Fuentes Agustín, Kissel Marc, Spikins Penny, Molopyane Keneiloe, Hawks John, Berger Lee R
Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University, Boone, United States.
Elife. 2025 Sep 4;12:RP89125. doi: 10.7554/eLife.89125.
Explorations in the Dinaledi Subsystem of the Rising Star cave system have yielded some of the earliest evidence of a mortuary practice in hominins. Because the evidence is attributable to the small-brained , these analyses call into question several assumptions about behavioral and cognitive evolution in Pleistocene hominins. The evidence from the Dinaledi Subsystem, and at other locations across the Rising Star cave system may widen the phylogenetic breadth of mortuary, and possibly funerary, behaviors. These discoveries may also associate the creation of meaning-making and increased behavioral complexity with a small-brained hominin species, challenging certain assertions about the role of encephalization and cognition in hominin and human evolution. We suggest that the hominin socio-cognitive niche is more diverse than previously thought. If true, technological, meaning-making activities, and cognitive advances in human evolution are not associated solely with the evolution of larger-brained members of the genus .Evidence for complex behaviors associated with a small-brained hominin suggests that large brains are not solely responsible for the manifestation of human-like behavioral complexity.
对新星洞穴系统迪纳莱迪子系统的探索已经产生了一些关于古人类丧葬习俗的最早证据。由于这些证据可归因于脑容量较小的古人类，这些分析对关于更新世古人类行为和认知进化的几个假设提出了质疑。来自迪纳莱迪子系统以及新星洞穴系统其他地点的证据可能会拓宽丧葬行为（甚至可能是葬礼行为）的系统发育广度。这些发现还可能将意义构建的产生和行为复杂性的增加与一个脑容量较小的古人类物种联系起来，挑战了某些关于脑容量增大和认知在古人类及人类进化中的作用的论断。我们认为古人类的社会认知生态位比以前认为的更加多样。如果这是真的，那么人类进化中的技术、意义构建活动和认知进步并非仅与该属中脑容量较大的成员的进化相关。与脑容量较小的古人类相关的复杂行为的证据表明，大脑并非是人类似行为复杂性表现的唯一原因。
