Holocene hunter-gatherers

Abstract

Because Holocene hunter-gatherers are the best known representatives of the original human lifeway, they are popularly viewed as representing the whole of that lifeway. The term Holocene should give pause here, however, for it roughly translates in Greek as wholly modern, and, as we shall see, Holocene hunter-gatherers constitute but a very special case of the larger pattern. Holocene hunter-gatherers do share a good deal in common with Pleistocene hunter-gatherers, but outward similarities can be deceiving. Humans share 98% of their DNA in common with chimpanzees, for example, but humans make poor chimp analogs, just as chimps are poor analogs for much of what humans do. © 2007 Springer-Verlag US.