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Salagnon M, d'Errico F, Rigaud S, Mellet E. Assigning a social status from face adornments: an fMRI study. Brain Struct Funct 2024; 229:1103-1120. [PMID: 38546871 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-024-02786-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024]
Abstract
For at least 150,000 years, the human body has been culturally modified by the wearing of personal ornaments and probably by painting with red pigment. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the brain networks involved in attributing social status from face decorations. Results showed the fusiform gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and salience network were involved in social encoding, categorization, and evaluation. The hippocampus and parahippocampus were activated due to the memory and associative skills required for the task, while the inferior frontal gyrus likely interpreted face ornaments as symbols. Resting-state functional connectivity analysis clarified the interaction between these regions. The study highlights the importance of these neural interactions in the symbolic interpretation of social markers on the human face, which were likely active in early Homo species and intensified with Homo sapiens populations as more complex technologies were developed to culturalize the human face.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Salagnon
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, GIN, France
- Univ. Bordeaux, PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Pessac, France
| | - F d'Errico
- Univ. Bordeaux, PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Pessac, France
- SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - S Rigaud
- Univ. Bordeaux, PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Pessac, France
| | - E Mellet
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, GIN, France.
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2
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Bruner E. Cognitive archaeology, and the psychological assessment of extinct minds. J Comp Neurol 2024; 532:e25583. [PMID: 38289186 DOI: 10.1002/cne.25583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Evolutionary anthropology relies on both neontological and paleontological information. In the latter case, fields such as paleoneurology, neuroarchaeology, and cognitive archaeology are supplying new perspectives in prehistory and neuroscience. Cognitive archaeology, in particular, investigates the behaviors associated with extinct species or cultures according to specific psychological models. For example, changes in working memory, attention, or visuospatial integration can be postulated when related behavioral changes are described in the archaeological record. However, cognition is a process based on different and partially independent functional elements, and extinct species could hence have evolved distinct combinations of cognitive abilities or features, based on both quantitative and qualitative differences. Accordingly, differences in working memory can lead to more conceptual or more holistic mindsets, with important changes in the perception and management of the mental experience. The parietal cortex is particularly interesting, in this sense, being involved in functions associated with body-tool integration, attention, and visual imaging. In some cases, evolutionary mismatches among these elements can induce drawbacks that, despite their positive effects on natural selection, can introduce important constraints in our own mental skills. Beyond the theoretical background, some hypotheses can be tested following methods in experimental psychology. In any case, theories in cognitive evolution must acknowledge that, beyond the brain and its biology, the human mind is also deeply rooted in body perception, in social networks, and in technological extension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiliano Bruner
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
- Alzheimer's Centre Reina Sofia-CIEN Foundation-ISCIII, Madrid, Spain
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3
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Vaill M, Kawanishi K, Varki N, Gagneux P, Varki A. Comparative physiological anthropogeny: exploring molecular underpinnings of distinctly human phenotypes. Physiol Rev 2023; 103:2171-2229. [PMID: 36603157 PMCID: PMC10151058 DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00040.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2021] [Revised: 12/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Anthropogeny is a classic term encompassing transdisciplinary investigations of the origins of the human species. Comparative anthropogeny is a systematic comparison of humans and other living nonhuman hominids (so-called "great apes"), aiming to identify distinctly human features in health and disease, with the overall goal of explaining human origins. We begin with a historical perspective, briefly describing how the field progressed from the earliest evolutionary insights to the current emphasis on in-depth molecular and genomic investigations of "human-specific" biology and an increased appreciation for cultural impacts on human biology. While many such genetic differences between humans and other hominids have been revealed over the last two decades, this information remains insufficient to explain the most distinctive phenotypic traits distinguishing humans from other living hominids. Here we undertake a complementary approach of "comparative physiological anthropogeny," along the lines of the preclinical medical curriculum, i.e., beginning with anatomy and considering each physiological system and in each case considering genetic and molecular components that are relevant. What is ultimately needed is a systematic comparative approach at all levels from molecular to physiological to sociocultural, building networks of related information, drawing inferences, and generating testable hypotheses. The concluding section will touch on distinctive considerations in the study of human evolution, including the importance of gene-culture interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Vaill
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Kunio Kawanishi
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Experimental Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
| | - Nissi Varki
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Pascal Gagneux
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
| | - Ajit Varki
- Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
- Glycobiology Research and Training Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
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4
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de Sousa AA, Beaudet A, Calvey T, Bardo A, Benoit J, Charvet CJ, Dehay C, Gómez-Robles A, Gunz P, Heuer K, van den Heuvel MP, Hurst S, Lauters P, Reed D, Salagnon M, Sherwood CC, Ströckens F, Tawane M, Todorov OS, Toro R, Wei Y. From fossils to mind. Commun Biol 2023; 6:636. [PMID: 37311857 PMCID: PMC10262152 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04803-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Fossil endocasts record features of brains from the past: size, shape, vasculature, and gyrification. These data, alongside experimental and comparative evidence, are needed to resolve questions about brain energetics, cognitive specializations, and developmental plasticity. Through the application of interdisciplinary techniques to the fossil record, paleoneurology has been leading major innovations. Neuroimaging is shedding light on fossil brain organization and behaviors. Inferences about the development and physiology of the brains of extinct species can be experimentally investigated through brain organoids and transgenic models based on ancient DNA. Phylogenetic comparative methods integrate data across species and associate genotypes to phenotypes, and brains to behaviors. Meanwhile, fossil and archeological discoveries continuously contribute new knowledge. Through cooperation, the scientific community can accelerate knowledge acquisition. Sharing digitized museum collections improves the availability of rare fossils and artifacts. Comparative neuroanatomical data are available through online databases, along with tools for their measurement and analysis. In the context of these advances, the paleoneurological record provides ample opportunity for future research. Biomedical and ecological sciences can benefit from paleoneurology's approach to understanding the mind as well as its novel research pipelines that establish connections between neuroanatomy, genes and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Amélie Beaudet
- Laboratoire de Paléontologie, Évolution, Paléoécosystèmes et Paléoprimatologie (PALEVOPRIM), UMR 7262 CNRS & Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France.
- University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
| | - Tanya Calvey
- Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
| | - Ameline Bardo
- UMR 7194, CNRS-MNHN, Département Homme et Environnement, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France
- Skeletal Biology Research Centre, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Julien Benoit
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Christine J Charvet
- Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
| | - Colette Dehay
- University of Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Inserm, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute U1208, F-69500, Bron, France
| | | | - Philipp Gunz
- Department of Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Katja Heuer
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité de Neuroanatomie Appliquée et Théorique, F-75015, Paris, France
| | | | - Shawn Hurst
- University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Pascaline Lauters
- Institut royal des Sciences naturelles, Direction Opérationnelle Terre et Histoire de la Vie, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Denné Reed
- Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Mathilde Salagnon
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, GIN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
- PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Université Bordeaux, Pessac, France
| | - Chet C Sherwood
- Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Felix Ströckens
- C. & O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Mirriam Tawane
- Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Orlin S Todorov
- School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Roberto Toro
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité de Neuroanatomie Appliquée et Théorique, F-75015, Paris, France
| | - Yongbin Wei
- Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China
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5
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García-Medrano P, Martinón-Torres M, Ashton N. Introduction to special issue "Humans in transition: The occupation of Western Europe, 600-400 Ka". J Hum Evol 2023; 180:103388. [PMID: 37224624 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Paula García-Medrano
- Dept. Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum, Frank House, 56 Orsman Road, N1 5QJ, London, UK; UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France; Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain; Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain.
| | - María Martinón-Torres
- Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH), Paseo de la Sierra de Atapuerca 3, 09002, Burgos, Spain; Anthropology Department, University College London, London, UK
| | - Nick Ashton
- Dept. Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum, Frank House, 56 Orsman Road, N1 5QJ, London, UK
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6
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García-Medrano P, Moncel MH, Maldonado-Garrido E, Ollé A, Ashton N. The Western European Acheulean: Reading variability at a regional scale. J Hum Evol 2023; 179:103357. [PMID: 37060623 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 03/08/2023] [Accepted: 03/12/2023] [Indexed: 04/17/2023]
Abstract
In the context of the Western European Acheulean Project, this study aims to characterize Acheulean technology in Western Europe through the analysis of handaxes and cleavers from 10 key sites (Britain 4, France 4, and Spain 2) to acquire a regional view of the occupation. The historically different systems used to categorize and analyze the data have made it difficult to compare results. Here we apply a unified and simple method (Western European Acheulean Project) that combines the traditional technological and metrical analysis of assemblages containing handaxes and cleavers with an in-depth geometric morphometric approach using three-dimensional models. This approach allows us to achieve a regional interpretation that identifies innovations through time and shaping strategies across the area. Our findings indicate the existence of two main technological groups in the sampled record: 1) northwestern and central France and Britain, from MIS 17/16 to MIS 11, and 2) Atlantic edge (Atapuerca in Spain and Menez-Dregan in France), from MIS 12/11 to MIS 8. Based on our technological analysis, the shaping of handaxes and cleavers was developed through time as a continuum of accumulative actions, with longer and more complex shaping strategies over time. Shaping technology shows traditions of manufacture over both time and geographical areas, which suggest cultural diffusion. Our geometric morphometric analysis further helped to identify not only general trends but also local adaptations in handaxe forms. Based on our findings, there were no apparent sudden innovations, but rather the application and development of specific techniques to refine size and shape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paula García-Medrano
- Dept. Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum, Frank House, 56 Orsman Road N1 5QJ, London, UK; UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France; Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain; Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain.
| | - Marie-Hélène Moncel
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Elías Maldonado-Garrido
- Dept. Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum, Frank House, 56 Orsman Road N1 5QJ, London, UK
| | - Andreu Ollé
- Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain; Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Departament d'Història i Història de l'Art, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
| | - Nick Ashton
- Dept. Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum, Frank House, 56 Orsman Road N1 5QJ, London, UK
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7
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Manrique HM, Walker MJ. To copy or not to copy? That is the question! From chimpanzees to the foundation of human technological culture. Phys Life Rev 2023; 45:6-24. [PMID: 36931123 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2023.02.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023]
Abstract
A prerequisite for copying innovative behaviour faithfully is the capacity of observers' brains, regarded as 'hierarchically mechanistic minds', to overcome cognitive 'surprisal' (see 2.), by maximising the evidence for their internal models, through active inference. Unlike modern humans, chimpanzees and other great apes show considerable limitations in their ability, or 'Zone of Bounded Surprisal', to overcome cognitive surprisal induced by innovative or unorthodox behaviour that rarely, therefore, is copied precisely or accurately. Most can copy adequately what is within their phenotypically habitual behavioural repertoire, in which technology plays scant part. Widespread intra- and intergenerational social transmission of complex technological innovations is not a hall-mark of great-ape taxa. 3 Ma, precursors of the genus Homo made stone artefacts, and stone-flaking likely was habitual before 2 Ma. After that time, early Homo erectus has left traces of technological innovations, though faithful copying of these and their intra- and intergenerational social transmission were rare before 1 Ma. This likely owed to a cerebral infrastructure of interconnected neuronal systems more limited than ours. Brains were smaller in size than ours, and cerebral neuronal systems ceased to develop when early Homo erectus attained full adult maturity by the mid-teen years, whereas its development continues until our mid-twenties nowadays. Pleistocene Homo underwent remarkable evolutionary adaptation of neurobiological propensities, and cerebral aspects are discussed that, it is proposed here, plausibly, were fundamental for faithful copying, which underpinned social transmission of technologies, cumulative learning, and culture. Here, observers' responses to an innovation are more important for ensuring its transmission than is an innovator's production of it, because, by themselves, the minimal cognitive prerequisites that are needed for encoding and assimilating innovations are insufficient for practical outcomes to accumulate and spread intra- and intergenerationally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Héctor M Manrique
- Departamento de Psicología y Sociología, Universidad de Zaragoza, Campus Universitario de Teruel, 44003, Teruel, Spain.
| | - Michael J Walker
- Departamento de Zoología y Antropología Física, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus Universitario de Espinardo Edificio 20, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
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8
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Kulik V, Reyes LD, Sherwood CC. Coevolution of language and tools in the human brain: An ALE meta-analysis of neural activation during syntactic processing and tool use. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2023; 275:93-115. [PMID: 36841572 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Language and complex tool use are often cited as behaviors unique to humans and may be evolutionarily linked owing to the underlying cognitive processes they have in common. We executed a quantitative activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis (GingerALE 2.3) on published, whole-brain neuroimaging studies to identify areas associated with syntactic processing and/or tool use in humans. Significant clusters related to syntactic processing were identified in areas known to be related to language production and comprehension, including bilateral Broca's area in the inferior frontal gyrus. Tool use activation clusters were all in the left hemisphere and included the primary motor cortex and premotor cortex, in addition to other areas involved with sensorimotor transformation. Activation shared by syntactic processing and tool use was only significant at one cluster, located in the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus. This minimal overlap between syntactic processing and tool use activation from our meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies indicates that there is not a widespread common neural network between the two. Broca's area may serve as an important hub that was initially recruited in early human evolution in the context of simple tool use, but was eventually co-opted for linguistic purposes, including the sequential and hierarchical ordering processes that characterize syntax. In the future, meta-analyses of additional components of language may allow for a more comprehensive examination of the functional networks that underlie the coevolution of human language and complex tool use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronika Kulik
- Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States
| | - Laura D Reyes
- Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States
| | - Chet C Sherwood
- Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States.
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9
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Neuroplasticity enables bio-cultural feedback in Paleolithic stone-tool making. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2877. [PMID: 36807588 PMCID: PMC9938911 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29994-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 02/20/2023] Open
Abstract
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 culturally transmitted craft skills increased both initial stone tool-making performance and subsequent neuroplastic training effects in a frontoparietal white matter pathway associated with action control. These effects were mediated by the effect of experience on pre-training variation in a frontotemporal pathway supporting action semantic representation. Our results show that the acquisition of one technical skill can produce structural brain changes conducive to the discovery and acquisition of additional skills, providing empirical evidence for bio-cultural feedback loops long hypothesized to link learning and adaptive change.
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10
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Bruner E, Battaglia-Mayer A, Caminiti R. The parietal lobe evolution and the emergence of material culture in the human genus. Brain Struct Funct 2023; 228:145-167. [PMID: 35451642 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02487-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Traditional and new disciplines converge in suggesting that the parietal lobe underwent a considerable expansion during human evolution. Through the study of endocasts and shape analysis, paleoneurology has shown an increased globularity of the braincase and bulging of the parietal region in modern humans, as compared to other human species, including Neandertals. Cortical complexity increased in both the superior and inferior parietal lobules. Emerging fields bridging archaeology and neuroscience supply further evidence of the involvement of the parietal cortex in human-specific behaviors related to visuospatial capacity, technological integration, self-awareness, numerosity, mathematical reasoning and language. Here, we complement these inferences on the parietal lobe evolution, with results from more classical neuroscience disciplines, such as behavioral neurophysiology, functional neuroimaging, and brain lesions; and apply these to define the neural substrates and the role of the parietal lobes in the emergence of functions at the core of material culture, such as tool-making, tool use and constructional abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiliano Bruner
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
| | | | - Roberto Caminiti
- Neuroscience and Behavior Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Roma, Italy.
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11
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Salagnon M, Cremona S, Joliot M, d’Errico F, Mellet E. Neural correlates of perceiving and interpreting engraved prehistoric patterns as human production: Effect of archaeological expertise. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0271732. [PMID: 35921273 PMCID: PMC9348741 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been suggested that engraved abstract patterns dating from the Middle and Lower Palaeolithic served as means of representation and communication. Identifying the brain regions involved in visual processing of these engravings can provide insights into their function. In this study, brain activity was measured during perception of the earliest known Palaeolithic engraved patterns and compared to natural patterns mimicking human-made engravings. Participants were asked to categorise marks as being intentionally made by humans or due to natural processes (e.g. erosion, root etching). To simulate the putative familiarity of our ancestors with the marks, the responses of expert archaeologists and control participants were compared, allowing characterisation of the effect of previous knowledge on both behaviour and brain activity in perception of the marks. Besides a set of regions common to both groups and involved in visual analysis and decision-making, the experts exhibited greater activity in the inferior part of the lateral occipital cortex, ventral occipitotemporal cortex, and medial thalamic regions. These results are consistent with those reported in visual expertise studies, and confirm the importance of the integrative visual areas in the perception of the earliest abstract engravings. The attribution of a natural rather than human origin to the marks elicited greater activity in the salience network in both groups, reflecting the uncertainty and ambiguity in the perception of, and decision-making for, natural patterns. The activation of the salience network might also be related to the process at work in the attribution of an intention to the marks. The primary visual area was not specifically involved in the visual processing of engravings, which argued against its central role in the emergence of engraving production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathilde Salagnon
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, GIN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Sandrine Cremona
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, GIN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Marc Joliot
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, GIN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Francesco d’Errico
- PACEA UMR 5199, CNRS, Université Bordeaux, Pessac, France
- SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Emmanuel Mellet
- CNRS, CEA, IMN, GIN, UMR 5293, Université Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
- * E-mail:
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12
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Snyder WD, Reeves JS, Tennie C. Early knapping techniques do not necessitate cultural transmission. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabo2894. [PMID: 35857472 PMCID: PMC9258951 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo2894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Early stone tool production, or knapping, techniques are claimed to be the earliest evidence for cultural transmission in the human lineage. Previous experimental studies have trained human participants to knap in conditions involving opportunities for cultural transmission. Subsequent knapping was then interpreted as evidence for a necessity of the provided cultural transmission opportunities for these techniques. However, a valid necessity claim requires showing that individual learning alone cannot lead to early knapping techniques. Here, we tested human participants (N = 28) in cultural isolation for the individual learning of early knapping techniques by providing them with relevant raw materials and a puzzle task as motivation. Twenty-five participants were technique naïve according to posttest questionnaires, yet they individually learned early knapping techniques, therewith producing and using core and flake tools. Early knapping techniques thus do not necessitate cultural transmission of know-how and could likewise have been individually derived among premodern hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- William D. Snyder
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Jonathan S. Reeves
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Technological Primates Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Claudio Tennie
- Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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13
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Can a Neandertal meditate? An evolutionary view of attention as a core component of general intelligence. INTELLIGENCE 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2022.101668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
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14
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Structural Brain Asymmetries for Language: A Comparative Approach across Primates. Symmetry (Basel) 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/sym14050876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans are the only species that can speak. Nonhuman primates, however, share some ‘domain-general’ cognitive properties that are essential to language processes. Whether these shared cognitive properties between humans and nonhuman primates are the results of a continuous evolution [homologies] or of a convergent evolution [analogies] remain difficult to demonstrate. However, comparing their respective underlying structure—the brain—to determinate their similarity or their divergence across species is critical to help increase the probability of either of the two hypotheses, respectively. Key areas associated with language processes are the Planum Temporale, Broca’s Area, the Arcuate Fasciculus, Cingulate Sulcus, The Insula, Superior Temporal Sulcus, the Inferior Parietal lobe, and the Central Sulcus. These structures share a fundamental feature: They are functionally and structurally specialised to one hemisphere. Interestingly, several nonhuman primate species, such as chimpanzees and baboons, show human-like structural brain asymmetries for areas homologous to key language regions. The question then arises: for what function did these asymmetries arise in non-linguistic primates, if not for language per se? In an attempt to provide some answers, we review the literature on the lateralisation of the gestural communication system, which may represent the missing behavioural link to brain asymmetries for language area’s homologues in our common ancestor.
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15
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Stone toolmaking difficulty and the evolution of hominin technological skills. Sci Rep 2022; 12:5883. [PMID: 35393496 PMCID: PMC8989887 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09914-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Stone tools are a manifestation of the complex cognitive and dexterous skills of our hominin ancestors. As such, much research has been devoted to understanding the skill requirements of individual lithic technologies. Yet, comparing skill across different technologies, and thus across the vast timespan of the Palaeolithic, is an elusive goal. We seek to quantify a series of commensurable metrics of knapping skill across four different lithic technologies (discoids, handaxes, Levallois, and prismatic blades). To compare the requisite dexterity, coordination, and care involved in each technology, we analysed video footage and lithic material from a series of replicative knapping experiments to quantify deliberation (strike time), precision (platform area), intricacy (flake size relative to core size), and success (relative blank length). According to these four metrics, discoidal knapping appears to be easiest among the sample. Levallois knapping involved an intricate reduction sequence, but did not require as much motor control as handaxes and especially prismatic blades. Compared with the other Palaeolithic technologies, we conclude that prismatic blade knapping is set apart by being a skill intensive means of producing numerous standardised elongate end-products.
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16
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Cueva-Temprana A, Lombao D, Soto M, Itambu M, Bushozi P, Boivin N, Petraglia M, Mercader J. Oldowan Technology Amid Shifting Environments ∼2.03–1.83 Million Years Ago. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.788101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The Oldowan represents the earliest recurrent evidence of human material culture and one of the longest-lasting forms of technology. Its appearance across the African continent amid the Plio-Pleistocene profound ecological transformations, and posterior dispersal throughout the Old World is at the foundation of hominin technological dependence. However, uncertainties exist concerning the degree to which the Oldowan constitutes an environment-driven behavioral adaptation. Moreover, it is necessary to understand how Oldowan technology varied through time in response to hominin ecological demands. In this study, we present the stone tool assemblage from Ewass Oldupa, a recently discovered archeological site that signals the earliest hominin occupation of Oldupai Gorge (formerly Olduvai) ∼2.03 Ma. At Ewass Oldupa, hominins underwent marked environmental shifts over the course of a ∼200 kyr period. In this article, we deployed an analysis that combines technological and typological descriptions with an innovative quantitative approach, the Volumetric Reconstruction Method. Our results indicate that hominins overcame major ecological challenges while relying on technological strategies that remained essentially unchanged. This highlights the Oldowan efficiency, as its basic set of technological traits was able to sustain hominins throughout multiple environments.
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17
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Becker Y, Claidière N, Margiotoudi K, Marie D, Roth M, Nazarian B, Anton JL, Coulon O, Meguerditchian A. Broca area homologue's asymmetry reflects gestural communication lateralisation in monkeys (Papio anubis). eLife 2022; 11:70521. [PMID: 35108197 PMCID: PMC8846582 DOI: 10.7554/elife.70521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Manual gestures and speech recruit a common neural network, involving Broca’s area in the left hemisphere. Such speech-gesture integration gave rise to theories on the critical role of manual gesturing in the origin of language. Within this evolutionary framework, research on gestural communication in our closer primate relatives has received renewed attention for investigating its potential language-like features. Here, using in vivo anatomical MRI in 50 baboons, we found that communicative gesturing is related to Broca homologue’s marker in monkeys, namely the ventral portion of the Inferior Arcuate sulcus (IA sulcus). In fact, both direction and degree of gestural communication’s handedness – but not handedness for object manipulation are associated and correlated with contralateral depth asymmetry at this exact IA sulcus portion. In other words, baboons that prefer to communicate with their right hand have a deeper left-than-right IA sulcus, than those preferring to communicate with their left hand and vice versa. Interestingly, in contrast to handedness for object manipulation, gestural communication’s lateralisation is not associated to the Central sulcus depth asymmetry, suggesting a double dissociation of handedness’ types between manipulative action and gestural communication. It is thus not excluded that this specific gestural lateralisation signature within the baboons’ frontal cortex might reflect a phylogenetical continuity with language-related Broca lateralisation in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yannick Becker
- UMR7290, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Nicolas Claidière
- UMR7290, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Konstantina Margiotoudi
- UMR7290, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Damien Marie
- UMR7290, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Muriel Roth
- Centre IRMf Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Bruno Nazarian
- Centre IRM Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Jean-Luc Anton
- Centre IRM Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Olivier Coulon
- Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Adrien Meguerditchian
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
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18
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Mangalam M, Fragaszy DM, Wagman JB, Day BM, Kelty-Stephen DG, Bongers RM, Stout DW, Osiurak F. On the psychological origins of tool use. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 134:104521. [PMID: 34998834 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2021] [Revised: 12/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
The ubiquity of tool use in human life has generated multiple lines of scientific and philosophical investigation to understand the development and expression of humans' engagement with tools and its relation to other dimensions of human experience. However, existing literature on tool use faces several epistemological challenges in which the same set of questions generate many different answers. At least four critical questions can be identified, which are intimately intertwined-(1) What constitutes tool use? (2) What psychological processes underlie tool use in humans and nonhuman animals? (3) Which of these psychological processes are exclusive to tool use? (4) Which psychological processes involved in tool use are exclusive to Homo sapiens? To help advance a multidisciplinary scientific understanding of tool use, six author groups representing different academic disciplines (e.g., anthropology, psychology, neuroscience) and different theoretical perspectives respond to each of these questions, and then point to the direction of future work on tool use. We find that while there are marked differences among the responses of the respective author groups to each question, there is a surprising degree of agreement about many essential concepts and questions. We believe that this interdisciplinary and intertheoretical discussion will foster a more comprehensive understanding of tool use than any one of these perspectives (or any one of these author groups) would (or could) on their own.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madhur Mangalam
- Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Science, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
| | | | - Jeffrey B Wagman
- Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61761, USA
| | - Brian M Day
- Department of Psychology, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN 46208, USA
| | | | - Raoul M Bongers
- Department of Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9713 GZ Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Dietrich W Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon 69361, France; Institut Universitaire de France, Paris 75231, France
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19
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Interpopulational variation in human brain size: implications for hominin cognitive phylogeny. ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW 2022. [DOI: 10.2478/anre-2021-0029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Throughout the hominin lineage brain size is believed to have increased threefold – increase which, it is argued by some researchers, results in the enhanced brain power that distinguishes humans from any other living being. However, as we demonstrate in this article this supposed increase is the result of comparing the species mean of contemporary humans with other great apes and fossil hominins. This method obscures both interpopulational variation among modern humans, and the fact that the putative increases in the mean are the result of an increase in the upper limit in some populations, which has the result of obscuring the relative stasis in the lower limit over the last 600k years. For example, populations such as Aboriginal Australians have a range that is more different from Danes than it is from that of Asian H. erectus over the last 600ka. Yet Aboriginal Australians, whose unique anatomy seems to be related to the climatic conditions of Australia, possess all of the socio-cognitive traits characteristic of all other modern-day populations – yet they seemed not to have undergone increase in brain size to the degree that many other populations have. In this instance brain size seems to be unrelated to cognition. In this article we present a statistical analysis of interpopulational variation in contemporary humans and why such an analysis is crucial for our understanding of hominin cognitive, social and technological evolution. We also suggest how such variation may add to our understanding of hominin ontogeny or life history. Additionally, we develop a model based on humanity’s unique form of embodied social cognition that results from our upright bipedal posture and hand morphology. This model is then used to explain the results of our statistical analysis and the possible factors underpinning the human emergence.
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20
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Cognitive and behavioral modernity in Homo erectus: skull globularity and hominin brain evolution. ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW 2022. [DOI: 10.2478/anre-2021-0030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Abstract
In this article we provide evidence that evolutionary pressures altered the cranial base and the mastoid region of the temporal bone more than the calvaria in the transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens. This process seems to have resulted in the evolution of more globular skull shape – but not as a result of expansion of the brain in the parietal regions but of reduction of the cranial base and the mastoid region relative to the parietals. Consequently, we argue that expansion of the parietals seems to be unrelated to brain evolution, but is more a by-product of reduction in other regions of the skull, reduction that may be related to dietary factors. Additionally, these findings suggest that cognitive and behavioural modernity may not necessarily be dependent on brain shape. Also, it cannot be attributed to the change in brain size because H. erectus and modern human cranial capacities overlap substantially. Consequently, we suggest H. erectus possessed the full suite of cognitive adaptations characteristic of modern humans without possessing a globular skull with flared parietals. Our results also support the theory that paedomorphic morphogenesis of the skull was important in the transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens and that such changes may be related to both dietary factors and social evolution.
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21
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Silva-Gago M, Ioannidou F, Fedato A, Hodgson T, Bruner E. Visual Attention and Cognitive Archaeology: An Eye-Tracking Study of Palaeolithic Stone Tools. Perception 2021; 51:3-24. [PMID: 34967251 DOI: 10.1177/03010066211069504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
The study of lithic technology can provide information on human cultural evolution. This article aims to analyse visual behaviour associated with the exploration of ancient stone artefacts and how this relates to perceptual mechanisms in humans. In Experiment 1, we used eye tracking to record patterns of eye fixations while participants viewed images of stone tools, including examples of worked pebbles and handaxes. The results showed that the focus of gaze was directed more towards the upper regions of worked pebbles and on the basal areas for handaxes. Knapped surfaces also attracted more fixation than natural cortex for both tool types. Fixation distribution was different to that predicted by models that calculate visual salience. Experiment 2 was an online study using a mouse-click attention tracking technique and included images of unworked pebbles and 'mixed' images combining the handaxe's outline with the pebble's unworked texture. The pattern of clicks corresponded to that revealed using eye tracking and there were differences between tools and other images. Overall, the findings suggest that visual exploration is directed towards functional aspects of tools. Studies of visual attention and exploration can supply useful information to inform understanding of human cognitive evolution and tool use.
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Affiliation(s)
- María Silva-Gago
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
| | | | - Annapaola Fedato
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
| | - Timothy Hodgson
- College of Social Science, 4547University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
| | - Emiliano Bruner
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
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22
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A proof of concept for machine learning-based virtual knapping using neural networks. Sci Rep 2021; 11:19966. [PMID: 34620893 PMCID: PMC8497608 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-98755-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Prehistoric stone tools are an important source of evidence for the study of human behavioural and cognitive evolution. Archaeologists use insights from the experimental replication of lithics to understand phenomena such as the behaviours and cognitive capacities required to manufacture them. However, such experiments can require large amounts of time and raw materials, and achieving sufficient control of key variables can be difficult. A computer program able to accurately simulate stone tool production would make lithic experimentation faster, more accessible, reproducible, less biased, and may lead to reliable insights into the factors that structure the archaeological record. We present here a proof of concept for a machine learning-based virtual knapping framework capable of quickly and accurately predicting flake removals from 3D cores using a conditional adversarial neural network (CGAN). We programmatically generated a testing dataset of standardised 3D cores with flakes knapped from them. After training, the CGAN accurately predicted the length, volume, width, and shape of these flake removals using the intact core surface information alone. This demonstrates the feasibility of machine learning for investigating lithic production virtually. With a larger training sample and validation against archaeological data, virtual knapping could enable fast, cheap, and highly-reproducible virtual lithic experimentation.
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23
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Duke H, Feibel C, Harmand S. Before the Acheulean: The emergence of bifacial shaping at Kokiselei 6 (1.8 Ma), West Turkana, Kenya. J Hum Evol 2021; 159:103061. [PMID: 34481224 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Revised: 07/22/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
We present new evidence for the emergence of biface shaping from Kokiselei 6 in the Kokiselei Site Complex (KS) in West Turkana, Kenya. This rich and well-preserved new site presents an opportunity to investigate the earliest development of biface shaping. The emergence of biface shaping in lithic technology is often used as evidence for increased and/or novel cognitive abilities that contrast prior hominins' flaking capacities. Yet, recent research reveals a story of gradual change over time in a variety of different flaking and shaping strategies. Here, we present preliminary excavation and lithic data from Kokiselei 6 that will be critical for future investigations of biface shaping emergence at KS. Kokiselei preserves the oldest known Acheulean lithic assemblage, Kokiselei 4 (1.76 Ma), as well as several older sites. Geochronological research shows that Kokiselei 6 stratigraphically underlies Kokiselei 4 and is the oldest site in the complex at 1.8 Ma. The Kokiselei 6 excavation yielded thousands of piece-plotted lithic artifacts and faunal remains. Preliminary analysis of the lithics (n = 3856) indicates a prevalence of bifacial flaking strategies alongside minimal evidence for rough biface shaping. We argue that the flaking strategies observed from bifacial cores share similar operations and abilities as those involved in the production of the roughly shaped bifaces at the site. This preliminary evidence supports existing arguments that biface shaping emerged gradually out of variability in bifacial core reduction, ultimately leading to the systematic production of bifaces characteristic of the Acheulean. Future work teasing apart the processes of technological change at KS more broadly will be critical for understanding the emergence of biface shaping. These new data add to a growing narrative that opposes long-held assumptions about hominin cognitive evolution that suggest Acheulean technology required new, and more complex, cognitive abilities and gestures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hilary Duke
- Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Circle Rd., SBS Building S-501, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4364, USA.
| | - Craig Feibel
- Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, 131 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414, USA
| | - Sonia Harmand
- Department of Anthropology, Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Circle Rd., SBS Building S-501, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4364, USA; UMR 7055, CNRS - Université Paris Nanterre, MAE, 21 allée de l'Université, 92023 Nanterre Cedex, France
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24
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Stout D. The Cognitive Science of Technology. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:964-977. [PMID: 34362661 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2021] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Technology is central to human life but hard to define and study. This review synthesizes advances in fields from anthropology to evolutionary biology and neuroscience to propose an interdisciplinary cognitive science of technology. The foundation of this effort is an evolutionarily motivated definition of technology that highlights three key features: material production, social collaboration, and cultural reproduction. This broad scope respects the complexity of the subject but poses a challenge for theoretical unification. Addressing this challenge requires a comparative approach to reduce the diversity of real-world technological cognition to a smaller number of recurring processes and relationships. To this end, a synthetic perceptual-motor hypothesis (PMH) for the evolutionary-developmental-cultural construction of technological cognition is advanced as an initial target for investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
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25
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Birch J, Heyes C. The cultural evolution of cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200051. [PMID: 33993760 PMCID: PMC8126465 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
What makes fast, cumulative cultural evolution work? Where did it come from? Why is it the sole preserve of humans? We set out a self-assembly hypothesis: cultural evolution evolved culturally. We present an evolutionary account that shows this hypothesis to be coherent, plausible, and worthy of further investigation. It has the following steps: (0) in common with other animals, early hominins had significant capacity for social learning; (1) knowledge and skills learned by offspring from their parents began to spread because bearers had more offspring, a process we call CS1 (or Cultural Selection 1); (2) CS1 shaped attentional learning biases; (3) these attentional biases were augmented by explicit learning biases (judgements about what should be copied from whom). Explicit learning biases enabled (4) the high-fidelity, exclusive copying required for fast cultural accumulation of knowledge and skills by a process we call CS2 (or Cultural Selection 2) and (5) the emergence of cognitive processes such as imitation, mindreading and metacognition-'cognitive gadgets' specialized for cultural learning. This self-assembly hypothesis is consistent with archaeological evidence that the stone tools used by early hominins were not dependent on fast, cumulative cultural evolution, and suggests new priorities for research on 'animal culture'. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Birch
- Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK
| | - Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK
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26
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Moncel MH, García-Medrano P, Despriée J, Arnaud J, Voinchet P, Bahain JJ. Tracking behavioral persistence and innovations during the Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe. Shift in occupations between 700 and 450 ka at la Noira site (Centre, France). J Hum Evol 2021; 156:103009. [PMID: 34049270 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2020] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Some areas in Western Europe indicate hiatuses in human occupations, which cannot be systematically attributed to taphonomic factors and poor site preservation. The site of la Noira in the center of France records two occupation phases with a significant time gap. The older one is dated to around 700 ka (stratum a) with an Acheulean assemblage, among the earliest in Western Europe, and the upper phase of the sequence (stratum c) is dated to ca. 450 ka. Humans left the area at around 670 ka, at the beginning of the marine isotope stage (MIS) 16 glacial stage, when cold conditions became too severe. No sites between 650 and 450 ka have yet been discovered in the center region despite systematic surveys over the past three decades. The archaeological evidence indicates that populations returned to the area, at the end of MIS 12 or the beginning of the long interglacial MIS 11. Here, we use technological behaviors common to the two levels of la Noira-strata a and c to evaluate their differences. Compared to other key European sequences, this site can be used to address the evolution of the behavioral strategies in Europe between MIS 17 and 11. We formulate two hypotheses concerning the human settlement of this area: (1) local behavioral evolution over time of populations occasionally occupying the region when the climate was favorable or (2) dispersal and arrival of new populations from other areas. The results focus on (1) changes in land-use patterns with the extension of the territory used by hominins in the upper level, (2) the introduction of new core technologies, including some evidence of early Levallois debitage, and (3) more intensive shaping of bifaces and bifacial tools. Results attest that the la Noira archaeological assemblages record similar regional behavioral evolution as observed at a larger scale in Europe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Hélène Moncel
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France.
| | - Paula García-Medrano
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France; Dept. Britain, Europe and Prehistory, British Museum, Frank House, 56 Orsman Road, N1 5QJ, London, UK; Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana I Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain; Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Departament D'Història I Història de L'Art, Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
| | - Jackie Despriée
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Julie Arnaud
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France; Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Degli Studi di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
| | - Pierre Voinchet
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Jacques Bahain
- UMR 7194 HNHP, MNHN-CNRS-UPVD, Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, IPH 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris, France
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27
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Key AJM, Roberts DL, Jarić I. Statistical inference of earlier origins for the first flaked stone technologies. J Hum Evol 2021; 154:102976. [PMID: 33773284 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102976] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Revised: 02/13/2021] [Accepted: 02/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Identifying when hominins first produced Lomekwian, Oldowan, and Acheulean technologies is vital to multiple avenues of human origins research. Yet, like most archaeological endeavors, our understanding is currently only as accurate as the artifacts recovered and the sites identified. Here we use optimal linear estimation (OLE) modelling to identify the portion of the archaeological record not yet discovered, and statistically infer the date of origin of the earliest flaked stone technologies. These models provide the most accurate framework yet for understanding when hominins first produced these tool types. Our results estimate the Oldowan to have originated 2.617 to 2.644 Ma, 36,000 to 63,000 years earlier than current evidence. The Acheulean's origin is pushed back further through OLE, by at least 55,000 years to 1.815 to 1.823 Ma. We were unable to infer the Lomekwian's date of origin using OLE, but an upper bound of 5.1 million years can be inferred using alternative nonparametric techniques. These dates provide a new chronological foundation from which to understand the emergence of the first flaked stone technologies, alongside their behavioral and evolutionary implications. Moreover, they suggest there to be substantial portions of the artifact record yet to be discovered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alastair J M Key
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, UK.
| | - David L Roberts
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, UK
| | - Ivan Jarić
- Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic; University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Department of Ecosystem Biology, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
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Pargeter J, Khreisheh N, Shea JJ, Stout D. Knowledge vs. know-how? Dissecting the foundations of stone knapping skill. J Hum Evol 2020; 145:102807. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2020] [Revised: 04/02/2020] [Accepted: 04/02/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Stankova EP, Kruchinina OV, Shepovalnikov AN, Galperina EI. Evolution of the Central Mechanisms
of Oral Speech. J EVOL BIOCHEM PHYS+ 2020. [DOI: 10.1134/s0022093020030011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Wilkins J. Learner-driven innovation in the stone tool technology of early Homo sapiens. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e40. [PMID: 37588390 PMCID: PMC10427492 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.40] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Current perspectives of stone tool technology tend to emphasize homogeneity in tool forms and core reduction strategies across time and space. This homogeneity is understood to represent shared cultural traditions that are passed down through the generations. This represents a top-down perspective on how and why stone tools are manufactured that largely restricts technological agency to experts, adults and teachers. However, just as bottom-up processes driven by children and youth influence technological innovation today, they are likely to have played a role in the past. This paper considers evidence from the archaeological record of early Homo sapiens' lithic technology in Africa that may attest to our long history of bottom-up social learning processes and learner-driven innovation. This evidence includes the role of emulative social learning in generating assemblages with diverse reduction strategies, a high degree of technological fragmentation across southern Africa during some time periods, and technological convergence through the Pleistocene. Counter to some perspectives on the uniqueness of our species, our ability to learn independently, to 'break the rules' and to play, as opposed to conforming to top-down influences, may also account for our technological success.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayne Wilkins
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD4111, Australia; and Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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31
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Gallotti R, Mohib A, Fernandes P, El Graoui M, Lefèvre D, Raynal JP. Dedicated core-on-anvil production of bladelet-like flakes in the Acheulean at Thomas Quarry I - L1 (Casablanca, Morocco). Sci Rep 2020; 10:9225. [PMID: 32514002 PMCID: PMC7280310 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65903-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2019] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to produce large cutting tools (LCTs) is considered as the technological marker of the Acheulean and the indicator of a greater technological complexity compared to the previous Oldowan. Although Acheulean techno-complexes are also composed of a concurrent core-and-flake technology, the iconic handaxes have attracted more attention than any other lithic component. Consequently, little is known of the small and medium-sized flake productions (small flaking), especially starting from 1 Ma, when handaxe and cleaver manufacture becomes intensive and widespread across Africa, including the Atlantic coastal regions of Morocco. Research at Thomas Quarry I yielded a rich early Acheulean lithic assemblage, mainly composed of quartzite LCTs and small flaking, together with a small-sized flint production. Here, we report a particular aspect of this flint assemblage, i.e. a flint bladelet-like flake production. This process represents a discrete technical behaviour among those related to small flaking both in quartzite and flint: pebbles were flaked using the bipolar-on-anvil technique repeatedly employing a specific method to produce bladelet-like flakes. This production represents the oldest dated occurrence of bladelet-like technology in Africa and reveals technical competencies hitherto unknown for these periods, providing further elements for the techno-economic diversification of the African Acheulean.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosalia Gallotti
- Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, CNRS, LabEx Archimede - ANR-11-LABX-0032-01 - and UMR 5140 Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéennes, Campus Saint Charles, 34199, Montpellier, France. .,Université Bordeaux 1 UMR 5199 PACEA-PPP, Bâtiment B18 allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire CS 50023F, 33615, Pessac, Cedex, France.
| | - Abderrahim Mohib
- Centre d'interprétation du Patrimoine du Gharb, Direction provinciale de la Culture, Quartier administratif, Bd Mohamed V, Kenitra, Morocco
| | - Paul Fernandes
- Université Bordeaux 1 UMR 5199 PACEA-PPP, Bâtiment B18 allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire CS 50023F, 33615, Pessac, Cedex, France.,SARL Paleotime, 6173 rue Jean Séraphin Achard Picard, 38250, Villard-de-Lans, France
| | - Mohssine El Graoui
- Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Madinat Al Irfane, Angle rue N°5 et rue N°7, Rabat-Institut, BP, 6828, Rabat, Morocco
| | - David Lefèvre
- Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, CNRS, LabEx Archimede - ANR-11-LABX-0032-01 - and UMR 5140 Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéennes, Campus Saint Charles, 34199, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-Paul Raynal
- Université Bordeaux 1 UMR 5199 PACEA-PPP, Bâtiment B18 allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire CS 50023F, 33615, Pessac, Cedex, France.,Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
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Bandini E, Motes-Rodrigo A, Steele MP, Rutz C, Tennie C. Examining the mechanisms underlying the acquisition of animal tool behaviour. Biol Lett 2020; 16:20200122. [PMID: 32486940 PMCID: PMC7336849 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite major advances in the study of animal tool behaviour, researchers continue to debate how exactly certain behaviours are acquired. While specific mechanisms, such as genetic predispositions or action copying, are sometimes suspected to play a major role in behavioural acquisition, controlled experiments are required to provide conclusive evidence. In this opinion piece, we refer to classic ethological methodologies to emphasize the need for studying the relative contributions of different factors to the emergence of specific tool behaviours. We describe a methodology, consisting of a carefully staged series of baseline and social-learning conditions, that enables us to tease apart the roles of different mechanisms in the development of behavioural repertoires. Experiments employing our proposed methodology will not only advance our understanding of animal learning and culture, but as a result, will also help inform hypotheses about human cognitive, cultural and technological evolution. More generally, our conceptual framework is suitable for guiding the detailed investigation of other seemingly complex animal behaviours.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Bandini
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, The University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72070, Germany
| | - Alba Motes-Rodrigo
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, The University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72070, Germany
| | - Matthew P Steele
- Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK
| | - Christian Rutz
- Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK
| | - Claudio Tennie
- Department for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, The University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72070, Germany
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Grimaud-Hervé D, Albessard-Ball L, Pokhojaev A, Balzeau A, Sarig R, Latimer B, McDermott Y, May H, Hershkovitz I. The endocast of the late Middle Paleolithic Manot 1 specimen, Western Galilee, Israel. J Hum Evol 2020; 160:102734. [PMID: 32247528 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.102734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2018] [Revised: 11/21/2019] [Accepted: 12/02/2019] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Studying endocasts has long allowed anthropologists to examine changes in the external topography and the overall size of the brain throughout the evolutionary history of hominins. The nearly complete calvaria of Manot 1 presents an opportunity to gain insights into the external brain morphology, vascular system, and dimensions of the brain of this late Middle Paleolithic hominin. Detailed size and shape analyses of the Manot 1 endocast indicate a modern Homo sapiens anatomy, despite the presence of some primitive features of the calvaria. Traits considered to be derived endocranial features for H. sapiens are present in Manot 1, including an elongated parietal sagittal chord with an elevated superior part of the hemisphere, a widened posterior part of the frontal lobes, a considerable development of the parietal reliefs such as the supramarginal lobules, and a slight posterior projection of the occipital lobes. These findings, together with data presented in previous studies, rule out the possibility of a direct Neanderthal ancestry for the Manot 1 hominin and instead confirm its affiliation with H. sapiens. The Manot 1 calvaria is more similar to that of later Upper Paleolithic H. sapiens than it is to the earlier Levantine populations of Skhul and Qafzeh. The late Middle Paleolithic date of Manot 1 provides an opportunity to analyze the recent developments in human cerebral morphology and organization.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lou Albessard-Ball
- UMR 7194 - HNHP, Département Homme et Environnement, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France; PalaeoHub, Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK.
| | - Ariel Pokhojaev
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Departments of Orthodontics and Oral Biology, The Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
| | - Antoine Balzeau
- UMR 7194 - HNHP, Département Homme et Environnement, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France; Department of African Zoology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, B-3080, Tervuren, Belgium.
| | - Rachel Sarig
- Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Departments of Orthodontics and Oral Biology, The Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
| | - Bruce Latimer
- Department of Orthodontics, School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; Department of Anatomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
| | - Yvonne McDermott
- Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
| | - Hila May
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
| | - Israel Hershkovitz
- Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
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Shilton D, Breski M, Dor D, Jablonka E. Human Social Evolution: Self-Domestication or Self-Control? Front Psychol 2020; 11:134. [PMID: 32116937 PMCID: PMC7033472 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The self-domestication hypothesis suggests that, like mammalian domesticates, humans have gone through a process of selection against aggression - a process that in the case of humans was self-induced. Here, we extend previous proposals and suggest that what underlies human social evolution is selection for socially mediated emotional control and plasticity. In the first part of the paper we highlight general features of human social evolution, which, we argue, is more similar to that of other social mammals than to that of mammalian domesticates and is therefore incompatible with the notion of human self-domestication. In the second part, we discuss the unique aspects of human evolution and propose that emotional control and social motivation in humans evolved during two major, partially overlapping stages. The first stage, which followed the emergence of mimetic communication, the beginnings of musical engagement, and mimesis-related cognition, required socially mediated emotional plasticity and was accompanied by new social emotions. The second stage followed the emergence of language, when individuals began to instruct the imagination of their interlocutors, and to rely even more extensively on emotional plasticity and culturally learned emotional control. This account further illustrates the significant differences between humans and domesticates, thus challenging the notion of human self-domestication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dor Shilton
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Mati Breski
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Daniel Dor
- The Department of Communication, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Eva Jablonka
- The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
- Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS), London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom
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35
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Putt SS, Wijeakumar S, Spencer JP. Prefrontal cortex activation supports the emergence of early stone age toolmaking skill. Neuroimage 2019; 199:57-69. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Revised: 05/20/2019] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
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Pargeter J, Khreisheh N, Stout D. Understanding stone tool-making skill acquisition: Experimental methods and evolutionary implications. J Hum Evol 2019; 133:146-166. [PMID: 31358178 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.05.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2019] [Revised: 05/22/2019] [Accepted: 05/22/2019] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Despite its theoretical importance, the process of stone tool-making skill acquisition remains understudied and poorly understood. The challenges and costs of skill learning constitute an oft-neglected factor in the evaluation of alternative adaptive strategies and a potential source of bias in cultural transmission. Similarly, theory and data indicate that the most salient neural and cognitive demands of stone tool-making should occur during learning rather than expert performance. Unfortunately, the behavioral complexity and extensive learning requirements that make stone knapping skill acquisition an interesting object of study are the very features that make it so challenging to investigate experimentally. Here we present results from a multidisciplinary study of Late Acheulean handaxe-making skill acquisition involving twenty-six naïve participants and up to 90 hours training over several months, accompanied by a battery of psychometric, behavioral, and neuroimaging assessments. In this initial report, we derive a robust quantitative skill metric for the experimental handaxes using machine learning algorithms, reconstruct a group-level learning curve, and explore sources of individual variation in learning outcomes. Results identify particular cognitive targets of selection on the efficiency or reliability of tool-making skill acquisition, quantify learning costs, highlight the likely importance of social support, motivation, persistence, and self-control in knapping skill acquisition, and illustrate methods for reliably reconstructing ancient learning processes from archaeological evidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Pargeter
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; Rock Art Research Institute, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
| | | | - Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
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37
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Vandervert L. The evolution of theory of mind (ToM) within the evolution of cerebellar sequence detection in stone-tool making and language: implications for studies of higher-level cognitive functions in degenerative cerebellar atrophy. CEREBELLUM & ATAXIAS 2019; 6:1. [PMID: 31293790 PMCID: PMC6591877 DOI: 10.1186/s40673-019-0101-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Within the context of Clausi, Olivito, Lupo, Siciliano, Bozzali and Leggio's (Cell Neurosci 12:510, 2019) insightful study of how prediction of theory of mind (ToM) is compromised in degenerative cerebellar atrophy, this article describes how prediction can also be understood as the cerebro-cerebellar system's capacity to rapidly shift attention to manipulate cause-and-effect relationships embedded in language. METHOD The evolution of the capacity of ToM is described within the evolution of stone-tool making, language, and the origin of the phonological loop in verbal working memory. Specifically, it is argued that this evolutionary framework offers a way to get further inside the prediction process by illuminating how sub-vocal speech evolved during stone-tool evolution due to its adaptive refinement of early human ability to manipulate and hold in memory progressively more detailed cause-and-effect relationships in the origin of verbal working memory. CONCLUSION The addition of sub-vocal speech/cause-and-effect relationship to the analysis of prediction provides an evolutionary model of the mechanisms of ToM, which, in turn, brings forward additional cerebro-cerebellar mechanisms which can (1) further support Clausi, Olivito, Lupo et al's findings and (2) shed light on additional mechanisms that might further clarify what might be behind cerebellar dysfunction in the construction of ToM. Problems encountered by cerebellar degenerative atrophy patients with the Faux pas test and Advanced ToM task with unexpected events may stem from a combination of an inability (1) of their cerebellar internal models to rapidly switch attention among cause-and-effect elements of the stories and (2) to extend cerebellar internal models to the prediction of the resulting similar but unexpected events. That is, with both (1) and (2) occurring at the same time, alternative meanings of causes and effects might be missed in both automatic and consciously manipulated sub-vocal verbal working memory. A method to measure sub-vocal speech in this context is suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larry Vandervert
- American Nonlinear Systems, 1529 W. Courtland Avenue Spokane, Spokane, WA 99205-2608 USA
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38
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Fedato A, Silva‐Gago M, Terradillos‐Bernal M, Alonso‐Alcalde R, Martín‐Guerra E, Bruner E. Electrodermal activity during Lower Paleolithic stone tool handling. Am J Hum Biol 2019; 31:e23279. [DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2018] [Revised: 04/09/2019] [Accepted: 06/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Annapaola Fedato
- Programa de PaleobiologíaCentro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana Burgos Spain
| | - María Silva‐Gago
- Programa de PaleobiologíaCentro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana Burgos Spain
| | - Marcos Terradillos‐Bernal
- Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias SocialesUniversidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla Burgos Spain
| | | | | | - Emiliano Bruner
- Programa de PaleobiologíaCentro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana Burgos Spain
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Dos Santos M, West SA. The coevolution of cooperation and cognition in humans. Proc Biol Sci 2019; 285:rspb.2018.0723. [PMID: 29848655 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2018] [Accepted: 05/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperative behaviours in archaic hunter-gatherers could have been maintained partly due to the gains from cooperation being shared with kin. However, the question arises as to how cooperation was maintained after early humans transitioned to larger groups of unrelated individuals. We hypothesize that after cooperation had evolved via benefits to kin, the consecutive evolution of cognition increased the returns from cooperating, to the point where benefits to self were sufficient for cooperation to remain stable when group size increased and relatedness decreased. We investigate the theoretical plausibility of this hypothesis, with both analytical modelling and simulations. We examine situations where cognition either (i) increases the benefits of cooperation, (ii) leads to synergistic benefits between cognitively enhanced cooperators, (iii) allows the exploitation of less intelligent partners, and (iv) the combination of these effects. We find that cooperation and cognition can coevolve-cooperation initially evolves, favouring enhanced cognition, which favours enhanced cooperation, and stabilizes cooperation against a drop in relatedness. These results suggest that enhanced cognition could have transformed the nature of cooperative dilemmas faced by early humans, thereby explaining the maintenance of cooperation between unrelated partners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel Dos Santos
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Stuart A West
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
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40
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Bruner E, Fedato A, Silva-Gago M, Alonso-Alcalde R, Terradillos-Bernal M, Fernández-Durantes MÁ, Martín-Guerra E. Visuospatial Integration and Hand-Tool Interaction in Cognitive Archaeology. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2019; 41:13-36. [PMID: 30547431 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2018_71] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Testing cognitive hypotheses in extinct species can be challenging, but it can be done through the integration of independent sources of information (e.g., anatomy, archaeology, neurobiology, psychology), and validated with quantitative and experimental approaches. The parietal cortex has undergone changes and specializations in humans, probably in regions involved in visuospatial integration. Visual imagery and hand-eye coordination are crucial for a species with a remarkable technological and symbolic capacity. Hand-tool relationships are not only a matter of spatial planning but involve deeper cognitive levels that concern body cognition, self-awareness, and the ability to integrate tools into body schemes, extending the body's functional and structural range. Therefore, a co-evolution between body and technology is to be expected not only in terms of anatomical correspondence but also in terms of cognitive integration. In prehistory, lithic tools are crucial in the interpretation of the cognitive abilities of extinct human species. The shape of tools and the grasping patterns associated with the corresponding haptic experience can supply some basic quantitative approaches to evaluate changes in the archaeological record. At the physiological level, electrodermal activity can be used as proxy to investigate the cognitive response during haptic experiences, revealing differences between tools and between subjects. These approaches can be also useful to evaluate whether and to what extent our complex cognitive resources are based on the capacity to export and delegate functions to external technological components.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiliano Bruner
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain.
| | - Annapaola Fedato
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
| | - María Silva-Gago
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
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41
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The expansion of later Acheulean hominins into the Arabian Peninsula. Sci Rep 2018; 8:17165. [PMID: 30498259 PMCID: PMC6265249 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-35242-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2018] [Accepted: 10/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The Acheulean is the longest lasting cultural–technological tradition in human evolutionary history. However, considerable gaps remain in understanding the chronology and geographical distribution of Acheulean hominins. We present the first chronometrically dated Acheulean site from the Arabian Peninsula, a vast and poorly known region that forms more than half of Southwest Asia. Results show that Acheulean hominin occupation expanded along hydrological networks into the heart of Arabia from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 until at least ~190 ka – the youngest documented Acheulean in Southwest Asia. The site of Saffaqah features Acheulean technology, characterized by large flakes, handaxes and cleavers, similar to Acheulean assemblages in Africa. These findings reveal a climatically-mediated later Acheulean expansion into a poorly known region, amplifying the documented diversity of Middle Pleistocene hominin behaviour across the Old World and elaborating the terminal archaic landscape encountered by our species as they dispersed out of Africa.
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Sanz M, Sala N, Daura J, Pantoja-Pérez A, Santos E, Zilhão J, Arsuaga JL. Taphonomic inferences about Middle Pleistocene hominins: The human cranium of Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2018; 167:615-627. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2018] [Revised: 07/04/2018] [Accepted: 07/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Montserrat Sanz
- Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas; Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Madrid Spain
- Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos; Madrid Spain
| | - Nohemi Sala
- Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos; Madrid Spain
| | - Joan Daura
- Departament d'Història i Arqueologia. Universitat de Barcelona; Grup de Recerca del Quaternari (GRQ)-SERP; Barcelona Spain
| | - Ana Pantoja-Pérez
- Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos; Madrid Spain
| | - Elena Santos
- Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos; Madrid Spain
- Laboratorio de Evolución Humana; Universidad de Burgos; Burgos Spain
| | - João Zilhão
- UNIARQ-Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa; Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa; Portugal
- Departament d'Història i Arqueologia; Universitat de Barcelona; Barcelona Spain
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies; Barcelona Spain
| | - Juan Luis Arsuaga
- Departamento de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas; Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Madrid Spain
- Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos; Madrid Spain
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Key AJM, Dunmore CJ. Manual restrictions on Palaeolithic technological behaviours. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5399. [PMID: 30128191 PMCID: PMC6098946 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2018] [Accepted: 07/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The causes of technological innovation in the Palaeolithic archaeological record are central to understanding Plio-Pleistocene hominin behaviour and temporal trends in artefact variation. Palaeolithic archaeologists frequently investigate the Oldowan-Acheulean transition and technological developments during the subsequent million years of the Acheulean technocomplex. Here, we approach the question of why innovative stone tool production techniques occur in the Lower Palaeolithic archaeological record from an experimental biomechanical and evolutionary perspective. Nine experienced flintknappers reproduced Oldowan flake tools, ‘early Acheulean’ handaxes, and ‘late Acheulean’ handaxes while pressure data were collected from their non-dominant (core-holding) hands. For each flake removal or platform preparation event performed, the percussor used, the stage of reduction, the core securing technique utilised, and the relative success of flake removals were recorded. Results indicate that more heavily reduced, intensively shaped handaxes with greater volumetric controls do not necessarily require significantly greater manual pressure than Oldowan flake tools or earlier ‘rougher’ handaxe forms. Platform preparation events do, however, require significantly greater pressure relative to either soft or hard hammer flake detachments. No significant relationships were identified between flaking success and pressure variation. Our results suggest that the preparation of flake platforms, a technological behaviour associated with the production of late Acheulean handaxes, could plausibly have been restricted prior to the emergence of more forceful precision-manipulative capabilities than those required for earlier lithic technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alastair J M Key
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher J Dunmore
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
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Fuentes A. How Humans and Apes Are Different, and Why It Matters. JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018. [DOI: 10.1086/697150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Kolodny O, Feldman MW, Creanza N. Integrative studies of cultural evolution: crossing disciplinary boundaries to produce new insights. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2018; 373:20170048. [PMID: 29440515 PMCID: PMC5812962 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/11/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Culture evolves according to dynamics on multiple temporal scales, from individuals' minute-by-minute behaviour to millennia of cultural accumulation that give rise to population-level differences. These dynamics act on a range of entities-including behavioural sequences, ideas and artefacts as well as individuals, populations and whole species-and involve mechanisms at multiple levels, from neurons in brains to inter-population interactions. Studying such complex phenomena requires an integration of perspectives from a diverse array of fields, as well as bridging gaps between traditionally disparate areas of study. In this article, which also serves as an introduction to the current special issue, we highlight some specific respects in which the study of cultural evolution has benefited and should continue to benefit from an integrative approach. We showcase a number of pioneering studies of cultural evolution that bring together numerous disciplines. These studies illustrate the value of perspectives from different fields for understanding cultural evolution, such as cognitive science and neuroanatomy, behavioural ecology, population dynamics, and evolutionary genetics. They also underscore the importance of understanding cultural processes when interpreting research about human genetics, neuroscience, behaviour and evolution.This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oren Kolodny
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Nicole Creanza
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Wynn
- Department of Anthropology, Center for Cognitive Archaeology; University of Colorado
| | - John Gowlett
- Department of Archaeology, Classics, and Egyptology; University of Liverpool; United Kingdom
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Semaw S, Rogers MJ, Cáceres I, Stout D, Leiss AC. The Early Acheulean ~1.6–1.2 Ma from Gona, Ethiopia: Issues related to the Emergence of the Acheulean in Africa. VERTEBRATE PALEOBIOLOGY AND PALEOANTHROPOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-75985-2_6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Bruner E, Fedato A, Silva-Gago M, Alonso-Alcalde R, Terradillos-Bernal M, Fernández-Durantes MÁ, Martín-Guerra E. Cognitive archeology, body cognition, and hand–tool interaction. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2018; 238:325-345. [DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.06.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
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Herzlinger G, Wynn T, Goren-Inbar N. Expert cognition in the production sequence of Acheulian cleavers at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel: A lithic and cognitive analysis. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0188337. [PMID: 29145489 PMCID: PMC5690685 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2017] [Accepted: 11/03/2017] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Stone cleavers are one of the most distinctive components of the Acheulian toolkit. These tools were produced as part of a long and complex reduction sequence and they provide indications for planning and remarkable knapping skill. These aspects hold implications regarding the cognitive complexity and abilities of their makers and users. In this study we have analyzed a cleaver assemblage originating from the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel, to provide a reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire which structured their production. This reduction sequence was taken as the basis for a cognitive analysis which allowed us to draw conclusion regarding numerous behavioral and cognitive aspects of the GBY hominins. The results indicate that the cleavers production incorporated a highly specific sequence of decisions and actions which resulted in three distinct modes of cleavers modification. Furthermore, the decision to produce a cleaver must have been taken very early in the sequence, thus differentiating its production from that of handaxes. The substantial predetermination and the specific reduction sequence provide evidence that the Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov hominins had a number of cognitive categories such as a general ‘tool concept’ and a more specific ‘cleaver concept’, setting them apart from earlier tool-producing hominins and extant tool-using non-human primates. Furthermore, it appears that the Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov lithic technology was governed by expert cognition, which is the kind of thinking typical of modern human experts in their various domains. Thus, the results provide direct indications that important components of modern cognition have been well established in the minds of the Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov hominins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gadi Herzlinger
- Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- * E-mail:
| | - Thomas Wynn
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Naama Goren-Inbar
- Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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