Creating in tropical forests: toolkits and technical behaviours of prehistoric hunter-gatherers between 23° North and 23° South

Congrès, colloques, réunions - Appel à contributions / Call for papers

 

2-7 septembre 2021

Meknès - Université Moulay Ismaïl

 

Session S9A-A du 19ème congrès UISPP "Evolution des sociétés humaines de la préhistoire à la protohistoire"
 

Organisers: Hermine Xhauflair, Isis Mesfin, Anne Ford

 

Only a few decades ago, it was vividly debated whether or not humans could have lived in the rainforest during Prehistory. Since then, there has been increasing evidence that our species and very possibly previous ones have not only settled down in tropical forests millennia ago, but also modified the environment by their actions. Moreover, not only humans modified the forest, the tropics also seem to have had an impact on human cultures.

 

In this session, we would like to address the following questions:
How did humans adapt to the tropics during Prehistory and what was the influence of these lush environments on human material culture and specifically on their toolkits? Are there similarities between Prehistories of the different tropical regions of the globe? Or did human groups respond in different ways to similar external conditions? What was the impact on lithic industries? How did these evolve locally? What was the importance of non-lithic technologies and the role of tools made of other available materials such as shells, bones, plants and others? What are the research practices in the different tropical regions and what are the current scientific approaches of tropical forest toolkits?

 

Although the tropics are largely associated in people’s minds with the rainforest, this region between 23° N and 23° S encompasses a wide range of forests and vegetation formations. To complexify the picture further, climate variations modified the environment, rainforests contracting during glacial periods and expanding during interglacial periods. That is where local paleoenvironmental analyses play a crucial role in assessing correctly the situation.

In this session, we would like to encourage inter-regional dialogue and to bring together scholars working in different tropical regions of the world to deliver papers about case studies, regional syntheses or cross-regional comparisons.

 

Plus d'infos

 

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"We have set up a Facebook Group called Prehistoric Toolkits and Technologies in the Tropics

It is destined to be a platform on which we can inform others of new publications, projects, fieldwork, etc. The goal is for it to be dynamic and interactive. Please feel free to share pictures of your work (e.g. in the field, in the office, studying material, in the lab), articles, ideas, suggestions and so on by directly posting on the Facebook group. We will be happy to help you if you need any assistance to share content"