Homo naledi Conference Updates!

[@DulceN]

I’ve followed the controversy from the beginning, only hope to live long enough to find out the truth.

[@worldofpaleoanthropology]

Same!

[@AlicjaChojecka]

Same!

[@worldofpaleoanthropology]

Update: There is now a new Pre-Print out! Learn more about what it says, what it means for naledi the field, and even read it for yourself here worldofpaleoanthropology.org/2024/08/13/new-evidence-for-ritualistic-burial-by-homo-naledi/

[@rdklkje13]

Just a heads up that it says 2023 for this paper in your reference list (at the very end of the page you link to).

[@copperhorse4515]

I love the Rising Star story and the mystery of Homo Naledi! It's the discovery of the century!

[@comfortablynumb9342]

I'd like to hear more about the iron age stuff being found in the cave. That cave should be excavated entirely, it's probably got a lot more history to find.

[@worldofpaleoanthropology]

For sure! The way it has been so far has been lacking!

[@rdklkje13]

Just read your paragraph “If this hypothesis is confirmed, it could revolutionize our understanding of human cognitive evolution. The idea that a species with such a small brain could engage in such sophisticated behavior suggests that cognitive complexity and symbolic thinking may have evolved independently in different hominin lineages, or that these behaviors appeared earlier than we thought.” This made me think you may be interested in checking out Rossano (presumably et al)’s upcoming papers on pet button communication. First one will be out August 28. Lots and lots of cases of dogs and cats engaging in pretty complex communication, including combining human words they learnt to mean one thing in novel ways to express something quite different. Some are more intelligent than others but it only takes one dog to call an ambulance “squeaker car” (squeaker being a word normally used for toys), remind their human to get up and deal with the sweaters they left to soak in a bucket of water four minutes after they ignored the alarm they’d set, and pause a game of indoor fetch to go affirm that the two of them are friends like this human is friends with other humans. All this done by Puppy Parker Posie here on YT and elsewhere. But it’s not just one dog. Todd the cat regularly plans out his days and comments on past experiences. He has also let his human know that both he and another cat in the household needed to visit the vet (days before the human would have noticed something was wrong). Quite a few dogs and cats have done this by now, asking for help with an ouch. Anyway, these are just a few examples. Since 2020 Rossano’s UCSD Cognitive Science team has studied more than 10.000 pets in 47 countries using buttons to enhance their communication with their humans and the papers are finally about to be published! I’m sure they’ll have a thing or two to say about cognitive complexity that may well surprise a lot of people.

[@mikahbee]

I wonder if, since the bodies are all seemingly female (as we all know, sexing bodies is NOT exact, since intersexism exists in many many species, as well as natural differences), if what we're seeing as a site of femicide.

[@worldofpaleoanthropology]

That’s a really interesting idea! I hadn’t thought of it before, but it’s definitely worth considering. Many primate species live in harems, so that’s something else to keep in mind. But the possibilities are endless!

[@MossyMozart]

@mikahbee - The last I knew, it was thought that bodies were not placed / entered / fell into the cave at the same time, but over a span of time. If that's still true, I have been wondering about regular human sacrifices to the denizen of the underworld, or whoever.