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PALEODEMOGRAPHY OF THE ATAPUERCA–SIMA DE LOS HUESOS HOMININ SAMPLE: A REVISION AND NEW APPROACHES TO THE PALEODEMOGRAPHY OF THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE POPULATION José María Bermúdez de Castro and María Martinón-Torres Marina Lozano Susana Sarmiento and Ana Muela This article analyzes the mortality profiles of two Middle Pleistocene hominin samples, one from the Sima de los Huesos (SH) site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain) (MNI = 28), and another (MNI = 26) selected from various other European sites. In the SH mortality distribution, 64 percent of the individuals died between the ages of 11 and 20 years, but there is only one individual under the age of 10. In the sample from other European sites, there are four individuals under 10, but the number of individuals in the 11–20 year range is lower (39 percent) than in the SH sample. In both samples, the percentage of individuals who died after the age of 30 is very similar (14.3 percent in SH and 11.5 percent at the other sites), and the differences between both distributions (when infants and children are excluded) are not statistically significant. This article considers whether these mortality distributions follow a catastrophic or an attritional pattern. The discussion is presented in the framework of our current knowledge of the life history pattern of the Homo heidelbergensis species and the age structure and mortality profile of living foraging groups. CROSSING DESERTS AND AVOIDING SEAS: ATERIAN NORTH AFRICAN-EUROPEAN RELATIONS Elena A.A. Garcea This article presents and discusses the most recent data on the Aterian in Africa and correlates them with the archaeological evidence from southwestern Europe. It provides an Africanist’s interpretation of the cultural development of the Aterian in North Africa and considers one of the Aterian’s putative passageways to Europe argued by the Out-of-Africa dispersal model—the Strait of Gibraltar. Several scenarios for Aterian interaction with southwestern Europe are discussed. The first three review the possibility of Aterian migration and/or diffusion to southwestern Europe and supposed relations with Solutrean, Aurignacian, and Mousterian populations. The fourth, and most likely, scenario considers convergence between North Africa and southwestern Europe populations and examines the most recent technological, anthropological, organizational, and environmental evidence for this idea. A COGNITIVE AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE CHÂTELPERRONIAN Frederick L. Coolidge and Thomas Wynn Châtelperronian is the term used for a distinctive archaeological assemblage found in areas of southwestern France and northern Spain. Neandertals appear to have been responsible for the artifacts, but some of the artifact types represent a significant change from those used in the previous 200,000 years of Neandertal culture. Two alternative interpretations have been proposed for this change—one emphasizing independent development and the other emphasizing imitation of modern humans. We propose a slightly different scenario in which Neandertals created the artifacts through a form of observational learning known as emulation. This form of learning fits an account of Neandertal thinking that is derived from cognitive models of working memory and long-term working memory and is enriched by examples from neuropsychology. THE KENNEWICK FOLLIES: “NEW” THEORIES ABOUT THE PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS Stuart J. Fiedel Recent archaeological finds and anthropological analyses of crania and molecular data have been widely construed as requiring radical revision of conventional views of Native American origins. However, ostensibly fresh ideas about multiple early migrations to the New World only reprise outmoded racialist speculations. The “Clovis-first” model, which entails rapid colonization from Beringia beginning ca. 13,500 cal BP, remains the most cogent interpretation of the archaeological and skeletal record. This model also is congruent with molecular genetic data that indicate a single Amerind migration and point clearly to southern middle Siberia as the ancestral homeland. Artifacts and Ideas: Essays in Archaeology. Bruce G. Trigger. New Brunswick, NJ:
Transaction Publishers, 2003, 243 pp. $39.95, cloth. El Señorío de Chiribaya en la Costa Sur del Perú. Maria Cecilia Lozada
and Jane E. Buikstra. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2002, 194 pp. $8.50, paper. Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean
Knotted-String Records.
Gary Urton.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003, Tikal: Dynasties, Foreigners, and Affairs of State;
Advancing Maya Archaeology. Jeremy A. Sabloff,
ed. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2003, 419 pp.
$24.95, paper. Mexican Highland Cultures: Archaeological Researches
at Teotihuacan, Calpulalpan, and Chalchicomula in 1934–35. Sigvald Linne. Tuscaloosa:
University of Alabama Press, 2003, 236 pp., 6 illustrations. $70.00, cloth; $34.95, paper. Boundaries and Territories: Prehistory of the
U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico. M. Elisa Villalpando, ed. Tempe:
Arizona State University, 2002, 189 pp., 15 maps, 46 figures, 12 tables. $27.50, paper. Defending the Dinétah: Pueblitos in the Ancestral
Navajo Heartland. Ronald H. Towner.
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003,
208 pp., 49 illustrations. $35.00, cloth. The Historic Period at Bandelier National Monument. Monica L. Smith.
Intermountain Cultural Resources Management Professional Paper 63; Contribution 11 to the Bandelier Archaeological Survey.
Santa Fe, NM: National Park Service, Department of the Interior,
2002, 102 pp. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Gregory L. Possehl. Walnut Creek, Calif.:
AltaMira Press, 2002,
276 pp. $80.00, cloth; $29.95, paper. La Cova dels Cavalls en el Barranc de la Valltorta. Rafael Martínez Valle and Valentín Villaverde Bonilla, eds. Tírig, Spain:
Museu de la Valltorta, 2002, 210 pp. 18 €,
paper. The Human Fossil Record, vol. 2:
Craniodental Morphology of the Genus Homo (Africa and Asia). Jeffrey H. Schwartz and Ian Tattersall. New York:
Wiley Publishers, 2003, 616 pp. $195.00, cloth. On Fertile Ground: A Natural History of Human
Reproduction. Peter T. Ellison. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2003, 358 pp. $19.95, paper. Race, Nature and the Politics of Difference. Donald S. Moore, Jake Kosek,
and Anand Pandian, eds. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2003, 488 pp. $84.05, cloth; $24.95, paper. Worked Over: The Corporate Sabotage of
an American Community. Dimitra Doukas. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2003, 199 pp. $39.95, cloth; $18.95, paper. Working Out in Japan: Shaping the Female
Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs. Laura Spielvogel. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2003, 264 pp. $19.95, paper. Dreaming and the Self: New Perspectives on
Subjectivity, Identity, and Emotion. Jeannette Marie Mageo,ed. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2003, 234 pp. $59.50, cloth; $19.95, paper. Motherhood Lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy
Loss in America. Linda L. Layne. New York:
Routledge Publishing, 2003, 354 pp. $24.95, paper. Rural Society in the Age of Reason: An Archaeology of
the Emergence of Modern Life in the Southern Scottish Highlands. Chris Dalglish. New York:
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2003, 257 pp. $96.00, cloth; $48.00, paper. Place and Spirit in Taiwan: Tudi Gong in the Stories,
Strategies and Memories of Everyday Life. Alessandro Dell’Orto. New York:
Routledge, 2002, 300 pp. $75.00, cloth. Ethnohistory: Emerging Histories in Madagascar. Jeffrey C. Kaufmann,ed.
Ethnohistory, special issue, vol. 48, nos. 1-2. Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press, 2001, 379 pp. $15.00, paper. The Guaraní under Spanish Rule in the
Rio de la Plata. Barbara Ganson. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003, 304 pp., 13 illustrations, 1 map. $65.00, cloth. Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling and Structure in the
Early Historic Period. Molly Lee and Gregory Reinhardt. Fairbanks:
University of Alaska Press, 2003, 216 pp. $45.00, cloth. Scenes from the High Desert: Julian Steward’s Life
and Theory. Virginia Kerns. Champaign:
University of Illinois Press, 2003, 414 pp. $45.00, cloth. |
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