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Gregory J. Wightman explores the significance of goal-directed action and the rise of material culture in this intricate, evidence-based examination of religion's earliest origins.

Religion, Prehistoric. --- Prehistoric peoples --- Material culture. --- Cognition and culture. --- Paleolithic period. --- Archaeology and religion. --- Archaeology --- Religion and archaeology --- Religion --- Eolithic period --- Old Stone age --- Palaeolithic period --- Stone age --- Culture and cognition --- Cognition --- Culture --- Ethnophilosophy --- Ethnopsychology --- Socialization --- Folklore --- Technology --- Cavemen (Prehistoric peoples) --- Early man --- Man, Prehistoric --- Prehistoric archaeology --- Prehistoric human beings --- Prehistoric humans --- Prehistory --- Human beings --- Antiquities, Prehistoric --- Prehistoric religion --- Psychology. --- Religious aspects --- Primitive societies

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This volume is motivated by the desire to explain why Neanderthals were replaced by modern humans, in terms of cultural differences between the two (sub-)species. It provides up-to-date coverage on the theory of cultural evolution as is being used by anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, and psychologists to decipher hominin cultural change and diversity during the Palaeolithic. The contributing authors are directly involved in this effort, and the material presented includes novel approaches and findings. Chapters explain how learning strategies in combination with social and demographic factors (e.g., population size and mobility patterns) predict cultural evolution in a world without the printing press, television, or the Internet. Also addressed is the inverse problem of how learning strategies may be inferred from actual trajectories of cultural change, for example as seen in the North American Palaeolithic. Mathematics and statistics, a sometimes necessary part of theory, are explained in elementary terms where they appear, with details relegated to appendices. Full citations of the relevant literature will help the reader to further pursue any topic of interest.

Social Sciences. --- Anthropology. --- Regional and Cultural Studies. --- Archaeology. --- Evolutionary Biology. --- Social sciences. --- Evolution (Biology). --- Regional planning. --- Sciences sociales --- Evolution (Biologie) --- Aménagement du territoire --- Anthropologie --- Archéologie --- Sociology & Social History --- Social Sciences --- Social Change --- Culture --- Evolutionary biology. --- Study and teaching. --- Culture-Study and teaching. --- Animal evolution --- Animals --- Biological evolution --- Darwinism --- Evolutionary biology --- Evolutionary science --- Origin of species --- Biology --- Evolution --- Biological fitness --- Homoplasy --- Natural selection --- Phylogeny --- Archeology --- Anthropology --- Auxiliary sciences of history --- History --- Antiquities --- Human beings --- Paleolithic period. --- Social evolution. --- Human evolution. --- Learning ability. --- Prehistoric peoples. --- Cavemen (Prehistoric peoples) --- Early man --- Man, Prehistoric --- Prehistoric archaeology --- Prehistoric human beings --- Prehistoric humans --- Prehistory --- Antiquities, Prehistoric --- Ability --- Learning, Psychology of --- Evolution (Biology) --- Physical anthropology --- Evolutionary psychology --- Cultural evolution --- Cultural transformation --- Culture, Evolution of --- Social change --- Eolithic period --- Old Stone age --- Palaeolithic period --- Stone age --- Origin --- Culture—Study and teaching. --- Primitive societies --- Social sciences