Changing human behavior: The contribution of the White Paintings Rock Shelter to an understanding of changing lithic reduction, raw material exchange, and hunter -gatherer mobility in the interior regions of southern Africa during the middle and early la

Documenting archaeological evidence of "modern" human behavior is of critical importance in examining the problem of the origins of anatomically modern humans in Africa. Current research has suggested that there is a significant hiatus between the appearance of anatomically "modern" humans and "modern" human behavior. It is clear that information from the later MSA and early LSA is of critical importance in examining this issue, yet this period is one of the most inadequately known in African prehistory.;This dissertation describes the later MSA, the transitional MSA/early LSA and the early LSA of White Paintings Rock Shelter (WPS) in the Kalahari Desert and discusses pertinent data from other regional sites with assemblages spanning like time periods. Comparison of lithic reduction strategies of the MSA and early LSA assemblages from WPS are used to assess to what degree differences and/or continuity exists in lithic manufacturing techniques between the archaeological assemblages. I conclude that continuity exists in reduction of local quartz(ite) raw materials, while distinct reduction patterns are evident in non-local raw material reduction.;During the last decade, archaeological research conducted in the Kalahari has indicated the existence of long distance exchange networks for lithic raw materials during the MSA and LSA, however, the characteristics of the suspected prehistoric exchange systems have not as yet been systematically and cogently studied. This study offers several hypotheses and attempts to formulate models to explain the nature as well as patterns of the evolution of the Kalahari Desert prehistoric long distance exchange networks. Using a heuristic approach this study helps clarify some of the aspects of the dynamics of past social and exchange systems in the study area and correlates them with paleoclimatic data.;In the final portion of this dissertation, I examine land use systems of MSA and early LSA peoples in the Kalahari Desert. A major objective was to assess the mobility strategies utilized through time and assess the implications in terms of hominid behavioral capabilities during the MSA and early LSA. Further, I correlate mobility patterns with the shifting paleoenvironmental conditions and conclude that the "modern" behavioral boundary between the MSA and the early LSA does in fact exist in the Kalahari Basin.