Social complexity has been one of the recent emerging topics in the study of animal and
human societies, but the concept remains both poorly defined and understood. In this paper …

Innovation is often assumed to be the work of a talented few, whose products are passed on
to the masses. Here, we argue that innovations are instead an emergent property of our …

This review deals with the art of (anatomical) embalming. The first part contains a brief
historical review of the history of embalming, starting with ancient cultures such as the E …

The remarkable ecological and demographic success of humanity is largely attributed to our
capacity for cumulative culture,,. The accumulation of beneficial cultural innovations across …

Our species has the peculiar ability to accumulate cultural innovations over multiple
generations, a phenomenon termed 'cumulative cultural evolution'(CCE). Recent years have …

As the last habitable continent colonized by humans, the site of multiple domestication
hotspots, and the location of the largest Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, South America is …

History and archaeology have a well-established engagement with issues of premodern
societal development and the interaction between physical and cultural environments; …

The systematic exploitation of marine foods by terrestrial mammals lacking aquatic
morphologies is rare. Widespread ethnographic and archaeological evidence from many …

Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence suggests a link between a population's size
and structure, and the diversity or sophistication of its toolkits or technologies. Addressing …

Abrupt and rapid changes in human societies are among the most exciting population
phenomena. Human populations tend to show rapid expansions from low to high population …