Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AH-GCOLSYM (Past and present colour symbolism among African hunter-gatherers.)
Período documentado: 2021-09-01 hasta 2023-08-31
How did we become a symbolic species? The question is of societal interest because different proposed answers have implications for how we understand ourselves – as citizens with political agency, or as subjects to be managed.
The most significant behavioural change during our African speciation is arguably the establishment of habitual use of red ochre at ~160 ka, roughly at the end of the process (Dapschauskas et al. 2022). For theoretical and empirical reasons, this was interpreted as a proxy of habitual, body-painted, group rituals, considered a necessary – possibly sufficient – condition for inferring symbolic culture, a domain of shared fictions. Predictions derived from two models of the evolution of group ritual were evaluated, somewhat inconclusively. I was a co-author to one, which arguably predicted their finding 27 years earlier. This independent interpretation of the ochre record may mark a paradigm shift in ‘origins’ research. Key to further constraining this interpretation will be whether a dialogue opens between the two, deeply divided wings of anthropology – evolutionary and ‘social’ (symbolic culture assumed).
The project's objective was to provoke and facilitate such dialogue, through three academic interventions addressing whether the uniformitarian principle might apply in the symbolic domain.
1/ An investigation and analysis of the ethnographic record of African hunter-gatherer ritual uses of red substances and associated beliefs. This required a pan-African synthesis.
The goals were: a/ to fill a knowledge gap, b/ identify differences and commonalities, c/see if a more conclusive evaluation of evolutionary models were possible.
2/ New insights on African hunter-gatherer cosmologies, through preliminary analysis of aspects of unpublished Hadza myths (Tanzania), drawing upon Elena Mouriki’s recordings, transcriptions, and translations from unfinished research. The focus concerns a supernatural being connected to game animals and women, with some striking correspondences (and differences) to a similar character in /Xam mythology (northern Cape).
3/ Synthesis across relevant aspects of the ethnographic, archaeological, and fossil records, engaging with models' predictions about how we became a symbolic species. A planned aspect of this synthesis was to address a technical issue raised by Dapschauskas and colleagues (concerning brain-size increase), used to make the judgement that their finding did not corroborate our temporal prediction.
At the end of the action, it is concluded that a limited application of the Uniformitarian Principle to the symbolic domain is justified. The main evidence comes from what African hunter-gatherers say about, and do with, red substances in ritual contexts. The dominant symbolic theme is a metaphoric relationship between women’s reproduction and men’s hunting, expressed as a form of ‘blood’ symbolism establishing rules of respect – that some things are sacred. Common ground that provides a ritual grammar in other ritualised contexts. This is consistent with a long tradition of social anthropological theorising, recast in evolutionary terms by the Female Cosmetic Coalitions hypothesis. It also offers the most parsimonious explanation for the shift from irregular to habitual use of red ochre, interpreted as the continent-wide stabilization of shared fictions, through the mechanism of group ritual.
The most significant behavioural change during our African speciation is arguably the establishment of habitual use of red ochre at ~160 ka, roughly at the end of the process (Dapschauskas et al. 2022). For theoretical and empirical reasons, this was interpreted as a proxy of habitual, body-painted, group rituals, considered a necessary – possibly sufficient – condition for inferring symbolic culture, a domain of shared fictions. Predictions derived from two models of the evolution of group ritual were evaluated, somewhat inconclusively. I was a co-author to one, which arguably predicted their finding 27 years earlier. This independent interpretation of the ochre record may mark a paradigm shift in ‘origins’ research. Key to further constraining this interpretation will be whether a dialogue opens between the two, deeply divided wings of anthropology – evolutionary and ‘social’ (symbolic culture assumed).
The project's objective was to provoke and facilitate such dialogue, through three academic interventions addressing whether the uniformitarian principle might apply in the symbolic domain.
1/ An investigation and analysis of the ethnographic record of African hunter-gatherer ritual uses of red substances and associated beliefs. This required a pan-African synthesis.
The goals were: a/ to fill a knowledge gap, b/ identify differences and commonalities, c/see if a more conclusive evaluation of evolutionary models were possible.
2/ New insights on African hunter-gatherer cosmologies, through preliminary analysis of aspects of unpublished Hadza myths (Tanzania), drawing upon Elena Mouriki’s recordings, transcriptions, and translations from unfinished research. The focus concerns a supernatural being connected to game animals and women, with some striking correspondences (and differences) to a similar character in /Xam mythology (northern Cape).
3/ Synthesis across relevant aspects of the ethnographic, archaeological, and fossil records, engaging with models' predictions about how we became a symbolic species. A planned aspect of this synthesis was to address a technical issue raised by Dapschauskas and colleagues (concerning brain-size increase), used to make the judgement that their finding did not corroborate our temporal prediction.
At the end of the action, it is concluded that a limited application of the Uniformitarian Principle to the symbolic domain is justified. The main evidence comes from what African hunter-gatherers say about, and do with, red substances in ritual contexts. The dominant symbolic theme is a metaphoric relationship between women’s reproduction and men’s hunting, expressed as a form of ‘blood’ symbolism establishing rules of respect – that some things are sacred. Common ground that provides a ritual grammar in other ritualised contexts. This is consistent with a long tradition of social anthropological theorising, recast in evolutionary terms by the Female Cosmetic Coalitions hypothesis. It also offers the most parsimonious explanation for the shift from irregular to habitual use of red ochre, interpreted as the continent-wide stabilization of shared fictions, through the mechanism of group ritual.
The first 4 months were spent in a forest hunter-gatherer literature review. Preliminary analyses were presented to a public audience and a work-in-progress social anthropology seminar. Manuscript submission was held-over until the imminent publication of the Dapschauskas paper. In the meantime, work began on Mouriki's Hadzabe material. Research funds were allocated to Mouriki and Susan Zengu to facilitate this. A preliminary analysis was delivered to a public audience, and re-purposed as a draft academic paper. This manuscript has not progressed further, partly due to disruptions in other parts of the project, partly because the work of Mouriki and Zengu was late to get started and is only ending now. Work on a co-authored manuscript revision will begin shortly.
Preliminary work on the synthesising project took the form of a critique of the framing arguments to Graeber and Wengrow's 'The Dawn of Everything' (DOE), presented at a conference in July 2022. This resulted in an invitation to present an expanded, journal version. For reasons outlined below, work on this only got underway in the November 2023, was completed in April 2024, and is just about to be submitted.
In March 2023, the African pigment manuscript was rejected. I had just completed evaluating the dating evidence bearing on the African Middle Pleistocene fossils. I decided that the cross-cultural analysis had to take took priority. A revised paper was submitted to another journal in August 2023. The palaeontological dating evaluation was incorporated into this as (prospective) supplementary online material. In February 2024, it got through peer-review, but with a recommendation of major revisions. These were submitted in early April; I await a decision.
The results of the cross-cultural comparison and the critique of DOE were also disseminated through a conference presentation at the Society of American Archaeologists (April 2024).
Part of the plan had been to develop teaching skills. This proved over-ambitious and was scaled back to preparing and delivering two introductory lectures for an UG hunter-gatherer course (January 2023), facilitating reading workshop groups, and second-marking end-of-term essays.
Preliminary work on the synthesising project took the form of a critique of the framing arguments to Graeber and Wengrow's 'The Dawn of Everything' (DOE), presented at a conference in July 2022. This resulted in an invitation to present an expanded, journal version. For reasons outlined below, work on this only got underway in the November 2023, was completed in April 2024, and is just about to be submitted.
In March 2023, the African pigment manuscript was rejected. I had just completed evaluating the dating evidence bearing on the African Middle Pleistocene fossils. I decided that the cross-cultural analysis had to take took priority. A revised paper was submitted to another journal in August 2023. The palaeontological dating evaluation was incorporated into this as (prospective) supplementary online material. In February 2024, it got through peer-review, but with a recommendation of major revisions. These were submitted in early April; I await a decision.
The results of the cross-cultural comparison and the critique of DOE were also disseminated through a conference presentation at the Society of American Archaeologists (April 2024).
Part of the plan had been to develop teaching skills. This proved over-ambitious and was scaled back to preparing and delivering two introductory lectures for an UG hunter-gatherer course (January 2023), facilitating reading workshop groups, and second-marking end-of-term essays.
The state of the art in modern human origins research is the effective demise of the discrepancy paradigm, which insisted on distinguishing modern bodies from modern minds. It now seems that our speciation and the evolution of symbolic culture are closely related topics, inviting a unitary explanation. Further progress requires dialogue between the long-separated evolutionary and symbolic (social) wings of anthropology; in particular, it requires that evolutionary models generate predictions of symbolic data. If the submitted papers are accepted, particularly the first, they should provoke debate about ways this might be achieved. The proposition of 'an ideology of blood' at the root of symbolic culture - while marginal - is a venerable theoretical tradition within social anthropology, but was only recast in evolutionary terms in the mid-nineties. It appears to be successful in accounting for the most salient features of the archaeological and ethnographic records relating to ritual use of red substances, and integrating this with the palaeontological record of our speciation. The posited time-resistant syntax to the mobilisation of ritual power, an emergent property of sensitive dependance on initial conditions, where ritual power served women's material interests. These are empowering ideas for the development of democracy, participation, and science, for without a knowledge of our history, we are like cabbages in this society.
The cross-cultural paper will hopefully end the exclusion of African hunter-gatherer voices from scientific debate about how we became a symbolic species. The Hadza project continues; Elena Mouriki will complete her work with Susan Zengu shortly, analysis and co-authored writing-up will begin later in the year. The broader synthesising article will have to wait until later in the reporting period.
The cross-cultural paper will hopefully end the exclusion of African hunter-gatherer voices from scientific debate about how we became a symbolic species. The Hadza project continues; Elena Mouriki will complete her work with Susan Zengu shortly, analysis and co-authored writing-up will begin later in the year. The broader synthesising article will have to wait until later in the reporting period.