Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-lqqdg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-09T23:17:02.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stone Tools and the Linguistic Capabilities of Earlier Hominids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

James Steele ,
Angus Quinlan  and
Francis Wenban-Smith
James Steele
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ
Angus Quinlan
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ
Francis Wenban-Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The evolution of human manipulative abilities may be clearly linked to the evolution of speech motor control Both creativity and complexity in vocal and manipulative gestures may be closely linked to a single dimension of brain evolution — the evolution of absolute brain size. Inferring the linguistic capabilities of earlier hominids from their lithic artefacts, however, required us to take account of domain-specific constraints on manipulative skill In this article we report on a pilot flint-knapping experiment designed to identify such constraints ‘in action’.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , October 1995 , pp. 245 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, J.A., 1987. Historical review and appraisal of research on the learning, retention, and transfer of human motor skills. Psychological Bulletin 101, 41–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annett, J., 1993. The learning of motor skills: sports science and ergonomics perspectives. Ergonomics 37, 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, E., Zilles, K. & Schleicher, A., 1993. Cortical folding and the evolution of the human brain. Journal of Human Evolution 25, 387–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellugi, U., Bihrle, A. & Corina, D., 1991. Linguistic and spatial development: dissociations between cognitive domains, in Biological and Behavioral Determinants of Language Development, eds. Krasnegor, N.A., Rumbaugh, D.M., Schiefelbusch, R.L. & Studdert-Kennedy, M.. Hillsdale (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum, 363–93.Google Scholar
Bradley, B. & Sampson, C.G., 1986. Analysis by replication of two Acheulian artefact assemblages from Caddington, England, in Stone Age Prehistory, eds. Bailey, G.N. & Callow, P.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 29–45.Google Scholar
Bril, B., 1991. Les gestes de percussion: analyse d'un mouvement technique, in Savoir Faire et Pouvoir Transmettre, ed. Chevallier, D.. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 61–80.Google Scholar
Brodmann, K., 1912. Ergebnisse über die vergleichende histologische Lokalisation der Grosshirnrinde mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Stirnhirns. Anatomische Anzeiger (Suppl.) 41, 157–216.Google Scholar
Calvin, W.H., 1994. The emergence of intelligence. Scientific American 271(4), 79–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clarke, A.S. & Boinski, S., forthcoming. Temperament and responsivity in nonhuman primates. American Journal of Primatology, submitted.Google Scholar
Cromer, R.F., 1974. The development of language and cognition: the cognition hypothesis, in New Perspectives in Child Development, ed. Foss, B.. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 184–252.Google Scholar
Cromer, R.F., 1991. Language and Thought in Normal and Handicapped Children. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Daigneault, S., Braun, C.M.J. & Whitaker, H.A., 1992. An empirical test of two opposing theoretical models of prefrontal function. Brain and Cognition 19, 48–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Lacoste, M.-C. & Woodward, D.J., 1988. The corpus callosum in nonhuman primates. Brain, Behaviour and Evolution 31, 318–23.Google ScholarPubMed
De Renzi, E. & Lucchelli, F., 1988. Ideational apraxia. Brain 111, 1173–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deacon, T.W., 1988. Human brain evolution: I. Evolution of language circuits, in Intelligence and Evolutionary Biology, eds. Jerison, H. & Jerison, I.. Berlin: Springer, 363–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlay, B.L. & Darlington, R.B., 1995. Linked regularities in the development and evolution of mammalian brains. Science 268, 1578–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fitts, P.M., 1954. The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. Journal of Experimental Psychology 47, 381–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, P., Petersen, S., Posner, M. & Raichle, M., 1988. Is Broca's area language specific? Neurology 38 (Suppl. 1), 172.Google Scholar
Gass, S.M., 1990. Second and foreign language learning: same, different or none of the above, in Second Language Acquisition — Foreign Language Learning, eds. Van Patten, B. & Lee, J.F.. Clevedon, Philadelphia (PA): Multilingual Matters Ltd, 34–44.Google Scholar
Gibson, K.R., 1990. New perspectives on instinct and intelligence: brain size and the emergence of hierarchical mental constructional skills, in ‘Language’ and Intelligence in Monkeys and Apes: Comparative Developmental Perspectives, eds. Parker, S.T. & Gibson, K.R.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 97–128.Google Scholar
Goldman-Rakic, P.S., 1987. Motor control function of the prefrontal cortex, in Motor Areas of the Cerebral Cortex, eds. Bock, G., O'Connor, M. & Marsh, J.. (Ciba Foundation Symposium 132.) Chichester: Wiley, 187–200.Google Scholar
Gowlett, J.A.J., 1986. Culture and conceptualisation: the Oldowan-Acheulian gradient, in Stone Age Prehistory, eds. Bailey, G.N. & Callow, P.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 243–60.Google Scholar
Gracco, V.L., 1990. Characteristics of speech as a motor control system, in Cerebral Control of Speech and Limb Movements, ed. Olsen, S.L.. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, P.M., 1991. Language, tools and the brain: the ontogeny and phylogeny of hierarchically organized sequential behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14, 531–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haaland, K.Y. & Harrington, D.L., 1994. Limb-sequencing deficits after left but not right hemisphere damage. Brain and Cognition 24, 104–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, P.H., Martin, R.D. & Clutton-Brock, T.H., 1987. Life histories in comparative perspective, in Primate Societies, eds. Smuts, B.B., Cheney, D.L., Seyfarth, R.M., Wrangham, R.W. & Struhsaker, T.T.. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press, 181–96.Google Scholar
Hirschfeld, L.A. & Gelman, S.A., 1994. Toward a topography of mind: an introduction to domain specificity, in Mapping the Mind, eds. Hirschfeld, L.A. & Gelman, S.A.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holloway, R.L., 1983. Human paleontological evidence relating to language behavior. Human Neurobiology 2, 105–14.Google ScholarPubMed
Ingvar, D.H., 1994. The will of the brain: cerebral correlates of willful acts. Journal of Theoretical Biology 171, 7–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Isaac, G.LI., 1976. Stages of cultural elaboration in the Pleistocene: possible archaeological indicators of the development of language capabilities. Annals of the Neiu York Academy of Sciences 280, 275–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jerison, H.J., 1988. Evolutionary biology of intelligence: the nature of the problem, in Intelligence and Evolutionary Biology, eds. Jerison, H. & Jerison, I.. Berlin: Springer, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempler, D., 1993. Disorders of language and tool use: neurological and cognitive links, in Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution, eds. Gibson, K.R. & Ingold, T.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 193–215.Google Scholar
McHenry, H.M., 1994. Tempo and mode in human evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) 91, 6780–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Markowitsch, H.J., 1988. Anatomical and functional organization of the primate prefrontal cortical system, in Comparative Primate Biology, vol. 4: Neurosciences, eds. Steklis, H.D. & Erwin, J.. New York (NY): Alan R. Liss, 99–153.Google Scholar
Nudo, R.J. & Masterson, R.B., 1990. Descending pathways to the spinal cord 4. The amount of cortex devoted to the corticospinal tract. Journal of Comparative Neurology 296, 584–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochipa, C., Rothi, L.J.G. & Heilman, K.M., 1989. Ideational apraxia: a deficit in tool selection and use. Annals of Neurology 25, 190–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ochipa, C., Rothi, L.J.G. & Heilman, K.M., 1992. Conceptual apraxia in Alzheimer's disease. Brain 115, 1061–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, C.E., 1974. Behavioral diversity in ten species of nonhuman primates. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 87, 930–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Passingham, R.E., 1982. The Human Primate. Oxford: Freeman.Google Scholar
Passingham, R.E., 1987. Two cortical systems for directing movement, in Motor Areas of the Cerebral Cortex, eds. Bock, G., O'Connor, M. & Marsh, J.. (Ciba Foundation Symposium 132.) Chichester: Wiley, 151–64.Google Scholar
Passingham, R.E., Heywood, C.A. & Nixon, P.D., 1986. Reorganization in the human brain as illustrated by the thalamus. Brain, Behaviour and Evolution 29, 68–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pelegrin, J., 1990. Prehistoric lithic technology: some aspects of research. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 9(1), 116–25.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. & Bloom, P., 1990. Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, 707–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preuss, T.M., 1995. The argument from animals to humans in cognitive neuroscience, in The Cognitive Neurosciences, ed. Gazzaniga, M.S.. Cambridge (MA): M.I.T. Press, 1227–41.Google Scholar
Ringo, J.L., 1991. Neuronal interconnection as a function of brain size. Brain, Behaviour and Evolution 38, 1–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Ringo, J.L., Doty, R.W., Demeter, S. & Simard, P.Y., 1994. Time is of the essence — a conjecture that hemispheric specialization arises from interhemispheric conduction delay. Cerebral Cortex 4, 331–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robin, N. & Holyoak, K.J., 1995. Relational complexity and the prefrontal cortex, in The Cognitive Neurosciences, ed. Gazzaniga, M.S.. Cambridge (MA): M.I.T. Press, 987–97.Google Scholar
Roux, V., Bril, B. & Dietrich, G., 1995. Skills and learning difficulties involved in stone knapping: the case of stone bead knapping in Khambat, India. World Archaeology 27(1), 63–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schick, K.D. & Toth, N., 1993. Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology. New York (NY): Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Schupp, H.T., Lutzenberger, W., Birbaumer, N., Miltner, W. & Braun, C., 1994. Neurophysiological differences between perception and imagery. Cognitive Brain Research 2, 77–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steele, J., in press. On the evolution of temperament and dominance style in hominid groups, in The Archaeology of Human Ancestry: Poioer, Sex and Tradition, eds. Steele, J. & Shennan, S.. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Thelen, E., 1991. Motor aspects of emergent speech: a dynamic approach, in Biological and Behavioral Determinants of Language Development, eds. Krasnegor, N.A., Rumbaugh, D.M., Schiefelbusch, R.L. & Studdert-Kennedy, M.. Hillsdale (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 339–62.Google Scholar
Toth, N., 1985. Archaeological evidence for preferential right-handedness in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, and its possible implications. Journal of Human Evolution 14, 607–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, W.K. & Wakefield, J., 1995. Brain evolution and neurolinguistic preconditions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18, 161–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynn, T., 1989. The Evolution of Spatial Competence. Urbana (IL): University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Wynn, T., 1991. Tools, grammar and the archaeology of cognition. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1(2), 191–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yerkes, R.M. & Yerkes, A.W., 1929. The Great Apes: a Study of Anthropoid Life. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Yeterian, E.H. & Pandya, D.N., 1988. Architectonic features of the primate brain: implications for information processing and behavior, in Information Processing by the Brain, ed. Markowitsch, H.. Toronto: Hans Huber, 7–38.Google Scholar