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The African Early Pleistocene is a time of evolutionary change and techno-behavioral innovation in human prehistory that sees the advent of our own genus, Homo, from earlier australopithecine ancestors by 2.8-2.3 million years ago. This was followed by the origin and dispersal of Homo erectus sensu lato across Africa and Eurasia between ~ 2.0 and 1.1 Ma and the emergence of both large-brained (e.g., Bodo, Kabwe) and small-brained (e.g., H. naledi) lineages in the Middle Pleistocene of Africa. Here we present a newly reconstructed face of the DAN5/P1 cranium from Gona, Ethiopia (1.6-1.5 Ma) that, in conjunction with the cranial vault, is a mostly complete Early Pleistocene Homo cranium from the Horn of Africa. Morphometric analyses demonstrate a combination of H. erectus-like cranial traits and basal Homo-like facial and dental features combined with a small brain size in DAN5/P1. The presence of such a morphological mosaic contemporaneous with or postdating the emergence of the indisputable H. erectus craniodental complex around 1.6 Ma implies an intricate evolutionary transition from early Homo to H. erectus. This finding also supports a long persistence of small-brained, plesiomorphic Homo group(s) alongside other Homo groups that experienced continued encephalization through the Early to Middle Pleistocene of Africa. © The Author(s) 2025.

The appearance of “large cutting tools” in the early Acheulean is widely regarded as the first evidence for the imposition of intended forms on artifacts, with major implications for hominin cognitive and cultural capacities. However, the nature and extent of explicit design documented by these forms remains open to debate. To address this issue, we analyzed the complete collection of early Acheulean (ca. 1.7–1.2 Ma) flaked pieces from four sites (BSN17, DAN5, OGS12, and OGS5) in the Gona Project Area and compared these with all of the flaked pieces from two published Oldowan (> 2.5 Ma) sites at Gona. By comparing shape variation to measures of flaking intensity and coverage, we sought to identify technological patterns indicative of intent. Current results provide little evidence for the presence of discrete tool types or imposed morphological norms in our sample. We do, however, observe systematic patterns of raw material selection and core surface modification aimed at the production and maintenance of useful cutting edges on relatively large supports (cobbles and large flake blanks). This is consistent with prior characterizations of Acheulean tool form as arising from functional and ergonomic design imperatives for large hand-held cutting tools. Although the generalizability of these results to other sites remains to be seen, we propose that distinctive early Acheulean artifact forms may have arisen as secondary accommodations to the primary goal of increasing tool size to meet the novel demands (e.g., extended use-life, enhanced transportability, utility for heavy-duty cutting) of a more general shift in hominin behavioral ecology at this time. Our results provide support for the presence of Acheulean design at Gona, not necessarily in the sense of shared morphological norms, but certainly in the broader sense of deliberate technological choices made in view of behavioral goals and material constraints. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.

The Gona paleoanthropological field project in the Afar region of Ethiopia has long been associated with the earliest Oldowan stone tools. However, over the last 20 years, ongoing research at Gona has expanded its contributions considerably, producing fossils of Ardipithecus kadabba, Ardipithecus ramidus, and Homo erectus, as well as additional archaeological evidence of the earliest Oldowan and early Acheulean. Moreover, in the last few years, the Gona team has turned its attention to the younger deposits exposed in its study area and discovered a surprising number of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological sites, mostly from the Late Pleistocene to the early-middle Holocene. While any sedimentary sequence is incomplete by virtue of episodic depositional and erosional events over time, we are struck by the relative completeness of the archaeological sequence at Gona (Quade et al., 2008). The hominin fossils attract deserved attention, but the Gona project may ultimately be best known for preserving arguably the most extensive, detailed, and continuous Stone Age or Paleolithic archaeological sequence in the world, all contained within a small 25 km × 10 km area, approximately half of the total project area.

This article examines racial capitalism from a semiotic perspective, arguing that economic value, like language and race, can be described in situated and indexical terms. I attempt to show how raciolinguistic bias in and around the workplace is linked to a larger labor market in which minoritized labor is reproduced in a systemic way, and to explore hegemonic formations of racialization in the workplace and beyond. The jumping-off point for much of my argument is the work of the historian and political theorist Cedric Robinson.

"Drawing on research conducted in Cuzco, Peru, The Wari Civilization and Their Descendants: Imperial Transformation in Pre-Inca Cuzco analyzes the political and social transformations that led to the downfall of the Wari civilization in the Andean Middle Horizon period (AD 500-1000) and resulted in the rise of the Inca state."--

"Inequality is currently gaining considerable attention in academic, policy, and media circles. From Thomas Piketty to Robert Putnam, there is no shortage of economic, sociological, or political analyses. But what does anthropology, with its focus on the qualitative character of relationships between people, have to offer? Drawing on current scholarship and illustrative ethnographic case studies, McGill argues that anthropology is particularly well suited to interrogating global inequality, not just within nations, but across nations as well. The book is designed to be used flexibly in a variety of undergraduate classes--from introductory cultural anthropology, to courses on globalization, economic and political anthropology, and inequality. Brief, accessibly written, and peppered with vivid ethnographic examples that bring contemporary research to life, Global Inequality is a unique offering for undergraduate anthropology courses."--

Focusing on notions of diaspora, identity and agency, this book examines ethnicity in war-torn Sri Lanka. It highlights the historical development and negotiation of a new identification of Up-country Tamil amidst Sri Lanka's violent ethnic politics. Over the past thirty years, Up-country (Indian) Tamils generally have tried to secure their vision of living within a multi-ethnic Sri Lanka, not within Tamil Eelam, the separatist dream that ended with the civil war in 2009. Exploring Sri Lanka within the deep history of colonial-era South Asian plantation diasporas, the book arg

Dr. Skoczen continued research on bio-cultural and historical factors in breastfeeding, including ethnographic, in-depth interviews with new mothers, observing workshops, participation in conferences, and working on a manuscript devoted to this subject. She also worked on enhancing several of her classes and preparing a new course on cultural ecology.

Common Purse, Uncommon Future: The Long, Strange Trip of Communes and Other Intentional Communities explores the many new types of communal living being tried in America and Europe today. A growing number of people disenchanted with the pressures and demands of mainstream lifestyles are drawn by the nostalgic appeal of traditional, mostly agrarian and artisanal, lifestyles as practiced in residential communities where liminal rituals of membership serve to validate pacts to live and work together in cooperative social and economic relations.

The Busidima Formation in the Afar region, Ethiopia, spans the Quaternary and records the cultural evolution of the genus Homo. Yet, the Middle Pleistocene to Holocene fluvial environments in which early humans lived are undersampled in eastern Africa. This paper examines the stratigraphy, geochronology and paleoenvironments of the newly designated Odele Member of the uppermost Busidima Formation (<152 thousand years ago (ka)), which has received little attention despite representing a critical period in the evolution of early Homo sapiens and its migration out of Africa. The Odele Member is 40–50 m thick and is dated using tephrochronology, radiometric, luminescence, and electron spin resonance techniques. The member spans 151 to 7 ka, defined at the base by the widespread Waidedo Vitric Tuff (WAVT, 151 ± 16 ka modeled age and 95.4% credible interval - C.I.). There are two prominent erosional unconformities in the Odele Member, a lower one after the WAVT deposition with a modeled 95.4% C.I. range of 124–97 ka; and an upper one involving widespread alluvial fan incision commencing between 21.7 and 12.9 ka. The uppermost Odele Member also contains black, organic-rich mats, redox features, reed casts, and freshwater gastropods marking wetter conditions during the terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene. A black, fine-grained relict soil coeval with the Halalalee paleosol bounds the top of the Odele Member and has mollic and vertic properties, weathering since ∼12 ka. These incision events and prominent paleosol development near/at the top of the Busidima Formation document Middle to Late Pleistocene Awash River incision to its present-day course. Paleo-rainfall estimates suggest that the Early Holocene-age Halalalee paleosol weathered under a climate with mean annual rainfall 10–15% higher than today. A compilation of radiocarbon ages from aquatic gastropods, carbonized wood and charcoal from the upper Odele Member shows wetter and possibly more vegetated conditions during late marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 and the African Humid Period (AHP) that are tightly coupled with precession-driven summer insolation maxima. These key findings suggest that periods of incision, aggregation, and landscape stability in the Odele Member have an orbital precession pacing. The Odele Member revises upward the age of the Busidima Formation to 7 ka, showing that it spans into the Holocene and now includes Middle and Later Stone Age archaeological traditions.

The nearly complete cranium DAN5/P1 was found at Gona (Afar, Ethiopia), dated to 1.5–1.6 Ma, and assigned to the species Homo erectus. Its size is, nonetheless, particularly small for the known range of variation of this taxon, and the cranial capacity has been estimated as 598 cc. In this study, we analyzed a reconstruction of its endocranial cast, to investigate its paleoneurological features. The main anatomical traits of the endocast were described, and its morphology was compared with other fossil and modern human samples. The endocast shows most of the traits associated with less encephalized human taxa, like narrow frontal lobes and a simple meningeal vascular network with posterior parietal branches. The parietal region is relatively tall and rounded, although not especially large. Based on our set of measures, the general endocranial proportions are within the range of fossils included in the species Homo habilis or in the genus Australopithecus. Similarities with the genus Homo include a more posterior position of the frontal lobe relative to the cranial bones, and the general endocranial length and width when size is taken into account. This new specimen extends the known brain size variability of Homo ergaster/erectus, while suggesting that differences in gross brain proportions among early human species, or even between early humans and australopiths, were absent or subtle.

Both negative and positive cultural factors affect innovative efforts in developing countries. In the case of Ethiopia, negative factors include a low esteem for craftsmanship. Even where modern education is making inroads on some negative factors, as in the towns, feudalistic attitudes toward labor and the preference for unskilled labor on the assumption that it is more economical, act to continue functionally inefficient attitudes. In contrast, positive factors exist in traditions of mutual aid, now spreading from South Ethiopian cultures northward. An excellent model for mutual aid may be found in the practices of the migrant weavers' association of the Gurage and some neighboring tribes. Ethiopia provides an interesting area for the study of human factors in developing countries since it has not passed through a colonial period. Various stages of development can be traced comparatively free of outside influences. © 1968, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.