H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2024

WAMSA · Human and Cultural Dynamics in the West African Middle Stone Age

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-01-01 → 2024-04-12
Финансиране от ЕС: 174 806 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Динамиката на човешките популации в Западна Африка през Средния каменен век се анализира чрез промените в изработката на инструменти и символното поведение. Това помага да се разбере как климатичните промени през плейстоцена са повлияли върху развитието и адаптивността на хората.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Human and Cultural Dynamics in the West African Middle Stone Age

This MSC Action is titled “West African Middle Stone Age Dynamics.” The project aims to bring element of response to West African evolutionary sequence and its implication in our understanding of human origins and cultural evolution. This effort holds significance on a global scale as it sheds light on the later stages of human evolution, particularly in a region that has been significantly underexplored. Past societies witnessed significant environmental changes, but managed to survive and thrive for thousands of years. The project examines how climatic changes during the final Pleistocene influenced human populations. This historical perspective can inform current studies on climate change, offering valuable lessons on human plasticity and resilience in the face of environmental challenges. Similarly, The findings from this project can be incorporated into educational curricula, helping to teach future generations about the diverse and interconnected history of humanity. Highlighting West Africa's contribution to human history fosters a sense of pride and identity among contemporary populations in the region. It also ensures that the cultural heritage of these communities is recognized and preserved. The investigated period is critical in human evolution, featured by significant developments in toolmaking, symbolic behavior, ecological expansion of occupied niches. Finally, by studying these changes, contemporary societies can gain deeper understanding of the factors that driven human evolution and the origins of keys aspects of modern behavior and cognition. To sum up, central to the project is the examination of 1) the extent to which west Africa was affected by global Pleistocene climatic changes and possible impacts on human populations, (2) the possible role of West African refugia in supporting population isolation (3) the patterning of technological diversity and ecological diversity vs possible cultural boundary.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

The origins of modern humans are hotly debated among researchers. However, fossils, genetic and archaeological data are increasingly supporting a deep, long-lasting and complex evolution, with key biological and cultural changes occurring relatively recently. These changes include possible genetic exchanges between Homo sapiens and late (i.e. ~45ka) “ghost” archaic specimens in Africa, the surprisingly late persistence of archaic morphological traits in Homo sapiens (i.e. ~16-12ka) and a concurrent late persistence of Middle Stone Age technology (i.e. 12ka), usually associated with time periods in excess of 30 thousand years. These key Late Pleistocene features all have West Africa in common and point to this long-neglected region as critically important for understanding the final stages of human evolution prior to the development, spread and homogenizing effects of agriculture. Given that these changes occurred prior to a significant period of mixing and migration both within Africa and beyond, understanding processes of late human evolution in West Africa are critically important, if chronically understudied. Was West Africa isolated from other regions of the continent, thus forming an important reservoir of biological diversity? Or were these unique features of the West African record the result of cultural boundaries, and therefore perhaps among the earliest examples of the defining features of cultural diversity today. The WAMSA project will test these hypotheses and unravel the cultural patterning and sequence of the West African MSA between ~40-11 ka, thus elucidating key late processes of human evolution from a major – and critically under researched - world region. To adequately address this question the project will use an interdisciplinary approach which combines results of archaeological investigations with computational model (ecology, demography) underpinned by the ""human niche approach”.""

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · MUNCHENКоординаторГермания