watkins 2015 ). For Sterelny, it was an exercise to carry forward his cultural niche construction programme beyond the Pleistocene, and for Watkins it was the means to set the Neolithic into its Pleistocene evolutionary context.…”

Section: A Transformation Of the Cultural Nichementioning

confidence: 99%

From Pleistocene to Holocene: the prehistory of southwest Asia in evolutionary context

Watkins

2017

HPLS

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In this paper I seek to show how cultural niche construction theory offers the potential to extend the human evolutionary story beyond the Pleistocene, through the Neolithic, towards the kind of very large-scale societies in which we live today. The study of the human past has been compartmentalised, each compartment using different analytical vocabularies, so that their accounts are written in mutually incompatible languages. In recent years social, cognitive and cultural evolutionary theories, building on a growing body of archaeological evidence, have made substantial sense of the social and cultural evolution of the genus Homo. However, specialists in this field of studies have found it difficult to extend their kind of analysis into the Holocene human world. Within southwest Asia the three or four millennia of the Neolithic period at the beginning of the Holocene represents a pivotal point, which saw the transformation of human society in the emergence of the first large-scale, permanent communities, the domestication of plants and animals, and the establishment of effective farming economies. Following the Neolithic, the pace of human social, economic and cultural evolution continued to increase. By 5000 years ago, in parts of southwest Asia and northeast Africa there were very large-scale urban societies, and the first large-scale states (kingdoms). An extension of cultural niche construction theory enables us to extend the evolutionary narrative of the Pleistocene into the Holocene, opening the way to developing a single, long-term, evolutionary account of human history.

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“…It seems to me that the communal rituals of construction, the making of symbols, the reconstructions, and the final deconstructions may have been the main purpose, rather than the creation of spaces within rituals or ceremonies could take place (Watkins, in press-b, in press-a). Such shared, communal labours could serve as the "commitment mechanisms", the means of "costly signalling", and at the same time the assurance of shared values and ideology (Sterelny and Watkins, 2015).…”

Section: Cultural Niche Construction Theory As a Framework For Undersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cultural dimension of cognition

Watkins

2016

Quaternary International

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Neolithization in Southwest Asia in a Context of Niche Construction Theory

Cited by 51 publications

References 90 publications

Niche Construction and Theory of Agricultural Origins. Case studies in punctuated equilibrium

Niche Construction and Theory of Agricultural Origins. Case studies in punctuated equilibrium

From Pleistocene to Holocene: the prehistory of southwest Asia in evolutionary context

The cultural dimension of cognition

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