NEWS AND VIEWS 20 December 2021
‘Let’s keep in touch!’ is a phrase commonly used to indicate a social bond formed between people. Ideally, such bonds are maintained even across long distances and over the passage of time. Today, keeping in touch is easy, whether through a call, a text message, social media or the now omnipresent virtual meeting. However, what traces might remain of signs of social relationships from 50,000 years ago, and why is investigating these ancient relationships useful? Writing in Nature, Miller and Wang1 present data suggesting that small beads made of ostrich eggshell (OES) and fashioned into jewellery were exchanged between groups across eastern and southern Africa as part of long-distance social connections over the past 50,000 years. These relationships, across immense distances, then broke down about 33,000 years ago — around the same time as major climate changes occurred — and were renewed only about 2,000 years ago, the authors suggest. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03681-2 1.Miller, J. M. & Wang, Y. V. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04227-2 (2021).Article Google Scholar 2.Hitchcock, R. K. Botsw. Notes Rec. 44, 93–105 (2012). Google Scholar 3.Wiessner, P. W. Hxaro: A Regional System of Reciprocity for Reducing Risk among the ǃKung San Vol. 1 (Univ. Michigan Press, 1977). Google Scholar 4.Wiessner, P. in Politics and History in Band Societies 61–84 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982). Google Scholar 5.Miller, J. M. & Sawchuk, E. A. PloS ONE 14, e0225143 (2019).PubMed Article Google Scholar 6.Collins, B. in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021). Google Scholar 7.Stewart, B. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 6453–6462 (2020).PubMed Article Google Scholar 8.van der Lubbe, H. J. L., Frank, M., Tjallingii, R. & Schneider, R. R. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 17, 181–198 (2016).Article Google Scholar 9.Kivisto, S. Evaluating Paleoenvironmental and Landscape Mobility Dynamics: Stable Isotope and Strontium Isotope Analyses of Ostrich Eggshell at Spitzkloof Rockshelter, South Africa. Master’s thesis, Univ. Toronto (2016).10.Miller, J. M. Variability in Ostrich Eggshell Beads from the Middle and Later Stone Age of Africa. PhD thesis, Univ. Alberta (2019).Download references The authors declare no competing interests.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03681-2
