The Homebase theory
Glynn Isaac Defines "the Homebase Hypothesis"It has been argued since Darwin's day that the great apes were man's nearest living relatives, and as evidence emerged during the late 1960's of the hunting propensities and simple tool use of chimpanzees (Goodall 1986), anthropologists found more and more reason to presume similarity of behavior between modern (e.g., Pan troglodytes or Pan panicus) and ancient varieties of hominids (Tanner 1981). Still, modern humans are not chimps. Substantial differences of behavior exist between the great apes and hominids, and it was the late Glynn Isaac's notion that these differences began early in our history. Specifically, he noted that the modern human "habitually carries tools, food and other possessions either with his arms or in containers," communicates with other humans by a spoken language, that the acquisition and sharing of food is "a corporate responsibility," that modern human hunter-gathers conduct their foraging operations in the vicinity of communal gathering places or "home bases," and that humans seek to acquire high-protein foodstuffs by hunting or fishing. None of these are common behavior among the apes or are practiced to the extent that they are among Homo sap
We are possessed of families and kin. Stern, Nicola 1993, "The structure of the Lower Pleistocene archaeological record: a case study from the Koobi Fora formation," in Current Anthropology, vol. " (Isaac and Harris 1978:85) In his Scientific American article that year, using the same data, Isaac was much less tentative. Faunal Remains from Klasies River Mouth, New York, Academic Press. " (Binford, 1985:301) The part of conventional wisdom that most annoyed Binford was evidently what another author called "the hunting hypothesis" (Ardrey 1976). 1981, On Becoming Human, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. The Koobi Fora "Homebases"Meanwhile, that frontal attack was going on in East Africa, much of it under Isaac's direction at the Koobi Fora research project, of which he had been co-leader (with Richard Leakey) since 1970. 2 million years and were probably created by Homo erectus. Lewis Binford's Initial CriticismsIn 1977 Isaac published a monograph on Olorgesailie. --- 1985, "Human ancestors: changing views of their behavior," in Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, vol.
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Acceptance Essays
