A critical analysis of the debate that has surrounded the emergence of “modern behavior” during the last two decades and new ways to study material culture and human-environment relationships allow us to design a novel approach with which we can understand the mechanisms that have led human populations to develop the variety of cultures that we recognize today. We propose a methodological framework that moves away from narrative explanations for the origin of “behavioral modernity” and instead focuses on the interplay between cultural adaptation and environmental change. We argue that by applying this approach to the many different instances of cultural change as well as stasis that characterized the last 300 kyr of human societies we may identify the mechanisms that have led us to become what we are and, if any, the underlying trends that guided this process.