Blood symbolism at the root of symbolic culture? African hunter-gatherer perspectives

Abstract

At ∼160 ka, near the end of our African speciation, archaeologists identify a change from sporadic to habitual use of red ochre, interpreted as ‘blood-red colorant’ for decorating performers’ bodies during group rituals, with habitual ritual considered pre-requisite to symbolic culture’s ‘shared fictions’ (Dapschauskas et al. 2022). This article considers the proposed motivations for such behaviour, and asks whether cross-cultural data on African hunter-gatherer ritual uses of red substances and associated beliefs can further constrain the interpretation of the archaeological finding. The comparative survey fills a basic knowledge gap. The survey’s interpretation relies upon proposed relations of relevance bridging the past and present, foremost being predictions of symbolic culture derived from evolutionary models of group ritual. The main symbolic theme encountered is a metaphoric relationship between women’s reproduction and men’s hunting, expressed as a form of ‘blood’ symbolism. This is consistent with a long theoretical tradition within social anthropology, and the neo-Darwinian re-casting of that tradition by the Female Cosmetic Coalitions hypothesis, which arguably predicted the timing of habitual ochre use thirty years ago. Models aside, this article hopefully demonstrates that if evolutionary and social anthropology are to jointly address how we became a symbolic species, they will have to attend more closely to African hunter-gatherer voices.