Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications

Agustín Fuentes, Marc Kissel, Penny Spikins et al., 2025. eLife 12: RP89125.

A discussion paper on what burial, engraving and fire use would imply about cognition in a hominin with a brain a third the size of ours. eLife rates it "valuable" and "solid" only if the two empirical papers hold.

Homo naledi and the Rising Star burial claimsArticledoi: 10.7554/eLife.89125Checked against the original0

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Context for why the claim matters.

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Cited by on this site 3 records

Agustín Fuentes

FIG

Homo naledi and the Rising Star burial claims

The mystery article

MYS

Did Homo naledi make the cross-hatched marks on the walls of the Hill Antechamber?

Question

QST

Cite it

Fuentes, A., Kissel, M., Spikins, P., Molopyane, K., Hawks, J., & Berger, L. R. (2025). Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications. eLife 12: RP89125. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89125

@article{fuentes2025meaning,
  author = {Fuentes, Agustín and Kissel, Marc and Spikins, Penny and Molopyane, Keneiloe and Hawks, John and Berger, Lee R},
  title = {Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications},
  journal = {eLife 12: RP89125},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.7554/eLife.89125},
  url = {https://elifesciences.org/articles/89125}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications
AU  - Fuentes, Agustín
AU  - Kissel, Marc
AU  - Spikins, Penny
AU  - Molopyane, Keneiloe
AU  - Hawks, John
AU  - Berger, Lee R
PY  - 2025
JO  - eLife 12: RP89125
DO  - 10.7554/eLife.89125
UR  - https://elifesciences.org/articles/89125
ER  -

Fuentes, Agustín et al.. “Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications.” eLife 12: RP89125 (2025). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.89125.