Ian Watts - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Ian Watts
At ~160 ka, near the end of our African speciation, archaeologists identify a change from sporadi... more At ~160 ka, near the end of our African speciation, archaeologists identify a change from sporadic to habitual use of red ochre, interpreted as 'blood-red colorant' for decorating performers' bodies during group rituals, with habitual ritual considered pre-requisite to symbolic culture's 'shared fictions' . This article considers the proposed motivations for such behaviour, and asks whether cross-cultural data on African hunter-gatherer ritual uses of red substances and associated beliefs can further constrain the interpretation of the archaeological finding. The comparative survey fills a basic knowledge gap. The survey's interpretation relies upon proposed relations of relevance bridging the past and present, foremost being predictions of symbolic culture derived from evolutionary models of group ritual. The main symbolic theme encountered is a metaphoric relationship between women's reproduction and men's hunting, expressed as a form of 'blood' symbolism. This is consistent with a long theoretical tradition within social anthropology, and the neo-Darwinian re-casting of that tradition by the Female Cosmetic Coalitions hypothesis, which arguably predicted the timing of habitual ochre use thirty years ago. Models aside, this article hopefully demonstrates that if evolutionary and social anthropology are to jointly address how we became a symbolic species, they will have to attend more closely to African hunter-gatherer voices.
Solarizing the Moon: Essays in honour of Lionel Sims, 2022
Pigments
Encyclopedia of earth sciences, Aug 12, 2016
Journal of Human Evolution, Sep 1, 2010
Earth pigments from the three excavations at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Western Cape Province, Sout... more Earth pigments from the three excavations at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Western Cape Province, South Africa), spanning the terminal middle Pleistocene and earlier late Pleistocene, are described and analyzed. Qualitative geological categorization primarily rested on textural, fabric, and iron enrichment attributes. Comprehensive recovery allowed identification of non-anthropic pigmentaceous materials, questionable pigments, and 380 pigments (1.08 kg). Less chemically altered pigments were typically finegrained sedimentary (FGS) rocks, tending to be soft, highly micaceous, prone to laminar fragmentation, and with reddish-brown streaks of intermediate nuance. More iron-enriched forms tended to be harder, denser, poorly micaceous, and with redder streaks of more saturated nuance. Some still qualified as FGS forms, but a large number were categorized as sandstone or iron oxide. Despite some temporal change in raw material profiles, circumstantial evidence suggests primarily local procurement from one outcrop throughout the sequence. Definitely utilized pieces (12.7%) were overwhelmingly ground. Unusual forms of modification include several notched pieces and a deliberately scraped 'chevron.' Controlling for fragmentation, streak properties of utilized versus unutilized pieces were used to investigate selective criteria. There was robust evidence for preferential grinding of the reddest materials, strongly suggestive evidence for saturation and darkness being subordinate selective criteria, and some indication of more intensive grinding of materials with the reddest, most saturated, and darkest streaks, and for some deliberate heating of pigments. These findings challenge the initial stages of color lexicalization predicted by the various versions of the basic color term (BCT) hypothesis, they provide grounds for rejecting hafting as a general explanatory hypothesis, and they cannot be accounted for by incidental heating. The results are more consistent with agreed upon canons of ornamentation than with individual display. It is concluded that the material was processed to produce saturated red pigment powders. On theoretical grounds, these are presumed to have served primarily as body paints in ritual performance.
South African Archaeological Bulletin, Jun 1, 2002
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
Early color symbolism
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 17, 2015
The red thread: pigment use and the evolution of collective ritual
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jun 26, 2014
7 The origin of symbolic culture
The Evolution of Culture, 1999
Chapter 10 RAIN SERPENTS IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTHERN AFRICA: A COMMON ANCESTRY?
Human Origins
Ochre and Human Evolution
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2018
Early color symbolism
Handbook of Color Psychology
Myth and meaning: San-Bushman folklore in global context
Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 2015
The symbolic revolution
<p>This chapter presents a Darwinian account of how humans became the symbolic species. It ... more <p>This chapter presents a Darwinian account of how humans became the symbolic species. It challenges the widely held idea that symbolic culture did not emerge until long after our African speciation. Red ochre use appears as a cumulative cultural tradition emerging prior to modern humans, becoming ubiquitous with modern <italic>Homo sapiens</italic>. One argument for the evolution of within-group cooperation has been inter-group conflict, but this is unlikely to result in sexual morality. An alternative model of "reverse dominance" or "gender" warfare is explored, generating playful, ritual contest between the sexes. As a reproductive strategy, women in coalitions resisted dominant male attempts to monopolize fertile females without providing adequate investment. Ritual bodypaint performances established symbolic culture, morality, kinship, and the sexual division of labor. Investor males drove the success of this symbolic strategy through sexual selection of ritually decorated females, linked to the plateau of encephalization in modern humans.</p>
Pigments
Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology
Rain Serpents in Northern Australia and Southern Africa
Human Origins
Red ochre, body painting, and language: interpreting the Blombos ochre
4 Red ochre, body painting, and language: interpreting the Blombos ochre Ian Watts 4.1 Introducti... more 4 Red ochre, body painting, and language: interpreting the Blombos ochre Ian Watts 4.1 Introduction Whereas language leaves no material trace, collective ritualwith its formal characteristics of ampliWed, stereotypical, redundant display might be expected to leave a loud ...
The Origin of symbolic culture
CHAPTER 7 THE ORIGIN OF SYMBOLIC CULTURE IAN WATTS AFRICA AND&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;MODERN... more CHAPTER 7 THE ORIGIN OF SYMBOLIC CULTURE IAN WATTS AFRICA AND&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;MODERN&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;HUMAN ORIGINS Near unanimity exists that our species evolved recently in Africa, with several studies indicating a date close to 140000 years ago (Stringer and McKie 1996). Initial migration ...
Current Anthropology, 2016
Earth pigments figure prominently in debates about signal evolution among later Homo. Most archae... more Earth pigments figure prominently in debates about signal evolution among later Homo. Most archaeologists consider such behavior to postdate~300 Ka. To evaluate claims for Fauresmith and Acheulean pigments in South Africa's Northern Cape Province, extending back 1.1 Ma (Beaumont and Bednarik 2013), we reexamined collections from Kathu Pan 1, Wonderwerk Cave, and Canteen Kopje. We report and describe materials where we are confident as to a pigment status. We found (i) compelling evidence of absence in all but the youngest Acheulean contexts, (ii) definite but irregular use in Fauresmith contexts from at least 500 Ka, (iii) widespread and regular use within this limited area bỹ 300 Ka, coeval with circumstantial evidence for pigment transport over considerable distances and use in fire-lit environments. These findings are used to evaluate predictions derived from two competing hypotheses addressing the evolution of group ritual, the "female cosmetic coalitions" hypothesis (Power 2009) and the "cheap-but-honest signals" hypothesis (Kuhn 2014), finding that the former accounts for a greater range of the observations. The findings underscore the wider behavioral significance of the Fauresmith as an industry transitional between the Acheulean and the Middle Stone Age.
The origin of symbolic culture [microform] : the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa and Khoisan ethnography /
BLDSC reference no.: DX204072. Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 1997.
At ~160 ka, near the end of our African speciation, archaeologists identify a change from sporadi... more At ~160 ka, near the end of our African speciation, archaeologists identify a change from sporadic to habitual use of red ochre, interpreted as 'blood-red colorant' for decorating performers' bodies during group rituals, with habitual ritual considered pre-requisite to symbolic culture's 'shared fictions' . This article considers the proposed motivations for such behaviour, and asks whether cross-cultural data on African hunter-gatherer ritual uses of red substances and associated beliefs can further constrain the interpretation of the archaeological finding. The comparative survey fills a basic knowledge gap. The survey's interpretation relies upon proposed relations of relevance bridging the past and present, foremost being predictions of symbolic culture derived from evolutionary models of group ritual. The main symbolic theme encountered is a metaphoric relationship between women's reproduction and men's hunting, expressed as a form of 'blood' symbolism. This is consistent with a long theoretical tradition within social anthropology, and the neo-Darwinian re-casting of that tradition by the Female Cosmetic Coalitions hypothesis, which arguably predicted the timing of habitual ochre use thirty years ago. Models aside, this article hopefully demonstrates that if evolutionary and social anthropology are to jointly address how we became a symbolic species, they will have to attend more closely to African hunter-gatherer voices.
Solarizing the Moon: Essays in honour of Lionel Sims, 2022
Pigments
Encyclopedia of earth sciences, Aug 12, 2016
Journal of Human Evolution, Sep 1, 2010
Earth pigments from the three excavations at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Western Cape Province, Sout... more Earth pigments from the three excavations at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Western Cape Province, South Africa), spanning the terminal middle Pleistocene and earlier late Pleistocene, are described and analyzed. Qualitative geological categorization primarily rested on textural, fabric, and iron enrichment attributes. Comprehensive recovery allowed identification of non-anthropic pigmentaceous materials, questionable pigments, and 380 pigments (1.08 kg). Less chemically altered pigments were typically finegrained sedimentary (FGS) rocks, tending to be soft, highly micaceous, prone to laminar fragmentation, and with reddish-brown streaks of intermediate nuance. More iron-enriched forms tended to be harder, denser, poorly micaceous, and with redder streaks of more saturated nuance. Some still qualified as FGS forms, but a large number were categorized as sandstone or iron oxide. Despite some temporal change in raw material profiles, circumstantial evidence suggests primarily local procurement from one outcrop throughout the sequence. Definitely utilized pieces (12.7%) were overwhelmingly ground. Unusual forms of modification include several notched pieces and a deliberately scraped 'chevron.' Controlling for fragmentation, streak properties of utilized versus unutilized pieces were used to investigate selective criteria. There was robust evidence for preferential grinding of the reddest materials, strongly suggestive evidence for saturation and darkness being subordinate selective criteria, and some indication of more intensive grinding of materials with the reddest, most saturated, and darkest streaks, and for some deliberate heating of pigments. These findings challenge the initial stages of color lexicalization predicted by the various versions of the basic color term (BCT) hypothesis, they provide grounds for rejecting hafting as a general explanatory hypothesis, and they cannot be accounted for by incidental heating. The results are more consistent with agreed upon canons of ornamentation than with individual display. It is concluded that the material was processed to produce saturated red pigment powders. On theoretical grounds, these are presumed to have served primarily as body paints in ritual performance.
South African Archaeological Bulletin, Jun 1, 2002
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
Early color symbolism
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Dec 17, 2015
The red thread: pigment use and the evolution of collective ritual
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jun 26, 2014
7 The origin of symbolic culture
The Evolution of Culture, 1999
Chapter 10 RAIN SERPENTS IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTHERN AFRICA: A COMMON ANCESTRY?
Human Origins
Ochre and Human Evolution
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2018
Early color symbolism
Handbook of Color Psychology
Myth and meaning: San-Bushman folklore in global context
Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 2015
The symbolic revolution
<p>This chapter presents a Darwinian account of how humans became the symbolic species. It ... more <p>This chapter presents a Darwinian account of how humans became the symbolic species. It challenges the widely held idea that symbolic culture did not emerge until long after our African speciation. Red ochre use appears as a cumulative cultural tradition emerging prior to modern humans, becoming ubiquitous with modern <italic>Homo sapiens</italic>. One argument for the evolution of within-group cooperation has been inter-group conflict, but this is unlikely to result in sexual morality. An alternative model of "reverse dominance" or "gender" warfare is explored, generating playful, ritual contest between the sexes. As a reproductive strategy, women in coalitions resisted dominant male attempts to monopolize fertile females without providing adequate investment. Ritual bodypaint performances established symbolic culture, morality, kinship, and the sexual division of labor. Investor males drove the success of this symbolic strategy through sexual selection of ritually decorated females, linked to the plateau of encephalization in modern humans.</p>
Pigments
Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology
Rain Serpents in Northern Australia and Southern Africa
Human Origins
Red ochre, body painting, and language: interpreting the Blombos ochre
4 Red ochre, body painting, and language: interpreting the Blombos ochre Ian Watts 4.1 Introducti... more 4 Red ochre, body painting, and language: interpreting the Blombos ochre Ian Watts 4.1 Introduction Whereas language leaves no material trace, collective ritualwith its formal characteristics of ampliWed, stereotypical, redundant display might be expected to leave a loud ...
The Origin of symbolic culture
CHAPTER 7 THE ORIGIN OF SYMBOLIC CULTURE IAN WATTS AFRICA AND&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;MODERN... more CHAPTER 7 THE ORIGIN OF SYMBOLIC CULTURE IAN WATTS AFRICA AND&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;MODERN&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;HUMAN ORIGINS Near unanimity exists that our species evolved recently in Africa, with several studies indicating a date close to 140000 years ago (Stringer and McKie 1996). Initial migration ...
Current Anthropology, 2016
Earth pigments figure prominently in debates about signal evolution among later Homo. Most archae... more Earth pigments figure prominently in debates about signal evolution among later Homo. Most archaeologists consider such behavior to postdate~300 Ka. To evaluate claims for Fauresmith and Acheulean pigments in South Africa's Northern Cape Province, extending back 1.1 Ma (Beaumont and Bednarik 2013), we reexamined collections from Kathu Pan 1, Wonderwerk Cave, and Canteen Kopje. We report and describe materials where we are confident as to a pigment status. We found (i) compelling evidence of absence in all but the youngest Acheulean contexts, (ii) definite but irregular use in Fauresmith contexts from at least 500 Ka, (iii) widespread and regular use within this limited area bỹ 300 Ka, coeval with circumstantial evidence for pigment transport over considerable distances and use in fire-lit environments. These findings are used to evaluate predictions derived from two competing hypotheses addressing the evolution of group ritual, the "female cosmetic coalitions" hypothesis (Power 2009) and the "cheap-but-honest signals" hypothesis (Kuhn 2014), finding that the former accounts for a greater range of the observations. The findings underscore the wider behavioral significance of the Fauresmith as an industry transitional between the Acheulean and the Middle Stone Age.
The origin of symbolic culture [microform] : the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa and Khoisan ethnography /
BLDSC reference no.: DX204072. Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 1997.