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Human Biology and the Origins of Homo: Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 6

Author(s): Leslie C. AielloReviewed work(s):Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 53, No. S6, Human Biology and the Origins of Homo(December 2012), pp. S267-S268Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for AnthropologicalResearch

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Current Anthropology Volume 53, Supplement 6, December 2012 S267

2012 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved. 0011-3204/2012/53S6-0001$10.00. DOI: 10.1086/667709

Human Biology and the Origins ofHomoWenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 6

by Leslie C. Aiello

Human Biology and the Origins of Homo is the 143rd Wenner-

Gren Symposium and the sixth to be published as an open-

access supplement of Current Anthropology. The symposium

was organized by Susan C. Anton (New York University) and

Leslie C. Aiello (Wenner-Gren Foundation) and was held

March 411, 2011, at the Tivoli Palacio de Seteais in Sintra,

Portugal (fig. 1).

Wenner-Gren symposia are intensive week-long workshopmeetings that traditionally focus on big questions in the field

of anthropology, and the origin of Homo is currently one of

the biggest questions in the field of hominin paleontology.

Although Homo erectushas been known since the 1890s (Pith-

ecanthropus erectus; Dubois 1894) and Homo habilis was an-

nounced almost 50 years ago (Leakey, Tobias, and Napier

1964), new fossil discoveries in the last decade have compli-

cated our understanding of early Homo and challenged our

long-held assumptions about its similarities and differences

to the australopiths as well as to later members of our genus.

This necessarily influences our interpretations for the origin

and evolution ofHomoand also highlights the need for a newframework for interpretation of the hard evidence.

The purpose of this symposium was to meet this challenge.

The aims were to assess what is currently known about the

fossil evidence and the environmental context of earlyHomo

and to set the stage for integrated, multidisciplinary studies

to provide a framework for interpretation of the hard evi-

dence. The basic premise of the meeting was that it is essential

to have a solid understanding of how and why modern hu-

mans and other animals vary in order to understand the

adaptive shifts involved with the evolution of Homo. Partic-

ipants in the symposium included paleoanthropologists, hu-

man biologists, behavorialists, and modelers, and, to our

knowledge, this is the first time that such a varied multidis-

ciplinary group has gathered to focus attention on a major

question in hominin evolution.

The collection of papers is introduced by Aiello and Anton

(2012), who summarize the current state of our knowledge

about the origin of Homo, integrate the varied contributions,

and give a taste of the potential that this approach has for

Leslie C. Aiello is President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for

Anthropological Research (470 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor North,

New York, New York 10016, U.S.A.).

human evolution. The concluding paper by Anton and Snod-

grass (2012) draws from the wealth of ideas in this collection

and provides a fresh perspective on three important shifts in

human evolutionary history: (1) the emergence of Homo; (2)

the transition between non-erectusearlyHomoand H. erectus;

and (3) the appearance of regional variation in H. erectus. It

concludes with a new positive feedback model for the origin

and evolution of Homo that involves critical elements suchas cooperative breeding, changes in diet, body composition,

and extrinsic mortality risk that drive life history.

This symposium builds on the long history of the Wenner-

Gren Foundation with hominin evolution. Foundation in-

terest began in the 1940s with The Early Man in Africa

program (19471955) that was initiated by Fr. Teilhard de

Chardin to call attention to the extraordinary significance of

the human origins in southern Africa, to date the southern

Africa cave deposits, and to facilitate multidisciplinary team

research. The Origins of Man program followed (1965

1972), under the guidance of Walter William (Bill) Bishop,

C. K. (Bob) Brain, J. Desmond Clark, Francis Clark Howell,

Louis Leakey, and Sherwood Washburn, and the Foundationcontinues to be an enthusiastic supporter of human origins

research (see Wood 2011 for a history of this support).

Since the late 1950s, the Foundation has held a number of

paleoanthropological symposia that have led to landmark

publications. These include Social Life of Early Man (Wash-

burn 1961), African Ecology and Human Evolution (Howell

and Bourliere 1963), Classification and Human Evolution

(Washburn 1964), Background to Evolution in Africa (Bishop

and Clark 1967; Clark 1967), Man the Hunter(Lee and Devore

1968), Calibration of Hominoid Evolution: Recent Advances in

Isotopic and Other Dating Methods as Applicable to the Origin

of Man(Bishop and Miller 1972), After the Australopithecines:Stratigraphy, Ecology, and Culture Change in the Middle Pleis-

tocene(Butzer and Isaac 1975), Earliest Man and Environments

in the Lake Rudolf Basin: Stratigraphy, Paleoecology, and Evo-

lution (Coppens et al. 1976), and Early Hominids of Africa

(Jolly 1978).

To continue this tradition, the Wenner-Gren Foundation

is always looking for big questions and innovative new di-

rections in all areas of anthropology for future Foundation-

sponsored and Foundation-organized symposium meetings

and eventual CA publication. We encourage anthropologists

to contact us with their ideas for future meetings. Information

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S268 Current Anthropology Volume 53, Supplement 6, December 2012

Figure 1. Participants in the symposium Human Biology and the Origins of Homo. Front: Laurie Obbink, Susan Anton, LeslieAiello, Rick Potts, Andrea Migliano, Jonathan Wells, Peter Ungar. Middle: Katie MacKinnon, Jennifer Smith, Karin Isler, KarenSteudel, Susan Pfeiffer. Back: Josh Snodgrass, Trent Holliday, Gary Schwartz, Tom Schoenemann, Herman Pontzer, Carel van Schaik,Mike Plavcan, Chris Kuzawa, Chris Rainwater, Rick Bribiescas. A color version of this photo appears in the online edition of CurrentAnthropology.

about the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Symposium pro-

gram can be found on the Foundations Web site (http://

wennergren.org/programs/international-symposia) .

References CitedAiello, Leslie C., and Susan C. Anton. 2012. Human biology and the origins

of Homo: an introduction to supplement 6. Current Anthropology 53(S6):S269S277.

Anton, Susan C., and J. Josh Snodgrass. 2012. Origins and evolution of genus

Homo: new perspectives. Current Anthropology 53(S6):S479S496.Bishop, Walter William, and J. Desmond Clark, eds. 1967. Background to

evolution in Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Bishop, Walter William, and J. A. Miller, eds. 1972. Calibration of hominoid

evolution: recent advances in isotopic and other dating methods as applicable

to the origin of man. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.Butzer, Karl W., and Glynn L. Isaac, eds. 1975. After the australopithecines:

stratigraphy, ecology, and culture change in the middle Pleistocene. New York:de Gruyter.

Clark, J. Desmond, ed. 1967. Atlas of African prehistory. Chicago: University

of Chicago Press.Coppens, Yves, Francis Clark Howell, Glynn L. I saac, and Richard E. F. Leakey,

eds. 1976. Earliest man and environments in the Lake Rudolf Basin: stratig-

raphy, paleoecology, and evolution. Prehistory Archeology and Ecology Series.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dubois, Eugene. 1894. Pithecanthropus erectus, eine menschenaehnliche Uber-

egangsform aus Java. Batavia: Landesdruckerei.

Howell, Francis Clark, and Francois Bourliere, eds. 196 3. African ecology and

human evolution. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 36 (Wen-

ner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research). Chicago: Aldine.

Jolly, Clifford J. ed. 1978. Early hominids of Africa. New York: St. Martins.

Leakey, Louis S. B., Phillip V. Tobias, and John R. Napier. 1964. A new species

of the genus Homo from Olduvai Gorge. Nature 202:79.

Lee, Richard B., and Irven DeVore, eds. 1968. Man the hunter. Chicago:Aldine.

Washburn, Sherwood L., ed. 1961. Social life of early man. Viking Fund

Publications in Anthropology, no. 31 (Wenner-Gren Foundation for An-

thropological Research) Chicago: Aldine.

. 1964. Classification and human evolution. Viking Fund Publications

in Anthropology, no. 37 (Wenner-Gren Foundation for AnthropologicalResearch) Chicago: Aldine.

Wood, Bernard. 2011. Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of human evolution. Chich-

ester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

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