Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic TY - JOUR JO - Anthropologie (Brno) TI - The domestication of humans AU - Bednarik RG Y1 - 2008 VL - 46 IS - 1 PB - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic SN - 0323-1119 SP - 1 EP - 17 KW - Final Pleistocene KW - Modern human KW - Neanderthal KW - Paleoanthropology KW - Material culture KW - Genetics KW - Sexual dimorphism KW - Selective breeding N2 - N2 - 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. ER -