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The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 144
Synthesis
When we bring the threads together, a coherent picture emerges:
Genetics: Humanity passed through a severe bottleneck (~100–70 ka) and
then surged dramatically after ~70 ka.
Archaeology: Symbols appear in beads, engravings, and figurines just
before the demographic surge. Settlements and rituals proliferate as
populations grow.
Anthropology: Dunbar’s number sets a biological ceiling at ~150, but
symbols and rituals allowed humans to break through and scale into
thousands.
Quran, the Beacon: Revelation frames human multiplication not as
accident but as recognition, tribes made for knowing one another.
The debate between demography-first and cognition-first is resolved: cognition
was the spark, demography the flame.Without symbolic ignition, humanity
would have remained fragile sparks in Africa. With it, we became a fire
spreading across the Earth.
This synthesis lies at the heart of the Adam Paradox Hypothesis. Demography
explains how fast the fire spread. Cognition explains why it caught at all.
Bridge to Chapter 13
Numbers multiplied, networks spread, and trust scaled. Yet what made them
endure across generations was more than beads, shells, or figurines. It was
stories — myths told around fires, rituals performed in caves, narratives
encoded in symbols. In the next chapter, we will see how symbols became
traditions, how traditions became cultures, and how cultures became
civilizations.