Editing Human evolution (section)

== Transition to behavioral modernity ==
{{Further|Behavioral modernity}}

Anthropologists describe [[modern human behavior]] to include cultural and behavioral traits such as specialization of tools, use of jewellery and images (such as cave drawings), organization of living space, rituals (such as grave gifts), specialized hunting techniques, exploration of less hospitable geographical areas, and [[barter]] trade networks, as well as more general traits such as language and complex symbolic thinking. Debate continues as to whether a "revolution" led to modern humans ("big bang of human consciousness"), or whether the evolution was more gradual.<ref name="Mcbrearty_Brooks" />

Until about 50,000–40,000 years ago, the use of stone tools seems to have progressed stepwise. Each phase (''H.&nbsp;habilis'', ''H.&nbsp;ergaster'', ''H.&nbsp;neanderthalensis'') marked a new technology, followed by very slow development until the next phase. Currently paleoanthropologists are debating whether these ''Homo'' species possessed some or many modern human behaviors. They seem to have been culturally conservative, maintaining the same technologies and foraging patterns over very long periods.

Around 50,000 [[Before Present|BP]], human culture started to evolve more rapidly. The transition to behavioral modernity has been characterized by some as a "'''Great Leap Forward'''",{{sfn|Diamond|1999|p=39}} or as the "Upper Palaeolithic Revolution",<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bar-Yosef |first=Ofer |author-link=Ofer Bar-Yosef |date=October 2002 |title=The Upper Paleolithic Revolution |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=31 |pages=363–393 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085416 |issn=0084-6570}}</ref> due to the sudden appearance in the archaeological record of distinctive signs of modern behavior and [[big game hunting]].<ref name="oppenheimer" /> Evidence of behavioral modernity significantly earlier also exists from Africa, with older evidence of abstract imagery, widened subsistence strategies, more sophisticated tools and weapons, and other "modern" behaviors, and many scholars have recently argued that the transition to modernity occurred sooner than previously believed.<ref name="Mcbrearty_Brooks" /><ref name="Henshilwood etal 2002" /><ref name="Henshilwood Marean 2003">{{cite journal |last1=Henshilwood |first1=Christopher |last2=Marean |first2=Curtis |date=2003 |title=The Origin of Modern Human Behavior: Critique of the Models and Their Test Implications |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=44 |issue=5 |pages=627–651 |pmid=14971366 |s2cid=11081605 |doi=10.1086/377665}}</ref><ref name="Backwell">{{cite journal |last1=Backwell |first1=L. |last2=d'Errico |first2=F. |last3=Wadley |first3=L. |date=2008 |title=Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=35 |issue=6 |pages=1566–1580 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2007.11.006 |bibcode=2008JArSc..35.1566B}}</ref>

Other scholars consider the transition to have been more gradual, noting that some features had already appeared among archaic African ''Homo sapiens'' 300,000–200,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nowell |first=April |date=October 2010 |title=Defining Behavioral Modernity in the Context of Neandertal and Anatomically Modern Human Populations |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=39 |pages=437–452 |issn=0084-6570 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.105113}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=d'Errico |first1=Francesco |last2=Stringer |first2=Chris B. |date=April 12, 2011 |title=Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the emergence of modern cultures? |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]] |volume=366 |issue=1567 |pages=1060–1069 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2010.0340 |issn=0962-8436 |pmc=3049097 |pmid=21357228}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Chatterjee |first=Rhitu |title=Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up In Kenya |date=March 15, 2018 |work=[[NPR]] |url= https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/15/593591796/scientists-are-amazed-by-stone-age-tools-they-dug-up-in-kenya |access-date=March 15, 2018 |archive-date=March 15, 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180315193655/https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/15/593591796/scientists-are-amazed-by-stone-age-tools-they-dug-up-in-kenya |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="The Atlantic-555674">{{cite news |last=Yong |first=Ed |author-link=Ed Yong |title=A Cultural Leap at the Dawn of Humanity – New finds from Kenya suggest that humans used long-distance trade networks, sophisticated tools, and symbolic pigments right from the dawn of our species |date=March 15, 2018 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/a-deeper-origin-of-complex-human-cultures/555674/ |access-date=March 15, 2018 |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201117002023/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/a-deeper-origin-of-complex-human-cultures/555674/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Brooks">{{Cite journal |title=Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=360 |issue=6384 |pages=90–94 |date=2018 |pmid=29545508 |doi=10.1126/science.aao2646 |last1=Brooks |first1=A. S. |last2=Yellen |first2=J. E. |last3=Potts |first3=R. |last4=Behrensmeyer |first4=A. K. |last5=Deino |first5=A. L. |last6=Leslie |first6=D. E. |last7=Ambrose |first7=S. H. |last8=Ferguson |first8=J. R. |last9=d'Errico |first9=F. |last10=Zipkin |first10=A. M. |last11=Whittaker |first11=S. |last12=Post |first12=J. |last13=Veatch |first13=E. G. |last14=Foecke |first14=K. |last15=Clark |first15=J. B. |bibcode=2018Sci...360...90B |s2cid=14051717 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Recent evidence suggests that the Australian Aboriginal population separated from the African population 75,000 years ago, and that they made a {{convert|160|km|abbr=on}} sea journey 60,000 years ago, which may diminish the significance of the Upper Paleolithic Revolution.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Morten |last1=Rasmussen |first2=Xiaosen |last2=Guo |first3=Yong |last3=Wang |first4=Kirk E. |last4=Lohmueller |first5=Simon |last5=Rasmussen |first6=Anders |last6=Albrechtsen |first7=Line |last7=Skotte |first8=Stinus |last8=Lindgreen |first9=Mait |last9=Metspalu|first10=Thibaut |last10=Jombart |first11=Toomas |last11=Kivisild |first12=Weiwei |last12=Zhai |first13=Anders |last13=Eriksson |first14=Andrea |last14=Manica |first15=Ludovic |last15=Orlando |first16=Francisco M. |last16=De La Vega |first17=Silvana |last17=Tridico |first18=Ene |last18=Metspalu |first19=Kasper |last19=Nielsen |first20=María C. |last20=Ávila-Arcos |first21=J. Víctor |last21=Moreno-Mayar |first22=Craig |last22=Muller |first23=Joe |last23=Dortch |first24=M. Thomas P. |last24=Gilbert |first25=Ole |last25=Lund |first26=Agata |last26=Wesolowska |first27=Monika |last27=Karmin |first28=Lucy A. |last28=Weinert |first29=Bo |last29=Wang|first30=Jun |last30=Li |first31=Shuaishuai |last31=Tai |first32=Fei |last32=Xiao |first33=Tsunehiko |last33=Hanihara |first34=George |last34=van Driem |first35=Aashish R. |last35=Jha |first36=François-Xavier |last36=Ricaut |first37=Peter |last37=de Knijff |first38=Andrea B. |last38=Migliano |first39=Irene |last39=Gallego Romero|first40=Karsten |last40=Kristiansen |first41=David M. |last41=Lambert |first42=Søren |last42=Brunak |first43=Peter |last43=Forster |first44=Bernd |last44=Brinkmann |first45=Olaf |last45=Nehlich |first46=Michael |last46=Bunce |first47=Michael |last47=Richards |first48=Ramneek |last48=Gupta |first49=Carlos D. |last49=Bustamante|first50=Anders |last50=Krogh |first51=Robert A. |last51=Foley |first52=Marta M. |last52=Lahr |first53=Francois |last53=Balloux |first54=Thomas |last54=Sicheritz-Pontén |first55=Richard |last55=Villems |first56=Rasmus |last56=Nielsen |first57=Jun |last57=Wang |first58=Eske |last58=Willerslev |display-authors=6 |title=An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=334 |issue=6052 |pages=94–98 |date=2011 |doi=10.1126/science.1211177 |pmid=21940856 |pmc=3991479  |bibcode=2011Sci...334...94R}}</ref>

Modern humans started burying their dead, making clothing from animal hides, hunting with more sophisticated techniques (such as using [[trapping pit|pit traps]] or driving animals off cliffs), and [[cave painting]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ambrose |first=Stanley H. |date=March 2, 2001 |title=Paleolithic Technology and Human Evolution |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=291 |issue=5509 |pages=1748–1753 |bibcode=2001Sci...291.1748A |doi=10.1126/science.1059487 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=11249821 |s2cid=6170692}}</ref> As human culture advanced, different populations innovated existing technologies: artifacts such as fish hooks, buttons, and bone needles show signs of cultural variation, which had not been seen prior to 50,000 BP. Typically, the older ''H.&nbsp;neanderthalensis'' populations did not vary in their technologies, although the [[Chatelperronian]] assemblages have been found to be Neanderthal imitations of ''H.&nbsp;sapiens'' [[Aurignacian]] technologies.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mellars |first=P. |date=2010 |title=Neanderthal symbolism and ornament manufacture: The bursting of a bubble? |journal=Proc Natl Acad Sci USA |volume=107 |issue=47 |pages=20147–20148 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1014588107 |pmid=21078972 |pmc=2996706 |bibcode=2010PNAS..10720147M |doi-access=free}}</ref>