Page 37 - Flipping book The Adam Paradox Hypothesis - Second Edition.pdf

The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 14
Counter Arguments
1.Preservation Bias: Could symbolism have existed but perished? Possibly,
but ochre, beads, and engravings survive later. If symbolism were
common earlier, we’d expect more than rare sparks (Mellars, 2006).
2.Demography: Larger populations after 70 ka helped stabilize culture, but
they don’t explain its sudden ignition (Powell, Shennan, & Thomas, 2009).
3.
“The Revolution That Wasn’t”: McBrearty & Brooks (2000) argued that
modern behaviors appeared gradually in Africa. They are right to highlight
early sparks. But the record shows clear discontinuity before 70 ka
(d’Errico & Stringer, 2011).
Conclusion: Hardware Without Software
By 200,000 years ago, humanity possessed:
Bodies like ours.
Brains equal or larger than ours.
Occasional gestures of symbolism.
But they lacked the continuity that defines symbolic culture.
As Ian Tattersall wrote:
“The anatomy of modern humans long preceded the
behavior that defines us today. The cognitive revolution was not gradual, but a
qualitative break” (Tattersall, 2012, p. 193).
The orchestra was tuned. The instruments were ready. But the music had
not yet begun.
Bridge to Chapter 3
And yet—the sparks are real. They matter. They tell us that cognition was
near the threshold, that humans were experimenting with symbols. Why did
these sparks flare and fade? Why did each attempt collapse instead of
building?
Chapter 3 turns to this question: Sparks That Fade.