The Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic as the pivotal transformation of human history

Documenta Praehistorica

Trevor Watkins¹ 

[1] University of Edinburgh

关键词: Epipalaeolithic;    Neolithic;    Southwest Asia;    cultural evolution;    cumulative culture;    cultural niche construction;   

DOI  :  10.4312/dp.45-2

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

来源: Univerza v Ljubljani * Filozofska Fakulteta / University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Philosophy

【 摘 要 】

The objective of this paper is to set the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transformation (ENT) within the truly long-term of human evolutionary history. The Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transformation take us out of the world of Palaeolithic mobile foraging into a new world, in which the scale and organisation of the social group and the tempo of socio-cultural evolution were transformed. The scale and diversity of cultural innovation and social organization can be seen to be linked in co-evolutionary feedback loops that have been characterised as ‘cumulative culture’, ‘ratcheting’ effects, or ‘runaway’ cultural evolution. The up-scaling of communities and the intensification of their interaction and networking enabled the emergence of super-communities that became the first large-scale societies, an inflection point on an accelerating curve of complex cultural, social and economic development, en route to emergent socio-political hierarchies, urbanism, kingdoms and empires.

【 授权许可】

Unknown