This one-day meeting addressed the evolution of human
social institutions from the forms of social organization characteristic
of the hunting and foraging bands of the Upper Palaeolithic.
The speakers analysed the evidence for what took place between
the time when our ancestors had developed the capacity for social
intelligence, ritual, art and collaborative organization adequate
for territorial demarcation and exchange networks with out-groups
to the time when there is evidence of central control of stored
resources, monumental architecture, chiefdoms, and inherited
status.
