The mountaineering analogy echoes the dynamic systems perspective (Colunga and Smith 2007), where intelligence is the adaptive flexibility that integrates the stability of past experience with the multi-dimensional and multi-directional challenges and opportunities of the moment. Depending on context, and microor macro-approach, it incorporates both multilinear and neo-Darwinian concepts of cultural evolution (Carniero 2003). Thus, as opposed to the ratchet effect the rugged-fitness-landscape model and associated mountaineering analogue allow for enhanced technological, cultural, behavioral and cognitive flexibility; traits of which humans are the masters. It is also in line with current socio-cultural theorizing regarding human behavioral evolution, and it explains cultural evolution as reflected in the archaeological and historical records, complete with random production and subsequent reduction of novelty.

Acknowledgments I thank the ROCEEH group for the invitation and funding to participate in this discussion, and colleagues and friends who took the time to comment on the draft manuscript. My research is funded by the African Origins Platform of the National Research Foundation of South Africa. Opinions and mistakes remain my own.

References

Attenbrow, V., Robertson, G., & Hiscock, P. (2009). The changing abundance of backed artefacts in south-eastern Australia: A response to Holocene climate change? Journal of Archaeological Science, 36, 2765–2770.

Backwell, L., d’Errico, F., & Wadley, L. (2008). Middle Stone Age bone tools from the Howiesons Poort layers, Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 566–1580.

Barret, H. C. (2009). Where there is an adaptation, there is a domain: the form-function fit in information processing. In S. M. Platek & T. K. Schackelford (Eds.), Foundations in evolutionary cognitive neuroscience (pp. 97–116). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bradfield, J., & Lombard, M. (2011). A macrofracture study of bone points used in experimental hunting with reference to the South African Middle Stone Age. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 66, 67–76.

Brooks, A., Nevell, L., Yellen, J., & Hartman, G. (2006). Projectile technologies of the African MSA: Implications for modern human origins. In E. Hovers & S. Kuhn (Eds.), Transitions before the transition: Evolution and stability in the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age (pp. 233–255). New York: Springer.

Byrne, R. W. (1995). The thinking ape: Evolutionary origins of intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carniero, R. L. (2003). Evolutionism in cultural anthropology: A critical history. Boulder: Westview Press.

Cattelain, P. (1997). Hunting during the Upper Paleolithic: Bow, spearthrower, or both? In H. Knecht (Ed.), Projectile Technology (pp. 213–240). New York: Plenum Press.

Colunga, E., & Smith, L. B. (2007). Flexibility and variability: Essential to human cognition and the study of human cognition.

New Ideas in Psychology, 26, 170–192.

d’Errico, F., & Stringer, C. B. (2011). Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the emergence of modern cultures? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 366, 1060–1069.

Diamond, J. (2005). Guns, germs and steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years. London: Vintage Books.

Geary, D. C. (2005). The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence. Washington: American Psychological Association.

Haidle, M. N. (2009). How to think a simple spear. In S. A. de Beaune, F. L. Coolidge, & T. Wynn (Eds.), Cognitive archaeology and human evolution (pp. 57–73). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Haidle, M. N. (2010). Working-memory capacity and the evolution of modern cognitive potential: Implications from animal and early human tool use. Current Anthropology, 51, S149–S166.

Haidle, M. N. (2012). How to Think Tools? A Comparison of Cognitive Aspects in Tool Behavior of Animals and During Human Evolution.

Cognitive perspectives in tool behavior, Vol. 1. urn:nbn:de: bsz:21-opus-60146.

Henrich, J. (2004). Archaeology, demography and cultural evolution: How adaptive cultural processes can produce maladaptive losses – the Tasmanian case. American Antiquity, 69, 197–214.

Henshilwood, C. S. (2005). Stratigraphic integrity of the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave. In F. d’Errico & L. Backwell (Eds.),

From tools to symbols: From early hominids to modern humans

(pp. 441–458). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Henshilwood, C. S., & Dubreuil, B. (2011). The still bay and

Howiesons Poort, 77–59 ka: Symbolic material culture and the evolution of the mind during the African Middle Stone Age.

Current Anthropology, 52, 361–400.

Hovers, E., & Belfer-Cohen, A. (2006). Now you see it, now you don’t

—modern human behaviour in the Middle Paleolithic. In E. Hovers & S. L. Kuhn (Eds.), Transitions before the transition: Evolution and stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age

(pp. 295–304). New York: Springer.

Kuhn, S. (2006). Trajectories of change in the Middle Paleolithic in Italy. In E. Hovers & S. L. Kuhn (Eds.), Transitions before the transition: Evolution and stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age (pp. 109–120). New York: Springer.

Lombard, M. (2005). Evidence of hunting and hafting during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: A multianalytical approach. Journal of Human Evolution, 48, 279–300.

Lombard, M. (2006). First impressions of the functions and hafting technology of Still Bay pointed artefacts from Sibudu Cave.

Southern African Humanities, 18(1), 27–41.

Lombard, M. (2007). Evidence for change in Middle Stone Age hunting behaviour at Blombos Cave: Results of a macrofracture analysis. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 62, 62–67.

Lombard, M. (2011). Quartz-tipped arrows older than 60 ka: Further use-trace evidence from Sibudu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 1918–1930.

Lombard, M., & Haidle, M. N. (2012). Thinking a bow-and-arrow: Cognitive implications of Middle Stone Age bow and stone-tipped arrow technology. Cambridge Journal of Archaeology, 22, 237–264.

Lombard, M., & Pargeter, J. (2008). Hunting with Howiesons Poort segments: Pilot experimental study and the functional interpretation of archaeological tools. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 2523–2531.

Lombard, M., & Parsons, I. (2010). Fact or fiction? Behavioural and technological reversal after 60 ka in Southern Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 65, 224–228.

Lombard, M., & Parsons, I. (2011). What happened to the human mind after the Howiesons Poort? Antiquity, 85, 1433–1443.

Lombard, M., & Phillipson, L. (2010). Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64,000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Antiquity, 84, 635–648.

McBrearty, S., & Tryon, C. (2005). From Acheulean to Middle Stone Age in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. In E. Hovers & S. L. Kuhn (Eds.), Transitions before the transition: Evolution and stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age (pp. 257–277). New York: Springer.

McCall, G. S. (2007). Behavioral ecological models of lithic technological change during the later Middle Stone Age of South Africa.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 1738–1751.

Mellars, P. (2007). Rethinking the revolution: Eurasian and African perspectives. In P. Mellars, K. Boyle, O. Bar-Yosef, & C. Stringer (Eds.), Rethinking the revolution: New behavioural and biological perspectives on the origin and dispersal of modern humans (pp. 1– 14). Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.

Mercier, N., & Valladas, H. (2003). Reassessment of TL age estimates of burnt flint from the Paleolithic site of Tabun Cave, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution, 45, 401–409.

Mesoudi, A. (2008). Foresight in cultural evolution. Biological Philosophy, 28, 243–255.

Mohapi, M. (2007). Rose Cottage Cave lithic points: Does technological change imply change in hunting techniques? South African Archaeological Bulletin, 62, 9–18.

Parsons, I., & Lombard, M. (2011). The multi-disciplinary landscape of mid-late Upper Pleistocene archaeology. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 66, 178–185.

Powell, A., Shennan, S., & Thomas, M. G. (2009). Late Pleistocene demography and the appearance of modern human behavior.

Science, 324, 1298–1301.

Preutz, J. D., & Bertolani, P. (2007). Savanna chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, hunt with tools. Current Biology, 17, 412–417.

Riede, F. (2008). The Laacher See-eruption (12,920 BP) and material culture change at the end of the Allerød in Northern Europe.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 591–599.

Riegler, A. (2001). The cognitive ratchet: The ratchet effect as a fundamental principle in evolution and cognition. Cybernetics and Systems, 32, 411–427.

Rots, V., & Van Peer, P. (2006). Early evidence of complexity in lithic economy: Core-axe production, hafting and use at Late Middle Pleistocene site 8-B-11, Sai Island (Sudan). Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 360–371.

Shea, J. J. (2006). The origins of lithic projectile point technology: Evidence from Africa, the Levant, and Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33, 823–846.

Shea, J. J. (2009). The impact of projectile weaponry on Late Pleistocene hominin evolution. In J.-J. Hublin & M. P. Richards (Eds.), The evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating approaches to the study of Palaeolithic subsistence (pp. 189–199). Leipzig: Springer Science.

Shea, J. J. (2011). Homo sapiens is as Homo sapiens was: Behavioural variability versus “behavioural modernity” in Paleolithic archaeology. Current Anthropology, 52, 1–35.

Shea, J. J., & Sisk, M. L. (2010). Complex projectile technology and

Homo sapiens dispersal into western Eurasia. PaleoAnthropology, 2010, 100–122.

Shennan, S. (2001). Demography and cultural innovation: A model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture.

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 11, 5–16.

Spencer, H. (1896). The principles of sociology. New York: Appleton. Thieme, H. (1997). Lower Paleolithic hunting spears from Germany.

Nature, 385, 807–810.

Thieme, H. (1999). Altpaläolithische Holzgeräte aus Schöningen. Lkr. Helmstedt. Germania, 77, 451–487.

Tennie, C., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Ratcheting up the ratchet: On the evolution of cumulative culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 2405–2415.

van Schaik, C. P., & Burkart, J. M. (2011). Social learning and evolution: The cultural intelligence hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 366, 1008–1016.

Villa, P., & Soriano, S. (2010). Hunting weapons of Neanderthals and early modern humans in South Africa. Journal of Anthropological Research, 66, 5–38.

Villa, P., Soriano, S., Teyssandier, N., & Wurz, S. (2010). The Howiesons Poort and MSA III at Klasies River Mouth, Cave 1A.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 37, 630–655.

Wadley, L. (2005). Putting ochre to the test: Replication studies of adhesives that may have been used for hafting tools in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 49, 587–601.

Wadley, L. (2010). Were snares used in the Middle Stone age and does it matter? A review and case study from Sibudu, South Africa.

Journal of Human Evolution, 58, 179–192.

Wadley, L., & Mohapi, M. (2008). A segment is not a monolith: Evidence from the Howiesons Poort of Sibudu, South Africa.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 2594–2605.

Wadley, L., Hodgskiss, T., & Grant, M. (2009). Implications for complex cognition from the hafting of tools with compound adhesives in the Middle Stone Age, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 106, 9590–9594.

Wadley, L., Sievers, C., Bamford, M., Goldberg, P., Berna, F., & Miller, C. (2011). Middle Stone Age bedding construction and settlement patterns at Sibudu, South Africa. Science, 334, 1388–1391.

Wilkins, J., Schoville, B. J., Brown, K. S., & Chazan, M. (2012). Evidence for early hafted hunting technology. Science, 338, 942–946.

Williams, V. M. E., Burke, A., & Lombard, M. (2014). Throwing spears and shooting arrows: Preliminary results of a pilot neuroarchaeological study. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 69, 199–207.

Wright, S. (1932). The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding and selection in evolution. Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress on Genetics, 1, 356–366.