Justin Pargeter

About

Justin Pargeter is a faculty member associated with the African Paleosciences Laboratory at NYU. His research focuses on studying the behavioral, cognitive, and biological bases of toolmaking to understand human evolutionary history and behavioral variability. The laboratory's work primarily concentrates on southern African Pleistocene technologies, utilizing lithic analysis of archaeological specimens, experimental production of stone tools, and measurements of motor action and social learning related to toolmaking. Justin Pargeter oversees projects that involve fieldwork such as the P5 Pondoland Project and the Cango Valley Archaeology and Paleoscape Project (CAPP). He is also involved in facilitating research activities, providing access to laboratory equipment, and supporting graduate and undergraduate students interested in paleoanthropological and archaeological research.

Research topics

• Archaeology
• Geography
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Paleontology
• Biology
• Geology
• Demography
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Knowledge vs. know-how? Dissecting the foundations of stone knapping skill

  Journal of Human Evolution · 2020 · 86 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Miniaturization optimized weapon killing power during the social stress of late pre-contact North America (AD 600-1600)

  PLoS ONE · 2020 · 44 citations

  Before Europeans arrived to Eastern North America, prehistoric, indigenous peoples experienced a number of changes that culminated in the development of sedentary, maize agricultural lifeways of varying complexity. Inherent to these lifeways were several triggers of social stress including population nucleation and increase, intergroup conflict (warfare), and increased territoriality. Here, we examine whether this period of social stress co-varied with deadlier weaponry, specifically, the design…

  DOI

• Replicability in Lithic Analysis

  American Antiquity · 2023-04-01 · 40 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The ubiquity and durability of lithic artifacts inform archaeologists about important dimensions of human behavioral variability. Despite their importance, lithic artifacts can be problematic to study because lithic analysts differ widely in their theoretical approaches and the data they collect. The extent to which differences in lithic data relate to prehistoric behavioral variability or differences between archaeologists today remains incompletely known. We address this issue with th…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neuroplasticity enables bio-cultural feedback in Paleolithic stone-tool making

  Scientific Reports · 2023-02-18 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access

  Stone-tool making is an ancient human skill thought to have played a key role in the bio-cultural co-evolutionary feedback that produced modern brains, culture, and cognition. To test the proposed evolutionary mechanisms underpinning this hypothesis we studied stone-tool making skill learning in modern participants and examined interactions between individual neurostructural differences, plastic accommodation, and culturally transmitted behavior. We found that prior experience with other cultura…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Testing the Effect of Learning Conditions and Individual Motor/Cognitive Differences on Knapping Skill Acquisition

  Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · 2022-12-10 · 19 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Functional Analysis of Lithic Artifacts

  NSF · $19k · 2021–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Erich C. Fisher

  University of Algarve

  46 shared

• Irene Esteban

  Nelson Mandela University

  35 shared

• Metin I. Eren

  Kent State University

  30 shared

• Hayley C. Cawthra

  Nelson Mandela University

  29 shared

• Peter Mitchell

  University of Oxford

  28 shared

• Huw S. Groucutt

  University of Malta

  20 shared

• Alex Mackay

  19 shared

• Alice Leplongeon

  KU Leuven

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology

  Stony Brook University

  2017

• MA, Anthropology

  Stony Brook University

  2014

• M.Sc, Archaeology

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2009

• BSc. (Hons.), Archaeology

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2007

• BA, Archaeology

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2006

Similar researchers at New York University

• Susan Antónh-31
• Radu Iovitah-28
• Pam Crabtreeh-16