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Alexandre Steenhuyse
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Adjunct Assistant Professor and Paleolithic Archaeologist
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Evolutionary Anthropology
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Overview
My primary research topic is the emergence of behavioral modernity using archaeological and environmental data analyzed within an evolutionary ecological approach. My current research projects aim at contrasting the techno-economic adaptive strategies implemented by Neanderthal and anatomically modern human populations in Western Europe. My current research focuses on a micro-region (the Brive Basin) located in southwestern France. Such micro-regional scale allows me to reach beyond broad continental-scale models that have been used to account for the relationships between archaic and anatomically modern human groups.
I am also interested in investigating epistemological questions pertaining to the relationships between the methodological aspects of artifact analysis (lithics in particular) and their theoretical grounding. Having been trained and educated in both France and the United States, I have had the opportunity to implement different paradigmatic approaches to paleolithic archaeology and artifact analysis. This experience has allowed me to combine methodological and conceptual aspects of both French (chaine opératoire model) and American (quantitative, reduction models) approaches in my own research. Primarily grounded in evolutionary ecology and Optimal Foraging Theory, my theoretical inclinations have led me to critique the methodological implications of essentialist assumptions commonly held in paleolithic archaeology. This epistemological reflection stems from my interest in deconstructing some of the logical arguments typically used in the debates surrounding the emergence of behavioral modernity in current paleoanthropology. I see the construction of an updated integrative definition of culture as one of the key topics whose resolution could greatly enhance the quality and pertinence of those debates. I also think that a regional perspective on the relationships between archaic and modern sapiens populations during the Late Pleistocene in Europe will contribute to re-evaluate the broad-scale scenarios we have used to model those relationships.
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Research Summary
Paleolithic Archaeology, Lithic Analysis, Evolution of Human Behavior, Evolutionary Theory applied to Archaeology
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