Sometime in the past 100,000 years man became man-the modern panoply of traits that we associate with “culture” seem to have developed. This article posits a possible genetic reason for man’s cultural explosion (nothing new if you’ve followed the travails of the fox2p gene):
“I think there was a biological change, a genetic mutation that promoted the fully modern ability to create and innovate,” Professor Klein said. “Suddenly, modern-looking people began to behave in a modern way, producing art and jewellery and doing a variety of other things they hadn’t done before.”
Please note that some anthropologists dispute the simplistic Out-of-Africa thesis (one expansion from one population that scattered across non-Africa), and Dr. Henry Harpending brings a up very interesting point: the technology associated with “modern humans” in their expansion out of Africa into Eurasia (“mode 4”) is not found amongst the first settlers of Australia, and we know Australians have languages that no doubt fit the Chomskyian paradigm (a linguist can correct me here).
Also, on a slightly different tack on the “Out of Africa” question, check out Steve Sailer’s column up over at VDARE that starts off with Randall Kennedy’s new book Interracial Intimacies. OK, more than slightly different….
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