significant continuity. In particular, some evidence of change derives from a fossil record which is anecdotal in nature. Anecdote forms the dots of the picture. When it comes time to connect the dots, they must be carefully evaluated if the picture is to be faithfully rendered. We suggest that this holds true for understanding the groups within social ecosystems just as it does for the species that inhabit the physical ecosystem. To reinforce this understanding, we might consider in just a bit more depth the current state of observation of the hominids, exemplified by The Speciation of Modern Homo sapiens, edited by Tim Crow.

We can begin by paraphrasing the concept of punctuated equilibrium that we considered in Chapter 9. The available fossil record gives evidence suggesting many discrete species. However, modification of DNA through mutation and genetic recombination creates change primarily through minute steps. When the DNA of successive generations is examined, which has been done “in the small” for the evolutionary progression of simpler organisms, genomic alterations allow for a continuous development of new capabilities based mostly on the reuse of older ones. Over long enough periods of times, relative to any collection of species the difference between the early species and the late ones may show stark contrasts. However, the differences between one species and the next that evolved from it may be less profound. Indeed, among the hominids as characterized by the fossil record, it is becoming less clear where the actual species boundaries are. If one adheres to the rather strict definition that a species boundary delimits an ability to interbreed, then some of the more recent distinctions among subsets of the genus Homo likely differentiate what could perhaps be called ethnic groups as opposed to distinct species. Similar continuity holds for social systems. Indeed, when different grouping mechanisms are examined the overlap of adjacent “species” seems even greater. In fact, today there still exist plentiful examples of iconic forms of human groups.

Thus, it was something of a revelation to us as we came to understand that since the emergence of modern man, the progression of social order has been one of remarkable continuity as well. Of course, the fact that we could observe and suggest a possible model under which all human social orders could be interpreted is indicative of this continuity. This progression is marked by the recursive application of the same metaphors; metaphors that are seminally grounded in the human sensori-motor system. As we’ve previously noted, we were drawn down this path by the imagery of parietal art that forms one of the earliest illustrations of modern man as a social animal. Among such imagery are often found pictures of human hands. Hands are found imprinted in pigments on walls of rock throughout the world and across the horizon of the human dispersion from Africa. This common form was central to our earliest musings that subsequently gained form in the pages of this book. Among those illustrations are reproductions from caves in the south of France.

In 1985, Henri Cosquer, a professional diver from Cassis, a small seaside village next to Marseille, France, found at a depth more than 100 feet under water the entrance to a cave which 27,000 years ago was on dry land. It was yet another cave showing human hands, but several had apparently amputated fingers, in a form quite similar to images found in Gargas and a few more caves in the south of France and the north of Spain. Jean Clottes, the author, with David Lewis-Williams, whom we met earlier in this chapter, of Shamans of Prehistory, learned to dive, and visited the cave with Cosquer. He then wrote with Jean Courting The Cave Beneath the Sea in which are reviewed theories of the hands and of cut fingers, a quite complicated story that includes studying the rationale for the hand imprints, and the sub-story of whether the fingers were actually missing when applied to the wall. Perhaps, were they simply folded?

In a subsequent book entitled A Cosmos in Stone, David Lewis-Williams offered an expanded interpretation of the timeliness and meaning of the handprints found among varied instances of

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