The domestication of humans - Bednarik - 2008

In the last few years it has become evident that the European Upper Paleolithic "replacement" model was initially based on false evidence and that most of its propositions can be or have been refuted. This paper reviews the key evidence of the model, the skeletal, archaeological and genetic factors inherent in it, and how they have failed to support the model. It is shown that the change from robust to gracile Homo sapiens occurs gradually in all four continents then occupied by humans and that there are many intermediate fossils. In Europe, it is shown; there are currently no known specimens of reasonably "modern" remains until the Gravettian, while all Early Upper Paleolithic traditions, including the Aurignacian, seem to be attributable to Robusts, such as Neanderthaloid people. The rapid gracilization of all humans of the Final Pleistocene is attributed here to suspension of natural evolutionary developments by culturally mediated breeding patterns favouring skeletal gracility.

Keywords

Final Pleistocene - Modern human - Neanderthal - Paleoanthropology - Material culture - Genetics - Sexual dimorphism - Selective breeding

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