{"id":5050,"date":"2019-11-25T21:40:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T04:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2019-11-25T21:40:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T04:40:50","slug":"science-the-hub-human-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/2019\/11\/science-the-hub-human-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Science @ the Hub: Human Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3327\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-5050-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/secularhubcast\/Ep_73_-_Science_at_the_Hub.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/secularhubcast\/Ep_73_-_Science_at_the_Hub.mp3\">https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/secularhubcast\/Ep_73_-_Science_at_the_Hub.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/secularhubcast\/Ep_73_-_Science_at_the_Hub.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=5050-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/secularhubcast\/Ep_73_-_Science_at_the_Hub.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Ep_73_-_Science_at_the_Hub.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">\n<h6><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">The Global Dispersal of Homo Sapiens and the Archaeology of Computational Complexity<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/instaar.colorado.edu\/people\/john-f-hoffecker\/\">Dr. John Hoeffecker<\/a>, from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder was November&#8217;s featured speaker for the science talk.<\/p>\n<p>The Hub specializes in creating moments and situations where folks representing diverse viewpoints and backgrounds mingle.\u00a0 The exchange of ideas is essential to culture and society and at the Hub we do our part to help in the free flow of ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Hoeffecker&#8217;s talk was wide ranging and deep and possessed a great deal of interaction with the event&#8217;s attendees.\u00a0 He took all questions seriously which helped make the talk feel more like a conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Below is an excerpt from elsewhere on secularhub.org, copied and pasted here because they say it better than I ever could:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) dispersed out of Africa several times after 300,000 years ago, but only one of the dispersals (beginning ~60,000 years ago), was ultimately global in scope, including Australia, the Eurasian arctic, and Western Hemisphere. The global dispersal entailed occupation of habitats and climate zones never previously occupied by earlier forms of Homo, probably because of relatively low plant and animal productivity and extreme winter temperatures. Adaptation to these habitats and climates required technologies of structural and functional complexity<br \/>\ncomparable to those of recent hunter-gatherers in similar settings, including mechanical artifacts and insulated clothing. Archaeological evidence of such technologies is found in Africa after ~100,000 years ago and associated with the spread of modern humans into Eurasia and beyond. The quantum jump in technological complexity suggests an<br \/>\nincrease in the complexity of the computations that underlie the design of artifacts, which in turn suggests that changes in human cognitive faculties underlie the global dispersal of Homo sapiens.<\/p>\n<p>John F. Hoffecker \u25cf since 1998, research faculty at Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder<br \/>\n\u25cf BA in archaeology (Yale 1975), MA in anthropology (University of Alaska 1979)<br \/>\n\u25cf investigated archaeological sites in central Alaska related to early occupation of Beringia during 1980s (Science paper in 1993)<br \/>\n\u25cf PhD in anthropology (U of Chicago 1986) with focus on Paleolithic archaeology of Russia and Ukraine<br \/>\n\u25cf research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory (1984\u20131998)<br \/>\n\u25cf researched Neanderthal sites in northern Caucasus with Russian colleagues in 1990s (including Mezmaiskaya Cave, which yielded Neanderthal skeletal remains)<br \/>\n\u25cf author of Desolate Landscapes: Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe (Rutgers U Press, 2002)<br \/>\n\u25cf researched earliest known modern human occupations in Eastern Europe (central plain) with Russian colleagues during 2001\u20132009 (Science paper in 2007)<br \/>\n\u25cf author (with co-author Scott Elias) of Human Ecology of Beringia (Columbia U Press 2007)<br \/>\n\u25cf researched early Inuit sites in northwest Alaska during 2000\u20132011<br \/>\n\u25cf researched early modern human sites on East European Plain with Ukrainian and Russian colleagues during 2012\u20132018 with focus on geochronology<br \/>\n\u25cf author of Modern Humans: Their African Origin and Global Dispersal (Columbia U Press 2017) (Choice \u201coutstanding academic title\u201d 2019)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">\n<blockquote><p>EDITOR:\u00a0 Jesse Gilbertson\u00a0 Logo Design: Terry Kirkham<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">The views and opinions expressed are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Secular Hub.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">***<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">The Secular HubCast: The Voice of Denver\u2019s Secular Hub.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">Become a member of the Secular Hub today!<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom: 1em\">Subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCw6r0_l8I4cZm0ohuUT2hyQ?view_as=subscriber\">YouTube Channel<\/a><br \/>\nFollow the Secular Hub on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SecularHub\/\">Facebook<\/a><br \/>\nFollow the Secular Hub on Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecularHub\">@SecularHub<\/a><br \/>\nMusic: <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/argofox\/a-himitsu-adventures\">A Himitsu &#8211; Adventures<\/a> (unedited, used under Creative Commons License)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Global Dispersal of Homo Sapiens and the Archaeology of Computational Complexity Dr. John Hoeffecker, from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder was November&#8217;s featured speaker for the science talk. The Hub specializes in creating moments and situations where folks representing diverse viewpoints and backgrounds mingle.\u00a0 The exchange &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/2019\/11\/science-the-hub-human-evolution\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Science @ the Hub: Human Evolution&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14,130],"tags":[603,609,604,606,607,602,601,608,605,17,380],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-our-community","category-podcast","category-science","tag-africa","tag-archaeology","tag-beringia","tag-boulder","tag-design","tag-dr-john-hoeffecker","tag-homo-sapiens","tag-instaar","tag-levant","tag-science","tag-university-of-colorado","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5053,"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secularhub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}