An American Wellspring
Expanding the Search for Homo Sapien Origins:
An Anthropological and Archaeological Examination of pre-Clovis America
By Alvah Hicks and German Dziebel
Copyright 2000 Library of Congress
A General Overview
This proposal contrast the commonly held sentiment of a "Peopling of the Americas" with a long untested premise, an autochthonous wellspring for Homo sapiens from within the Americas? This alternative suggests that "sudden replacement" of Old World Homo erectus populations is compatible with a New World source for Homo sapiens, with all human ancestors being the product of an evolutionary process isolated to the Western Hemisphere. We believe reasonable scientific objectives should compel researchers to evaluate this alternative. The following points identify historical and scientific discretion encompassing the evolution of Old World human origin theories, which have effectively nullified the evaluation of this premise. We ask you to set aside any initial skepticism and open-heartedly evaluate the rational of some of our ideas, opinions, and concerns.
1. Philosophical Interpretations: What role did European dominion play in leading later anthropologists to synthesize an Asian origin for the first Americans as the only way to explain how the Americas came to be inhabited "peopled" by Homo sapiens? The alternative we examine remains untested despite a continuing enigma that pervades a solution to, not only the first Americans, but also, the timing of our species entry into what has long been accepted as, by definition, "the Old World".
2. Historical Concepts: Evolutionary anthropologists may be unaware of the religious and historical terms first used to undermine this discretion inasmuch as the dominant scientific paradigm has steadfastly dictated an Asian origin for the first human inhabitants of the Americas. This reexamination will analyze historical and scientific penchant surreptitiously delineating an American wellspring into "a null-hypothesis". We offer compatible explanations to untested historical renderings of our common human past by adopting a new paradigm to guide these effectual observations.
3. Scientific Testing: We ask, have researchers have ever actually exercised the scientific merit of the numerous ‘Amerindian' claims of genuine autochthonous origins? Our research strategy frees this claim as theory, entrusting it to guide our observations. It asks how long have Anatomically modern humans been Homo sapiens by examining the Procrustean limitations that have us contorting dueling theories set asunder by a paradigm-bias fixed within the confines of the Old World. We believe known Old World hominid precursors of Homo erectus, although we have a great deal of paleontological and archaeological evidence of them, offer no real solutions to Homo sapien origins.
4. Behavioral Archaeology: Archaeology is the backbone of physical observation and while we have little, if any, evidence to validate an earlier then 45,000 year sapient presence anywhere in the Old World (including Border Cave and Klaisies river Mouth). Theories suggesting an exodus "Out of Africa" remain the archetype while pre-40,000 y.b.p. archaeological contexts can be attributed to Homo erectus groups. We believe the next step in archaeological theory building is to ponder the worldwide significance a validation of early early man sites from the Americas holds when scrutinizing the pre-Clovis archaeological record as a truly ancient evolutionary signature. Have we applied "paradigm growth and theory building" to the autochthonous Amerindian model in order to synthesize a greater antiquity for pre-Clovis America? Certainly, this phase of human behavior is difficult to derive from Old World Middle or Late/Upper Paleolithic contexts, the primary reason the "pre-Clovis" has taken so long to gain favor. We will examine early pre-Clovis/mid-Pleistocene sites as an ancestral condition uniquely aliened with an autochthonous inhabitancy of the Americas by "Exploring Niche Variability as a Possible Key to Evolutionary Processes Operating Within and Among Cultural Systems (Johnson and Binford, SAA Symposium, 2001)". Can we distinguish the evolution of human behavior by looking first to the widespread pre-Clovis New World reliance on bone, wood, and simple stone tools? In contrast to later Fluted Paleoindian Traditions, earlier pre-Clovis sites show there own uniformity marked by similarities supporting archaeological descriptions throughout early America (as with the remarkably well preserved site at Monte Verde-II, dated at 12, 800, and the earlier less discernible level MV-I, dated to 33,000 years). The NW hand-made clay-lined hearths often associated with pre-Clovis human activity can not be the result of geo-factual production due to the simple fact that such natural occurrences would be expected in or near Homo erectus occupations and we all know archaeologists studying the Middle Paleolithic would be exacting we accept such an observation as proof of sapient behavior. These and other pre-Clovis anomalies defy a scientific analogy less we forge an archaeological theory to guide the evolutionary significance of this ancient pattern of behavior.
5. Migration Theory: Could a modern human exodus ‘out of the Americas' have predicated niche adaptation (including bone engendered hunting technologies) as Old World human ancestors exited the Americas through the Arctic north. We suggest the origins of the Upper Paleolithic resulted from encounters between once isolated hominid species with this first occurring in southern Siberia (Otte 1996 and others). Homo sapiens later perfected the Aurignacian tool kit as they migrated west across the Russian Steppe into Europe (Leonova 1994)? This effort employs an inter-disciplinary strategy that embraces conservative archaeological and genetic dates for the arrival of our species; conforming with a ‘peopling of the Old World' by Homo sapiens ‘Amerindius' beginning ~40,000 (+ 5,000) years ago. The onset and development of Later Stone Age industries is contrasted with a human exodus ‘out of the Americas' predating the evolution of the modern lithic archaeological contexts. We believe the Upper Paleolithic was directly influenced by Homo sapiens (‘Amerindian) encounters with late Middle Paleolithic Homo erectus populations. As when a sub-population "boldly going where no [sapien] man had gone before"!
6. Geological Perspectives: Could isolation following the onset of the last Ice Age help explain why Old World behavioral advancements (distinguishing the Late/Upper Paleolithic), are missing in pre-Clovis America? If we look at migration in reverse, adaptation to a new niche (natural selection) resulting from migration through the northern corridor (out the backdoor of the Americas) would archaeologically distinguish the initial evolution of hunting cultures (bone to stone) from preceding pre-Clovis antecedents? Can missing behavioral links be explained by incorporating the Americas and pre-Clovis lifestyles into the equation? Will the "Clovis-First Model" finally "Rest in Peace" and accept the Paleoindian phase as a migration/diffusion of hunting cultures reunited with the Americas? We will bridge these and other behavioral gaps that have far to long sustained Clovis-First as "theory" and left, in its wake, unheralded the now established existence of a pre-Clovis human signature. We believe that a new hypothesis is needed to guide the diminished human production accommodating the possible evolutionary dimension underlying the temperament complimenting the pre-Clovis component. We suggest that "pre-Clovis" was precursory to the Upper Paleolithic and that Ice Age isolation delayed the arrival and diffusion of these earlier Old World advancements embodying subsequent Paleoindian Traditions.
7. Paleontological Concepts: There are historical footnotes incorporating the contention of separate hominid wellsprings for H. erectus and H. sapiens although few have examined, with earnest, the favorable evolutionary parameters a New World birthplace for humans encompasses. We do not contest the Old World fossil record of evolution and exodus of Homo erectus from Africa while we do counter that favorable paleontological locations and theories drawn from these discoveries have driven this Old World effort. Alternatively, we could agree that the New World does not contain anything similar to a Great Rift Valley while a vast majority of even the most promising NW human specimens remain undated. Could observations of the New World human fossil record suggest a "relative stability of the modern human form over time" (i.e. Keith, Kollman, and Wallace)? A theory to guide such an effort is confounded by Clovis-First and other inaccurate and/or misleading perspectives based on outdated archaeological perspectives. Most prominent is the belief that our species, Homo sapiens, could not predate our appearance in the Eastern Hemisphere. If pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas predates the Upper/Late Paleolithic then Homo sapiens originated in the Americas, period. A reevaluation of the existing fossil record and a renewed search for fossil remains would have to follow.
8. Linguistic Compatibility: Shouldn't the existence of nearly 2/3 of the world's languages require us to examine anthropological data supporting greater antiquity for mankind within the Americas? Dr. German Dziebel's data supporting unprecedented antiquity for man in the Americas, based on a worldwide study of kinship systems and their associated nomenclature, sheds new light on human cultural diversity.
9. Genetic Correlates: Extensive molecular diversity on the tribal level detected in ‘Amerindian Populations' suggests we define a theory to guide these observations. We believe compelling phylogenetic evidence, complimenting both mtDNA and Y chromosome data, can be synthesized to delineate an "Amerindian wellspring". There are simply to many (26) "Eves" or founding mtDNA lineages from the Americas, to pick just one as the root. Moreover, a single founding population suggesting one population exodus ‘Out of the Americas' before the onset of the Last Ice Age best accounts for the "bottleneck" distinguishing Old World population structure while a phylogenic model of decent is best supported by the "out of Asia" hypothesis for Old World mtDNA distributions.
10. Evolutionary Models: Franz Boas remarked in 1930 that the presence of apes in the Old World and not the New, would seem to forestall an inclusion of the Americas in the search for human primate ancestors. We believe he was posing a question that remains unanswered; ‘must all hominid/human ancestors follow the same path as the African paleontological record dictates.' We might ask today whether there are common anatomical and/or behavioral affinities shared in parallel between primates and hominids that would augment the diagnostic link of knuckle-walking and bipedalism as precursory to hominoid/human evolution? Moreover, there are a number of anatomical conditions that are shared between Homo sapiens and New World primates while similar comparisons can be drawn between Homo erectus and Old World primates, be they ape or monkey.
This effort presents fresh insights into the seemingly unending controversy overshadowing the prospects of scientists ever finding a resolution to our human past's evolutionary wellspring. It suggests that isolation from the Old World is compatible with separate homelands for Homo sapiens and Homo erectus. It is the only option proponents of "Sudden Replacement" have never addressed while it would offer a compatible alternative, nigh neutralizing, "Multi-regional evolution" by isolating our species "in only one area of the World".
"In contrast, multiregional evolution can easily be disproved if it can be shown that all of the ancestors of living humans at some discrete time in the Middle or Late Pleistocene lived in only one area of the world. If this were the case, then we should be able to trace the ancestry of every human genetic locus to a single population existing at some time in the past million years." (Milford Wolpoff et al. pg.131 Multiregional, Not Multiple Origins, in AJPA 112:129-136 (2000) (emphasis added)
Our own efforts entail decades of thoughtful unconstrained research into this hypothesis that includes discussions and correspondence with celebrated leaders in anthropology and archaeology. We have presented numerous papers and organized sessions including SAA Symposium "Pre-Clovis Human Occupation of the Americas: Implications Regarding Holocene Population Formation in Deglaciated North America and Beringia" (Seattle, Washington 1998). By co-incidence, we became aware of each other's insights through Tom Dillehay, archaeologist at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Dillehay has been credited with tearing down the mythological "Clovis barrier" with his and his colleague's groundbreaking work at Monte Verde in southern Chile. Monte Verde and other pre-Clovis sites offer researchers insights that this idea will dramatically detail.
A resolution to the "human origins debate" might-well-be secured if we agree to examine the New World as a potential source for our species initial wellspring. It is in understanding the natural order of succeeding accomplishments that we can properly interpret our species later migrations that boldly took us "where no [anatomically modern] man had gone before". The impending theory challenges the need to adopt missing links between Homo erectus and our human past with an untested alternative that has far to long been overlooked: Amerindians as a source for the sapient peopling of the Old World. It represents "a Cinderella Story", human evolution's "comeback kid". It casts a fresh light on what the Mi'kmaq invoke as an "Invisible One", a truth yet revealed.
We welcome any and all responses this query might generate.
Alvah M. Hicks German V. Dziebel Ph.D
9788 Random
Canyon Way Creston, CA 93432 Stanford, CA.
Phone (805) 438-4142
Fax (805) 438-4156
e-mail
pardnerh@hotmail.com e-mail
dziebelg@stanford.edu
Rethinking Homo Sapiens Origins
Chapter 1 Homo Sapien Origins and the Americas: Testing the Null-Hypothesis
1. Earth's ‘Two Worlds' aside the European Discovery of the Americas
2. Early European interpretations relating to the origins of the First Americans
3. Theosophical and Philosophical Contentions: the Cart before the Horse
4. Science tackles "Human Origins"
5. Points of Order: Basic Assumptions Regarding a "Peopling of the Americas"
6. We have always been Here: Native American concepts of Autochthonous Origins
Chapter 2 Looking out from the Americas: Paradigm Growth and Theory Building
7. Geographic Constraints: Why it took so long to find the Old World
8. Archaeological Facts and the Nature of pre-Clovis Man in the Americas
9. A New Anthropological Design
10. Genetic compliance
11. Linguistic association
12. Related fields and their impact
Chapter 3 The Sapient Peopling of the Old World
13. An Emerging Theory: Insights and Alternative Explanations
14. Corridors of Migration: Out the Backdoor of the Americas
15. Fossil Evidence: the New and Old World Paleontological Record
16. The Invisible Truth: Inviting Cinderella to the Conference
Chapter 4 Punctuated Equilibrium: Examining Procrustean Limitations
17. Origin Theories from the Old World
18. Multiregional-Evolution
19. Sudden-Replacement and Out of Africa II
20. Limitations and Disharmony
21. Science and Scientific Revolutions: Examples from other Disciplines
22. Clovis-First and the pre-Clovis Enigma
23. Franz Boas and the Holocene Amerindian Settlement of Northeast Asia
Chapter 5 Retrieving the Past
24. Historical Anthropology: Lessons from the Trickster
25. Lessons Gained from Studies of the Past
26. Boldly Going where we have never gone before: from Polynesia to Outer Space
27. From Bone to Stone: pre-Clovis to Clovis: The casual links of Human Passage
28. The Pending Revolution in "Evolutionary Anthropology"
29. The Human Species Longing to Reveal Great Mysteries
30. Where do we go from Here: Our obligation to Future Generations
INTRODUCTION
Many Native American Cultures believe that they have "always been here", that they are truly indigenous to the Americas. Archaeologists have primarily advocated a 12,000 year arrival for the Peopling of the Americas emanating from Northeast Asia across the Bering Land Bridge.[1] This book will present a general overview of the science of evolutionary anthropology and from this synthesis the formation of a new alternative for human origins that embraces the New World as the cradle of humankind. It promises to illuminate what many theologians and scientists have long characterized as, a forbidden place to start in anticipating our human beginnings. The language of anthropology and its assorted terms will be identified as we traverse along this path. The aim is to empower readers to evaluate untested givens that could enliven the study of anthropology by identifying an alternative long overlooked in the search for human origins.
The science of human evolution, and the accompanying theories that drive researchers to interpret our pre-historic past, should be discernible to the layman. Yet, "missing links" with incomplete solutions persist as this science moves into the third century of inquiry and debate. Many researchers believe that we need more evidence while some would counter that we will never fully decipher our past as a uniform theory since "missing links" defy an expectation of stability provided normal evolutionary process. Solutions will be found by unraveling the evidence at hand, through the adoption of a new theory that overcomes the observations attributed to "missing links". The alternative that follows is offered as a point of convergence, bearing witness and abiding respect for what anthropologists have uncovered, while remodeling philosophical explanation and scientific determinism.
The potential of a great antiquity for Native Americans challenges the idea of a relationship between the Neandertal and the first true modern humans of Europe, Cro-Magnon Man. In this, the now long-standing exclusion of the American Indian from "evolutionary discussions" was made without investigating the far ranging implications a recent arrival for the Cro-Magnons into Europe, itself holds. Alfred Russell Wallace and others, including Sir Arthur Keith, believed that the Neandertals were so far removed from our physical form (that is anatomically modern Homo sapiens), that they could never have been our ancestors. The Neandertals were for them, and many researchers today, "a dead-end", a separate species who inhabited Europe only to be replaced by our modern Cro-Magnon ancestors. Could the Cro-Magnon ancestors have come from the Americas? This book will investigate this alternative by offering solutions to the problems anthropologists have long identified by underestimating migratory links to the birthplace of human beginnings.
The contentions contained in the passages of this book present an alternative for the origins of the first Americans by including them in the search for the ancestors of modern humans, Homo sapiens. The problems scientists had in proving that the Mound Builders were indeed Indians is demonstrative of the mood of 19th Century evolutionists. It was a given, then, to dismiss the Americas as a place to start our human journey and, from this time, this idea remains inadequately attended. Those suggesting that the human form is unrelated to the Neandertal have their own troubles in finding the source for this genesis when examining the Old World evidence from, once contemporary, Homo erectus populations. By example, it is difficult for scientists to demonstrate, with fossil evidence, that the modern human form predates the European Neandertal. Yet, European directives and anthropological science have left us to explore the origins of modern man from what must have been a separate species; Homo erectus. Anthropologist have never tested the America's for an alternative Homo sapien's wellspring precipitating our recent modern peopling of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Could the famous Cro-Magnon People, who left the profound historical interpretations of life in Ice Age Europe, have been American Indians exploring for the first time the European Continent? This book is an exploration into this long dismissed alternative. Our quest is a search for our roots in the Americas, beyond a time transcending every Old World Heritage.
This investigation will unite new data with an old idea by consolidating insights gained in the last century and a half of anthropological research. It will address the long dismissed hypothesis that American Indians originated in the Western Hemisphere by suggesting that the human species "Homo sapiens (sapiens)" can be trace back into the Americas. We will draw attention to the untested nature of this idea; that humankind evolved in the Americas and entered the Eastern Hemisphere only recently, that is, less then 45,000 years ago. This alternative has had many unheralded advocates, vanguards of the alternative discussed herein. It is our intention to bring their concerns and insights to life in the pages that follow, to caste fresh light on long lost passages of our human past. Given the wide range of anthropological tools available today it is time to re-examine the viable alternatives and the potential resolution to the human origins debate an inclusion of the Americas offers human evolutionary science.
