Sapient paradox
The Sapient paradox is a question that can be formulated as "why there was such a long gap between emergence of genetically and anatomically modern humans and the development of complex behaviors?" Homo sapiens emerged as a species somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 (or even 200,000) years ago, but the behaviour that is associated with modern humans began to emerge and accelerate only 10,000 years ago. The question was first formulated by archaeologist Colin Renfrew in 1996.[1][2][3][4]
See also
- Timeline of prehistory
- Ancient history
- The Great Filter
- Fermi paradox
References
- . Retrieved 19 June 2022.
The paradox is that there was a gap of well over 50 000 years between the speciation and tectonic phases.
- S2CID 86429611. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
called the "sapient paradox," that some of the complex behaviors now associated with humans took a long time to develop even after the emergence in Africa of humans who were fully modern in the anatomical and genetic senses.
- PMID 18292058.
the biological basis of our species has been established for at least that time (and perhaps for as much as 200000 years), while the novel behavioural aspects of our 'sapient' status have taken so long to emerge or to construct themselves, or rather that they have done so very recently
- S2CID 238444188.
External links
- The Sapient Paradox: Social Interaction as a Foundation of Mind, lecture by Renfrew