Anthropologists have long considered culture to be a defining attribute of humanity. Over the las... more Anthropologists have long considered culture to be a defining attribute of humanity. Over the last decade, however, primatologists have repeatedly asserted that great apes also possess culture. Whether or not great apes or other animals pass the `culture test' depends on how one defines culture. This article uses the terms `custom' and `symbolic culture' to distinguish socially transmitted behavioral patterns and symbolic systems of belief, each of which is sometimes called culture. Information presented here indicates that social customs are widespread among mammals. It remains questionable, however, whether any non-human animals possess symbolic cultures. Symbolism, teaching, imitation, speech, and gesture demand brain-size mediated neurological capacities possessed by few non-human species. These include fine motor skills and the ability to construct variable, complex motor acts, concepts, and objects from multiple components. Humans exceed all other animals in these ...
This is the first collection of articles completely and explicitly devoted to the new field of &#... more This is the first collection of articles completely and explicitly devoted to the new field of 'comparative developmental evolutionary psychology' - that is, to studies of primate abilities based on frameworks drawn from developmental psychology and evolutionary biology. These frameworks include Piagetian and neo-Piagetian models as well as psycholinguistic ones. The articles in this collection - originating in Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Canada and the United States - represent a variety of backgrounds in human and nonhuman primate research, including psycholinguistics, developmental psychology, cultural and physical anthropology, ethology, and comparative psychology. The book focuses on such areas as the nature of culture, intelligence, language, and imitation; the differences among species in mental abilities and developmental patterns; and the evolution of life histories and of mental abilities and their neurological bases. The species studied include the African grey parrot, cebus and macaque monkeys, gorillas, orangutans, and both common and pygmy chimpanzees.
... Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Chapter]. New perspectives on instincts and intelligence: Brai... more ... Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Chapter]. New perspectives on instincts and intelligence: Brain size and the emergence of hierarchical mental constructional skills. "Language" and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative developmental perspectives. ...
Preface Prologue: General introduction: Animal minds, human minds Kathleen Gibson A history of sp... more Preface Prologue: General introduction: Animal minds, human minds Kathleen Gibson A history of speculation on the relation between tools and language Gordon Hewes Part I. Word, Sign and Gesture: General introduction: Relations between visual-gestural and vocal-auditory modalities of communication Tim Ingold 1. Human gesture Adam Kendon 2. When does gesture become language? Susan Goldwin-Meadow 3. The emergence of language Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Duane Rumbaugh 4. A comparative approach to language parallels Charles Snowdon Part II. Technological Skills and Associated Social Behaviors of the Non-Human Primates: Introduction: Generative interplay between technical capacities, social relations, imitation and cognition Kathleen Gibson 5. Capuchin monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi 6. The intelligent use of tools William McGrew 7. Aspects of transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees Christophe Boesch Part III. Connecting Up The Brain: Introduction: Overlapping neural control of language, gesture and tool use Kathleen Gibson 8. Disorders of language and tool use Daniel Kempler 9. Sex differences in visuospatial skills Dean Falk 10. The unitary hypothesis William H. Calvin 11. Tool use, language and social behaviour in relationship to information processing capacities Kathleen Gibson Part IV. Perspectives on Development: Introduction: Beyond neotony and recapitulation Kathleen Gibson 12. Human language development and object manipulation Andrew Lock 13. Comparative cognitive development Jonas Langer 14. Higher intelligence, propositional language and culture as adaptations for planning Sue Parker and Constance Milbrath Part V. Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives: Introduction: Tools, techniques and technology Tim Ingold 15. Early stone industries and inferences regarding language and cognition Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick 16. Tools and language in human evolution Iain Davidson and William Noble 17. Layers of thinking in tool behaviour Thomas Wynn 18. The complementation theory of language and tool use Peter Reynolds 19. Tool-use, sociality and intelligence Tim Ingold Epilogue: Technology, language, intelligence Tim Ingold Index.
Darwin, Sex and Status argues that a human sociobiology that mistakes evolutionary theory for the... more Darwin, Sex and Status argues that a human sociobiology that mistakes evolutionary theory for theories of psychology and culture is wrong, as are psychologies that could never have evolved or social sciences that posit impossible psychologies. Status develops theories of human self-awareness, cognition, and cultural capacity that are compatible with evolutionary theory. Recurring themes include: the importance of sexual selection in human evolution; our species' preoccupation with self-esteem and relative standing; the individual as an active strategist, regularly revising culturally provided information; and awareness as an impressionmanagement device. Culture is a somewhat structured information pool that itself evolves, often in ways that reduce the genetic fitness of its participants.
Evolutionary studies in imaginative culture, Dec 31, 2017
Byrne, Richard W. 2016. Evolving Insight: How it is We Can Think About Why Things Happen. Oxford,... more Byrne, Richard W. 2016. Evolving Insight: How it is We Can Think About Why Things Happen. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 200 pages. Paperback $42.50.
Wilkins & Wakefield fall short of solving the language origin puzzle because they underes... more Wilkins & Wakefield fall short of solving the language origin puzzle because they underestimate the cognitive and linguistic capacities of great apes. A focus on ape capacities leads to the recognition of varied levels of cognition and language and to a gradualistic model of language emergence in which early hominid language skills exceed those of the apes but fall far short of those of modern humans or later fossil hominid groups.
Although we anthropologists are academically licensed mythologists charged with explaining how “t... more Although we anthropologists are academically licensed mythologists charged with explaining how “the man got his skin,” etc., our stories tend to suffer in plausibility from an absence of theory. In this paper we argue for the importance of theory for reconstructing the evolutionary history and adaptive significance of intelligence and language in our family.
... him. Page 228. 208 Kathleen Rita Gibson Many of Andy's manipulative schemes are used... more ... him. Page 228. 208 Kathleen Rita Gibson Many of Andy's manipulative schemes are used in social encounters. The nature ... me. John Kopecki, Jim Cook, and Keath Gibson have helped me care for Andy over the years. My interest ...
Anthropologists have long considered culture to be a defining attribute of humanity. Over the las... more Anthropologists have long considered culture to be a defining attribute of humanity. Over the last decade, however, primatologists have repeatedly asserted that great apes also possess culture. Whether or not great apes or other animals pass the `culture test' depends on how one defines culture. This article uses the terms `custom' and `symbolic culture' to distinguish socially transmitted behavioral patterns and symbolic systems of belief, each of which is sometimes called culture. Information presented here indicates that social customs are widespread among mammals. It remains questionable, however, whether any non-human animals possess symbolic cultures. Symbolism, teaching, imitation, speech, and gesture demand brain-size mediated neurological capacities possessed by few non-human species. These include fine motor skills and the ability to construct variable, complex motor acts, concepts, and objects from multiple components. Humans exceed all other animals in these ...
This is the first collection of articles completely and explicitly devoted to the new field of &#... more This is the first collection of articles completely and explicitly devoted to the new field of 'comparative developmental evolutionary psychology' - that is, to studies of primate abilities based on frameworks drawn from developmental psychology and evolutionary biology. These frameworks include Piagetian and neo-Piagetian models as well as psycholinguistic ones. The articles in this collection - originating in Japan, Spain, Italy, France, Canada and the United States - represent a variety of backgrounds in human and nonhuman primate research, including psycholinguistics, developmental psychology, cultural and physical anthropology, ethology, and comparative psychology. The book focuses on such areas as the nature of culture, intelligence, language, and imitation; the differences among species in mental abilities and developmental patterns; and the evolution of life histories and of mental abilities and their neurological bases. The species studied include the African grey parrot, cebus and macaque monkeys, gorillas, orangutans, and both common and pygmy chimpanzees.
... Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Chapter]. New perspectives on instincts and intelligence: Brai... more ... Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Chapter]. New perspectives on instincts and intelligence: Brain size and the emergence of hierarchical mental constructional skills. "Language" and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative developmental perspectives. ...
Preface Prologue: General introduction: Animal minds, human minds Kathleen Gibson A history of sp... more Preface Prologue: General introduction: Animal minds, human minds Kathleen Gibson A history of speculation on the relation between tools and language Gordon Hewes Part I. Word, Sign and Gesture: General introduction: Relations between visual-gestural and vocal-auditory modalities of communication Tim Ingold 1. Human gesture Adam Kendon 2. When does gesture become language? Susan Goldwin-Meadow 3. The emergence of language Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Duane Rumbaugh 4. A comparative approach to language parallels Charles Snowdon Part II. Technological Skills and Associated Social Behaviors of the Non-Human Primates: Introduction: Generative interplay between technical capacities, social relations, imitation and cognition Kathleen Gibson 5. Capuchin monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi 6. The intelligent use of tools William McGrew 7. Aspects of transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees Christophe Boesch Part III. Connecting Up The Brain: Introduction: Overlapping neural control of language, gesture and tool use Kathleen Gibson 8. Disorders of language and tool use Daniel Kempler 9. Sex differences in visuospatial skills Dean Falk 10. The unitary hypothesis William H. Calvin 11. Tool use, language and social behaviour in relationship to information processing capacities Kathleen Gibson Part IV. Perspectives on Development: Introduction: Beyond neotony and recapitulation Kathleen Gibson 12. Human language development and object manipulation Andrew Lock 13. Comparative cognitive development Jonas Langer 14. Higher intelligence, propositional language and culture as adaptations for planning Sue Parker and Constance Milbrath Part V. Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives: Introduction: Tools, techniques and technology Tim Ingold 15. Early stone industries and inferences regarding language and cognition Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick 16. Tools and language in human evolution Iain Davidson and William Noble 17. Layers of thinking in tool behaviour Thomas Wynn 18. The complementation theory of language and tool use Peter Reynolds 19. Tool-use, sociality and intelligence Tim Ingold Epilogue: Technology, language, intelligence Tim Ingold Index.
Darwin, Sex and Status argues that a human sociobiology that mistakes evolutionary theory for the... more Darwin, Sex and Status argues that a human sociobiology that mistakes evolutionary theory for theories of psychology and culture is wrong, as are psychologies that could never have evolved or social sciences that posit impossible psychologies. Status develops theories of human self-awareness, cognition, and cultural capacity that are compatible with evolutionary theory. Recurring themes include: the importance of sexual selection in human evolution; our species' preoccupation with self-esteem and relative standing; the individual as an active strategist, regularly revising culturally provided information; and awareness as an impressionmanagement device. Culture is a somewhat structured information pool that itself evolves, often in ways that reduce the genetic fitness of its participants.
Evolutionary studies in imaginative culture, Dec 31, 2017
Byrne, Richard W. 2016. Evolving Insight: How it is We Can Think About Why Things Happen. Oxford,... more Byrne, Richard W. 2016. Evolving Insight: How it is We Can Think About Why Things Happen. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 200 pages. Paperback $42.50.
Wilkins & Wakefield fall short of solving the language origin puzzle because they underes... more Wilkins & Wakefield fall short of solving the language origin puzzle because they underestimate the cognitive and linguistic capacities of great apes. A focus on ape capacities leads to the recognition of varied levels of cognition and language and to a gradualistic model of language emergence in which early hominid language skills exceed those of the apes but fall far short of those of modern humans or later fossil hominid groups.
Although we anthropologists are academically licensed mythologists charged with explaining how “t... more Although we anthropologists are academically licensed mythologists charged with explaining how “the man got his skin,” etc., our stories tend to suffer in plausibility from an absence of theory. In this paper we argue for the importance of theory for reconstructing the evolutionary history and adaptive significance of intelligence and language in our family.
... him. Page 228. 208 Kathleen Rita Gibson Many of Andy's manipulative schemes are used... more ... him. Page 228. 208 Kathleen Rita Gibson Many of Andy's manipulative schemes are used in social encounters. The nature ... me. John Kopecki, Jim Cook, and Keath Gibson have helped me care for Andy over the years. My interest ...
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