The Costs of Being a High-latitude Hominin
Abstract
This chapter examines the challenges that hominins occupying higher latitudes have had to deal with. More specifically, it analyses how hominins were able to maintain social networks over the larger geographic areas associated with decreasing population densities at higher latitudes, along with the mechanisms by which the largest encompassing groups can be maintained. The chapter first considers what the term ‘group’ means before discussing the apparent trends in hominin group size and social organisation over time. It then explains why it is important to maintain extended community networks and the cognitive and time budgeting challenges presented by higher latitudes. It also compares Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans in terms of network sizes and in maintaining their extended social networks.
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The capacity of singing to bond groups of relative strangers in humans may have played a crucial role in allowing modern humans to create and maintain much larger social networks than their evolutionary relatives, which in turn may have facilitated the colonization of risky environments across the globe.
“The capacity of singing to bond groups of relative strangers in humans may have played a crucial role in allowing modern humans to create and maintain much larger social networks than their evolutionary relatives, which in turn may have facilitated the colonization of risky environments across the globe [59].”
From The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates fast social bonding (2015) · cites this paper as [59]
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The ice-breaker effect: Singing mediates fast social bonding
Pearce, E., Launay, J., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2015) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.150221 · Cited by 507 · see citing works
“The capacity of singing to bond groups of relative strangers in humans may have played a crucial role in allowing modern humans to create and maintain much larger social networks than their evolutionary relatives, which in turn may have facilitated the colonization of risky environments across the globe [59].”
BackgroundSelf-citationSinging and social bonding: changes in connectivity and pain threshold as a function of group size
Weinstein, D., Launay, J., Pearce, E., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Stewart, L. (2016) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.10.002 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
“In our evolutionary history, the discovery of such a technology may have led to better intergroup relationships between neighbouring bands, and so facilitated the evolution of large scale fission-fusion sociality (Dunbar, 2003; Dunbar, 2012; Pearce et al., 2014).”
BackgroundSelf-citationPearce, E., Launay, J., van Duijn, M. J., Rotkirch, A., Dávid-Barrett, T., & Dunbar, R. (2016) · Psychology of Music · doi:10.1177/0305735616636208 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
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Dunbar, R. (2022) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0176 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
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Spikins, P., Needham, A., Wright, B., Dytham, C., Gatta, M., & Hitchens, G. (2018) · Quaternary Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.08.011 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
A Major Change in Rate of Climate Niche Envelope Evolution during Hominid History
Mondanaro, A., Melchionna, M., Febbraro, M. D., Castiglione, S., Holden, P. B., Edwards, N. R., Carotenuto, F., Maiorano, L., Modafferi, M., Serio, C., et al. (2020) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101693 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
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Dunbar, R. I. M. (2017) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-016-1122-6 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
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Pearce, E. (2014) · Journal of Archaeological Science · doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.08.004 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
“…is at ~40° latitude that a switch also occurs from plant food making up 50 percent or more of the diet to animal products becoming the dominant component of the diet (Pearce et al., 2014), especially given the association between predicted annual encounter rate and reliance on hunting found here.”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationPearce, E., & Moutsiou, T. (2014) · Journal of Anthropological Archaeology · doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2014.07.002 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“Hunter-gatherer social networks are expected to be particularly dispersed at higher latitudes, because decreasing resource and population densities mean that the home range areas over which tribal networks are spread increases nearer the poles (Grove et al., 2012; Kelly, 1995; Pearce, 2013; Pearce et al., 2014).”
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What’s missing from the scientific study of religion?
Dunbar, R. (2017) · Religion Brain & Behavior · doi:10.1080/2153599x.2016.1249927 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens: Cognitively Different Kinds of Human?
Pearce, E. (2018) · Interdisciplinary evolution research · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-93776-2_12 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationHoffmann, M. W. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108589246.007
Dunbar, R. (2023) · Religion Brain & Behavior · doi:10.1080/2153599x.2023.2168739
“They did not have the vocal or auditory apparatus for speech (Bannan et al., 2023) or, given their brain size, the mentalizing competences to create sentences of su ffi cient complexity to express concepts of any great sophistication even if they had language (Dunbar, 2014; Pearce et al., 2014).”
BackgroundEcological and Nutritive Niches
Biesalski, H. K. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-99121-9_3
- Authors
- Pearce, E., Shuttleworth, A., Grove, M., & Layton, R. H.
- Venue
- Lucy to Language
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2014-02-06
- Pages
- 356-379
- OpenAlex
- W1776035003
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 39.92
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- social organization, Neanderthals, anatomically modern humans, time allocation, cognitive demand, population density
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