COMMUNICATION-NETWORKS AND DISPERSAL PATTERNS IN HUMAN-EVOLUTION - A SIMPLE SIMULATION-MODEL

Glynn Isaac's 'home base' model of hominid social systems was, in part , the reflection of a more general focus among palaeoanthropologists i n the 1970s on the importance of the sexual division of labour in huma n evolution. Here, I suggest that the sexual division of roles may in fact be consequent to the pattern of sex-biased dispersal and philopat ry, and that dispersal patterns underlie the spatial patterning of art efact traditions in the Lower Palaeolithic record. A simple simulation model is presented which has been used to explore the consequences of dispersal patterns for spatial aspects of cultural traditions. The re sults of the experiments are summarized and discussed.