@article{944885a76986485ba7784ee4d03a6200,
title = "Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools",
abstract = "One of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in the study of stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology in a way that preserves human agency and operates at scales that are visible in the archaeological record. The concept of niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments and change the conditions for selection, could provide a solution to this problem. In this review, we evaluate the utility of niche construction theory (NCT) for stone tool archaeology. We apply NCT to lithics both as part of the “extended phenotype” and as residuals or precipitates of other niche-constructing activities, suggesting ways in which archaeologists can employ niche construction feedbacks to generate testable hypotheses about stone tool use. Finally, we conclude that, as far as its applicability to lithic archaeology, NCT compares favorably to other prominent evolutionary approaches, such as human behavioral ecology and dual-inheritance theory.",
keywords = "cultural evolution, lithics, niche construction",
author = "Radu Iovita and Braun, {David R.} and Douglass, {Matthew J.} and Holdaway, {Simon J.} and Lin, {Sam C.} and Olszewski, {Deborah I.} and Zeljko Rezek",
note = "Funding Information: We take this opportunity to thank John Murray and Robert Benitez for organizing a very stimulating SAA session of which this paper was one contribution. Many of the ideas contained in it were forged in a series of workshops in Leipzig, Honolulu, and Philadelphia (2013), and owe much to the thinking of Harold Dibble, who sadly died before this manuscript was completed. We would like, therefore, to credit Harold for his intellectual contribution to the paper. We would also like to thank Shannon McPherron and Dennis Sandgathe, who read and commented on previous versions of this paper. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers, whose comments prompted us to rewrite and re-conceive the paper from the ground up, making it much stronger than the first version. R.I. is partially funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 714842; PALAEOSILKROAD project). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.",
year = "2021",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1002/evan.21881",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "30",
pages = "28--39",
journal = "Evolutionary anthropology",
issn = "1060-1538",
publisher = "Wiley-Liss Inc.",
number = "1",
}