Pleistocene human dispersals: Climate, ecology and social behavior

Abstract

The modern history of thinking about the origin of species hasbeen dominated by the relationship between environments -andtheir changes- and the process of speciation. Darwin's originalargument for evolution by means of natural selection (Darwin,1859) is an ecological argument: species ?adapt? to their physicaland biotic environments. Those best adapted to their environmentsurvive and leave more descendants than those that are less adapted.This reasoning clearly works on biological, even paleontologicalterms. But, does it work on social and cultural ones? And, if it does,how? This volume discussed these questions in the context of humanevolution, and covering both continental lands and islands