Othering and ordering in the Middle Palaeolithic : a text analysis approach to Neanderthal studies, 1970-2019

This thesis examines a text analysis approach to palaeontological historiography. Using corpus comprised of research article titles and abstracts on Neanderthals from the period 1970-2019, the results of three case studies into important aspects of Neanderthal studies are reported. The first investigates changes in article titles, showing a significant increase in the number of titles using rhetorical devices. Although these tended to attract fewer citations than the more traditional title formulations, the gap was narrowing. It is suggested that these changes indicate an increased acceptance of informality, and a growth of authorial confidence which might be attributed to scientific innovations in the field. The second case study considers the impact of molecular biology. Significant increases in the numbers and citations of genetics-related articles are shown. The findings are seen as indicating a valorisation of genetics in the discourse. However, disciplinary differences are evident, with researchers in the humanities less likely to cite articles appearing in hard science-oriented journals. The third case study examines species names as indicators of attitudes and perceptions against theoretical background of register and habitus. A significant under-use of the species name Homo neanderthalensis is shown, while frequencies of the informal Neanderthal and modern human had increased significantly. In a number of texts, the formal Homo sapiens cooccurred with the informal Neanderthal. Problems with the concept of 'modern' in modern human and modern behaviour are discussed, with their connotations of relative superiority. These findings are seen as suggesting the persistence of an intellectual colonisation of the deep past with Homo sapiens being the benchmark against which other species are judged .The outcomes of the case studies suggest that text analysis, a methodology seldom used in archaeological historiographies, holds much promise especially in terms of tracing theoretical shifts and changes of focus.