Middle Stone Age social connectivity: Can stone tools indicate the transmission of cultural ideas?

Abstract

Humans are unique in their ability to build complex social networks that foster cooperation, knowledge sharing and innovation. Evidence from the African Middle Stone Age provides some of the earliest signs of these connections, alongside increasingly sophisticated behaviours. Archaeologists study past social interactions through various proxies, with stone tools playing a central role. Yet the extent to which stone tools reliably reflect cultural transmission and connectivity remains debated. Similarities in toolmaking can indicate knowledge exchange and social ties, but they may also result from convergent evolution, whereby different groups independently arrive at comparable solutions to similar challenges. Recent research from southern Africa and beyond shows that applying middle-range theories and integrating contextual data help distinguish cultural transmission from convergence. This approach sheds new light on how knowledge and practices spread in early human societies, revealing the deep roots of cooperation and collaboration that continue to shape human societies today.
Significance:
In human origins research, stone tools provide some of the earliest evidence for how knowledge was shared and how social connections formed in early communities. Assessing whether similarities in these tools reflect cultural transmission or independent invention helps trace the roots of social networks, learning and innovation. Such insights are central to understanding the evolutionary pathways that made us human and continue to shape societies today.