Behavioral Modernity

Just a couple of things I'd like to emphasize from last couple of days' discussion. The term behavioral modernity is important because it transparently states that the peoples alive during the times were behaving in ways very similar to how contemporary humans do.  While most humans alive today aren't making their livings through hunting and gathering, humans today do get a lot of resources out of their environment, live in spatially structured settlements, and use symbols to communicate about lots of things, including social information.  This includes communicating senses of identity--who am I, who do I identify with and who do I consider different from me. The specific answers to those questions will differ greatly between you and an Upper Paleolithic person, but you're asking the same questions.

Another quick point. Most of my illustrations come from the European Upper Paleolithic, but most of the developments associated with Behavioral Modernity appeared in Africa first, sometimes tens of thousands of years earlier.  As we'll get into on Monday, I think it's because the demographic context of humans first shifted in Africa, requiring some of the changes we've been talking about.