From the proceedings of a conference in Portugal in 1990, Gibson and Ingold have assembled a stim... more From the proceedings of a conference in Portugal in 1990, Gibson and Ingold have assembled a stimulating collection of empirical and theoretical studies from primatology, developmental psychology, archaeology, and social anthropology that attempt to get at the heart of how human beings differ from nonhuman primates and in what circumstances those differences might have appeared in hominine evolution. The most salient difference seems to be that in the ontogeny of nonhuman primates, "physical" and "logical" (including symbolic and referential) cognitions develop consecutively, whereas in humans they develop in tandem and recursively. This synergistic development produces what Gibson calls "constructional intelligence": a species-specific interdependence of what otherwise are functionally dissassociable aspects of cognition. Kempler reports that lexical and pantomimic (i.e., symbolic) deficits in Alzheimer's victims are not paralleled by deficits in syntax or motor behavior. This implies that highly organized serial-order functions--implicated in stone toolmaking and language syntax--are disassociated from the symbolic, referential aspect of cognition. Thus, the component parts of human constructional intelligence may have evolved in a mosaic fashion, with the serial-motor component--as reflected, for example, in left-hemisphere cortical structures--substantially antedating the symbolic/referential component. Since it is in the latter component that modern humans differ radically from even the most precocious bonobo, the behavior of Oldowan hominines may have differed less from that of living apes than is commonly assumed. McGrew, in fact, suggests that the Oldowan archaeological record could have been produced by pongids. His assertion is supported by contributions that review the technical, symbolic, and learning capacities of nonhuman primates and by others that challenge the assumption that
The question addressed by this volume is how human beings have evolved as creatures who can make ... more The question addressed by this volume is how human beings have evolved as creatures who can make and use more complex tools, communicate in more complex ways, and engage in more complex forms of social life, than any other species in the animal kingdom. Leading ...
From the proceedings of a conference in Portugal in 1990, Gibson and Ingold have assembled a stim... more From the proceedings of a conference in Portugal in 1990, Gibson and Ingold have assembled a stimulating collection of empirical and theoretical studies from primatology, developmental psychology, archaeology, and social anthropology that attempt to get at the heart of how human beings differ from nonhuman primates and in what circumstances those differences might have appeared in hominine evolution. The most salient difference seems to be that in the ontogeny of nonhuman primates, "physical" and "logical" (including symbolic and referential) cognitions develop consecutively, whereas in humans they develop in tandem and recursively. This synergistic development produces what Gibson calls "constructional intelligence": a species-specific interdependence of what otherwise are functionally dissassociable aspects of cognition. Kempler reports that lexical and pantomimic (i.e., symbolic) deficits in Alzheimer's victims are not paralleled by deficits in syntax or motor behavior. This implies that highly organized serial-order functions--implicated in stone toolmaking and language syntax--are disassociated from the symbolic, referential aspect of cognition. Thus, the component parts of human constructional intelligence may have evolved in a mosaic fashion, with the serial-motor component--as reflected, for example, in left-hemisphere cortical structures--substantially antedating the symbolic/referential component. Since it is in the latter component that modern humans differ radically from even the most precocious bonobo, the behavior of Oldowan hominines may have differed less from that of living apes than is commonly assumed. McGrew, in fact, suggests that the Oldowan archaeological record could have been produced by pongids. His assertion is supported by contributions that review the technical, symbolic, and learning capacities of nonhuman primates and by others that challenge the assumption that
The question addressed by this volume is how human beings have evolved as creatures who can make ... more The question addressed by this volume is how human beings have evolved as creatures who can make and use more complex tools, communicate in more complex ways, and engage in more complex forms of social life, than any other species in the animal kingdom. Leading ...
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Papers by Richard Milo