Origins of Anatomically Modern Humans

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-2

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   2. The Problem of Modern Human Origins

      • Richard G. Klein

      Pages 3-17

3. What Are Modern Humans?

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-21

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   2. The Contributions of Southwest Asia to the Study of the Origin of Modern Humans

      • Ofer Bar-Yosef

      Pages 23-66

   3. Hominids, Energy, Environment, and Behavior in the Late Pleistocene

      • Arthur J. Jelinek

      Pages 67-92

   4. Behavioral and Cultural Changes at the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in Western Europe

      • Catherine Farizy

      Pages 93-100

   5. Ancestral Lifeways in Eurasia — The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Records

      • Olga Soffer

      Pages 101-119

   6. New Advances in the Field of Ice Age Art

      • Paul G. Bahn

      Pages 121-132

4. African Center of Origin

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-134

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   2. Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution: Our One Lucky Mother

      • Rebecca L. Cann, Olga Rickards, J. Koji Lum

      Pages 135-148

   3. Out of Africa — A Personal History

      • Christopher B. Stringer

      Pages 149-172

5. Multiregional Hypothesis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 173-174

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   2. Multiregional Evolution: A World-Wide Source for Modern Human Populations

      • Milford H. Wolpoff, Alan G. Thorne, Fred H. Smith, David W. Frayer, Geoffrey G. Pope

      Pages 175-199

   3. Archaic and Modern Homo sapiens in the Contact Zones: Evolutionary Schematics and Model Predictions

      • Tal Simmons

      Pages 201-225

   4. Samples, Species, and Speculations in the Study of Modern Human Origins

      • Fred H. Smith

      Pages 227-249

6. Synopsis and Prospectus

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 251-251

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   2. A Chronostratigraphic and Taxonomic Framework of the Origins of Modern Humans

      • F. Clark Howell

      Pages 253-319

7. Back Matter

   Pages 321-341

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This volume is based on the Field Museum of Natural History Spring System­ atics Symposium held in Chicago on May 11, 1991. The financial support of Ray and Jean Auel and of the Field Museum is gratefully acknowledged. When we teach or write, we present only those elements that support our arguments. We avoid all weak points of our debate and all the uncer­ tainties of our models. Thus, we offer hypotheses as facts. Multiauthored books like ours, which simultaneously advocate and question diverse views, avoid the pitfalls and lessen the impact of indoctrination. In this volume we analyze the anthropological and biological disagreements and the positions taken on the origins of modern humans, point out difficultieswith the inter­ pretations, and suggest that the concept of the human origin can be explained only when we first attempt to define Homo sapiens sapiens. One of the major controversies in physical anthropology concerns the geographic origin of anatomically modern humans. It is undisputed, due to the extensive research of the Leakeys and their colleagues, that the family Hominidae originated in Africa, but the geographic origin of Homo sapiens sapiens is less concretely accepted. Two schools of thought existon this topic.

• Archaic period in North America
• Evolution
• Homo sapiens
• hominid
• ice age
• late pleistocene
• paleolithic
• pleistocene

• Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA

  Matthew H. Nitecki, Doris V. Nitecki

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