ABSTRACT
Whether these early modern humans were as reflective and egalitarian in formulating norms as appears in this account or not, there is plenty of evidence from ethnographic reports of more recent hunter-gatherers that they are quite egalitarian, and talk a lot about, as well as jointly regulate, each other’s ethical behavior through shared norms. What is certain is that nothing like this regulation of moral behavior by group-determined ethical norms occurs in our nearest great ape relative, the chimpanzee, or in any other animal. So the puzzle of hominin evolution of morality is very much tied to the evolution of normative practice, which involves group-or culturally-based rules, whether explicitly delineated or not, that determine how one should or must behave with respect to others, and not merely describe how one does behave.
