Making Friends, Making Tools, Making Symbols.

1. Making Friends, Making Tools, Making Symbols.

2. Introduction • In the past the steps toward the human mind were seen as unitary • Recent research by Clayton, Bussy, and Dickson (2003); Slocombe and Zuberbuhler (2006); and Tomasello, Carpenter, Call, Behe, and Mull (2005) are just some that call this into question. • It is safe to assume our hominin ancestors built upon rudimentary capacities and incrementally became homo sapiens.

3. The Debate • Stringer and Gamble portrays symbolism as unitary (all or nothing). One day nothing existed and then BAM! Suddenly we have symbolism. • Bar-Yosef and Wadley disagree. They portray symbolism as emergent, developing as time moved on • Peirce’s progressive stages of referential thinking aid support to Bar-Yosef and Wadley’s position.

4. Peirce’s Three Progressive Stages Revisited. • Iconic: bears a perceptual or physical resemblance to things they signify (a round pebble signifying a soccer ball) • Indexical: associate to what they symbolize by temporal or spatial means (weather vane as wind) • Symbolic: the relationship is arbitrary (eagle headed man statue as statue and shaman/spiritual figure)

5. Symbolic Referents • Deacons work elaborates on how indexical referents build upon iconic ones and symbolic referents from indexical ones. • Neuroscience studies show that extensive “brain power” is required for symbolic function. • Also a broad network of structures is necessary for the acquisition of symbolic function. • A broad network of structures are necessary for the acquisition of symbolic function (inferior temporal cortex and the DLPFC)

6. Symbolic Formation • In the Peircian context, symbols do not appear ex nihilo (out of nothing) • Iconic and indexical symbols provide a basis explaining Bar-Yosef’s “low-level” symbolism and Wadley’s varying degrees of “symbolic complexity” • This raises the possibility that the human mind was preceded by hominin minds capable of lesser forms of referential thinking.

7. Iconic Artifacts

8. Iconic Artifacts • Evidence of red ochre and other pigments as far back as 300,000ybp • Barham (2000, 2002) had unearthed over 300 pieces dating as far back as 270,000ybp and argues that the wide variety argues against purely practical use. • Pigments were transported from remote sites and show evidence of modification • Evidence from Knight, Power, Watts (1995) found not only practical but symbolic use.

9. Iconic Artifact Uses • Kuhn & Stiner (2007) state this use of pigments was probably to enhance or alter appearance making the user more dramatic, impressive, or intimidating. • Knight et. al. (1995) proposed that red ochre could have also signified menstrual blood and the fertility associated with it • The both agree the meaning is tied to the perceptual appearance (it or what it enhances) acting as an iconic referent.

10. Other Iconic Artifacts • The Makapansgat jasper cobblestone and the Berekhat Ram figurine. • Both were seen to be intentionally modified

11. More Recent Examples

12. Tsodilo Snake Rock

13. Indexical Referents

14. Indexical Artifacts • Beads and body ornamentation may fit as early indexical referents • Evidence is seen in 13 ostrich egg shell beads from Enkapune Ya Muto, Kenya from 40,000ybp • Recent finds have uncovered shell beads that date over 75,000ybp • Even older beads (100-135,000ybp) were found at the Skhul site in Isreal and Oued Djebbana, Algeria. (they were transported from distant coastal regions)

15. Hxaro (schwar-o) • Hxaro is the custom amongst the Kalahari San to create partnerships between peoples, as most live great distances apart. • Rossano states this transport to other locations may have been facilitated by gift giving • Amongst the !Kung hunter gatherers, beads such as these are often used as gifts reinforcing relationships among different groups of people.

16. True Value • The value of these beads came from what they represented when worn. • Beads from Blombos were threaded for use as a necklace or bracelet and some were stained with red ochre. • This showed intention for use as body adornment. • Gamble states it was about identity. They showed social status, family connections, and resource holdings.

17. Intertribal Status • Vanhaeren & d’Errico found that roughly contemporaneous grave sites with differences in source materials and manufacturing style are found. • The shows what seems to be careful markers differentiating one group from another • Certain tribes were identified by their beads, others would be used for status recognition. • An abundance of beads would indicate a rich network of friends and allies

18. Iconic to Indexical • Levels of reference can overlap at higher levels • This is a natural mechanism for the evolution of sophisticated systems of reference. • A ritual where red is displayed during hunting (stabbing, bleeding) • Non-human primates can not respond to references to remote to connect (blood drips and tracks for hunting) • Our hominin ancestors connected these perceptual cues with increasingly remote spatial and temporal events to create indexical referents. • It is possible that through not only an increasingly complex social life and complex tool manufacture that our ancestors moved from iconic to high levels of indexical thought.

19. Social Selection Pressures • The earliest pressures for indexical thoughts were probably social. • Nowell discusses how life history factors changed among later H. erectus infancts as their childhoods were extended & they were born in increasingly altricial states. • Some degree of male provisioning becomes necessary, however this requires a shift from multi-male/multi-female society to one with more parental certainty.

20. Social Selection Cont. • How does one erectus make sure that they are provisioning for their own children. • Deacon (1997) believes that the solution was the creation of a pair-bonding ritual. • This supports the idea H. erectus could read more remotely displaces signs related to more value

21. Tool Making and Indexical Thinking • If the social pressures became evident later, they would only barely precede pressures associated with tool-making. • Wadley and Ambrose date composite tool making as far back as 300,000ybp. • It makes special demands on cognitive systems and an advantage comes with those who can read signs emerging through the process to determine future viability

22. Handaxes and Indexical Thought • Late Acheulean handaxes (500,000ybp) may show important cognitive advance • Studies show tool also took a high degree of skill. • Some state the later state of the tool can be explained to resource availability and sharpening • Kohn suggests they may have served as an important function in mate selection.

23. Handaxes Cont. • This predicts that tool construction demand and social pressures acted as mechanisms during hominin referent advancement. • They are even seen in beads and ornamentation in the Neanderthals. • This shows unique pressures for homo sapiens pushing us toward symbolic thought (through complex social lives.)

24. Emergence of Symbolism • Many Upper Paleolithic homo sapiens art not only contains iconic or indexical elements but culturally defined ones.

25. The Big Move • This places an enormous demand on memory capacity. • Deacon adds it requires a predisposition to deal with difficult associative relationships and maintain items under distractive situations. • Klien states human cognition resulted from a fortuitous genetic mutation enhanced working memory capacity • This allowed us to better sustain attention on ongoing tasks • Can also show a path for the emergence of symbolic reference from indexical.

26. Trade Networks • Our ancestors best able to track social relationships, build strategic alliances, and make critical judgments about both interactions and trustworthiness gained a fitness advantage. • A study found measures of social interaction as a reliable predictor of cognitive performance and that 10 min. of interaction boosted speed of processing and working memory performance

27. Trade Networks Cont. • Evidence shows trade networks as far back as 70,000ybp. • Evidence from the Howiesons Port and Mumba industries show non-local, microlithic artifacts showing an extensive trade network. • Toba eruption 73,000ybp may have spurned this • Evidence is also seen in Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal hunting strategies though nearly the same, the Cro-Magnons had more extensive social networks.

28. Taxing of Mental Resources • Increased the frequency of novel, less predictable social/cognitive engagements. • Forced understanding beyond a practical or utilitarian value. • Expanded trade networks added high demands on communication skills • Complex social world added pressure on ritual behaviors.

29. Ritual Healing and Enhanced Working Memory • As the social world of early h. sapiens became more complex ritual behavior became increasingly more important to develop between-group alliances and maintain in-group relationships. • Under the stresses of resource scarcity, groups with more effective in and out group rituals experienced more selective success

30. Healing Power • Group rituals involving repetitive rhythmic ritual activity can induce health enhancing altered states of consciousness. • Found to be effective on many aliments. • McClenon (2002) and Rossano (2007) argue that rital healing was an important selective force in our evolutionary past.

31. Hypnotizability • Those who are more susceptible had an advantage in overcoming injury, disease, and easier childbirths. • The same brain areas (DLPFC & anterior cingulate) are important for walking memory

32. And the Gregarious Shall Inherit the Earth • 100,000 ybp Neanderthals ran h. sapiens out of Europe. • 70,000 ybp the population bottleneck associated with ecological degradation and a population expansion in Africa occurred. • The ecological degradation forced expansion of social networks • Soon after a more socially sophisticated h. sapiens emerged and spread across the world. • It was through trade networks and ritual behavior that working memory was expanded and flourished as a successful trait, giving us grater fitness over all other species of the world