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Cognitive Evolution, Population, Transmission, and Material Culture

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Abstract

There has been much debate regarding when modern human cognition arose. It was previously thought that the technocomplexes and artifacts associated with a particular timeframe during the Upper Paleolithic could provide a proxy for identifying the signature of modern cognition. It now appears that this approach has underestimated the complexity of human behavior on a number of different levels. As the artifacts, once thought to be confined to Europe 40,000 years ago onwards, can now be found in other parts of the world well before this date, especially in South Africa, this suggests that modern cognition arose well before this period. Moreover, the variability of the archaeological record from the time when anatomically modern humans appeared 200,000 years ago suggests cognitive factors alone are unable to explain the obvious unevenness. In this article, it will be demonstrated how neuro-cognition can be assimilated with population dynamics and the transmission of information between individuals and groups that can provide important insights as to the nature and origins of modern human cognition.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Marlize Lombard for helpful comments.

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  1. Department of Archaeology, University of York, Heslington, York, UK

    Derek Hodgson

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Hodgson, D. Cognitive Evolution, Population, Transmission, and Material Culture. Biol Theory 7, 237–246 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0074-y

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