Today, breakthroughs in genetics may provide anthropologists with valuable insight into what happened all those years ago and why.
Richard Klein, a professor of anthropological sciences at Stanford, has an explanation, albeit a controversial one: ''I think there was a biological change - a genetic mutation of some kind that promoted the fully modern ability to create and innovate.'' Klein will present his perspective Feb. 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver.
His comments are part of the symposium ''Revolution and Evolution in Modern Human Origins: When, Where and Why?'' which also will include talks by Alison S. Brooks (George Washington University and the Smithsonian Institution), Terrence Deacon (University of California-Berkeley), Francesco D'Errico, (Institut de Prhistoire, Universit de Bordeaux), Richard Potts (Smithsonian Institution), Mary Stiner (University of Arizona) and Wentzel van Huyssteen (Princeton Theological Seminary).
For the past 35 years, Klein has traveled to South Africa at least once a year to study the change that spurred human creativity. ''When you look at the archaeological record before 50,000 years ago, it's remarkably homogeneous,'' he says. ''There are no geographically delineated groups of artifacts.'' Artifacts made by modern humans of that era in Africa closely resemble those found in France, made by Neanderthals.
Then something happened.
''Suddenly, modern-looking people began to behave in a modern way, in producing art and jewelry and doing a whole variety of other things that they hadn't done before,'
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Contact: Dawn Levy
dawnlevy@stanford.edu
650-725-1944
Stanford University
15-Feb-2003