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Behavioral modernity (also known as the Great Leap Forward or the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution) is a term used in anthropology and archeology to refer to a critical event in sociocultural evolution, occurring between the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic. Around 50,000 years ago,^[1], modern human behaviour arose relatively abruptly. This theory is predicated upon language development.

It is a loosely defined list of traits that distinguish humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and various fossil hominids. It is the point at which homo sapiens began to demonstrate its reliance on abstract thought and to express cultural creativity.

Cultural universals are the key elements shared by all groups of people throughout the history of man. Examples of elements that may be considered cultural universals are language, religion, art, music, marriage, gender roles, the incest taboo, myth, cooking, games, and jokes. While some of these traits distinguish homo sapiens from other species in their degree of articulation in language based culture, they all have analogues in animal ethology. Since cultural universals are found in all cultures including some of the most isolated indigenous groups, scientists believe that these traits must have evolved or have been invented in Africa prior to the exodus.^[2][3][4][5]

Classic evidence of behavioral modernity includes:

• finely made stone and bone tools,
• fishing
• evidence of long-distance exchange or barter among groups,
• game playing,
• systematic use of pigment,
• self-ornamentation,
• burial, and
• abstract carvings.

A more terse definition of the evidence is the behavioral B's: blades, beads, burials, bone toolmaking, and beautiful. [1]

The evolution into anatomically modern humans, particularly in brain anatomy, is mostly believed to be a precursor for behavioral modernity and is generally believed to predate it by tens of thousands of years.

It might be thought that BM preceded language but it is evident from the list above that they must have been at least contemporary developments.

Humans of the Acheulean and Mousterian cultures lived in an apparent stasis, experiencing little cultural change. This was followed by a sudden flowering of fine toolmaking, sophisticated weaponry, sculpture, cave painting, body ornaments, and long-distance trade.^[6] Humans also expanded into hitherto uninhabited environments, such as Australia and Northern Eurasia.^[6]

The Great Leap Forward was concurrent with the extinction of the Neanderthals, and it has been suggested that Cro-Magnon interaction with Neanderthals caused this extinction.

There are two main competing theories of why humans made the leap. The first theory purports that a dramatic cultural change occurred in response to an environmental trigger. The other theory suggests that a sudden genetics-based brain reorganization occurred.^[7]

• Blombos cave
• Richard Klein
• Origin of language
• Origin of religion
• Origin of music
• Recent single origin hypothesis
• Archaic Homo sapiens

Richard G. Klein, "The Dawn of Human Culture" ISBN 0471252522

• Gene Expression: The Dusk of Human Culture?
• Gene Expression: The Great Leap
• EDGE: MIRROR NEURONS
• Review : The great leap forward - human-evolution - 21 February 1998 - New Scientist

• Origins of language constraints on hypotheses
• Archeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior
• Why did modern human populations disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 years ago? A new model -- Mellars, 10.1073/pnas.0510792103 -- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?
• Artifacts in Africa Suggest An Earlier Modern Human
• Tools point to African origin for human behaviour
• Précis of Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition Merlin Donald
• Key Human Traits Tied to Shellfish Remains, nytimes 2007/10/18
• "Python Cave" Reveals Oldest Human Ritual, Scientists Suggest