The Social Brain and the Shape of the Palaeolithic

Abstract

It is often the case in interdisciplinary accounts of human evolution that archaeological data are either ignored or treated superficially. This article sets out to redress this position by using archaeological evidence from the last 2.5 million years to test the social brain hypothesis (SBH) -that our social lives drove encephalization. To do this we construct a map of our evolving social complexity that concentrates on two resources -materials and emotions -that lie at the basis of all social interaction. In particular, novel cultural and biological mechanisms are seen as evolutionary responses to problems of cognitive load arising from the need to integrate more individuals and sub-units into the larger communities predicted by the SBH. The Palaeolithic evidence for the amplification of these twin resources into novel social forms is then evaluated. Here the SBH is used to differentiate three temporal movements (2. and their varied evolutionary responses are described in detail. Attention is drawn to the second movement where there is an apparent disconnect between a rise in encephalization and a stasis in material culture. This disconnect is used to discuss the co-evolutionary relationship that existed between materials and emotions to solve cognitive problems but which, at different times, amplified one resource rather than the other. We conclude that the shape of the Palaeolithic is best conceived as a gradient of change rather than a set of step-like revolutions in society and culture.

The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution

“…These efforts should avoid formulation of hypotheses based exclusively on mechanistic premises of technological innovation under environmental variability [124], and seek potential interactions between evolutionary and alternative perspectives [125], where social [120] and demographic [126] parameters could play a fundamental part.…”

Hominin cognitive evolution: identifying patterns and processes in the fossil and archaeological record

“…For all processes, flexibility and innovation in habitat, resource or space use could be adaptive behavioural responses to a changing environment. For example, a broad and a flexible diet allows the exploitation of unpredictable resources across a mosaic habitat [10,11], whereas the development and capacity to use tools opens up novel adaptive zones [12]. The correlation between environmental variance and hominin brain size over time has been argued to be the result of environmental unpredictability driving hominin brain evolution [13,14].…”

Compositional data supports decentralized model of production and circulation of artifacts in the pre-Columbian south-central Andes

“…south-central Andes | archaeology | exchange | complexity | compositional T he long-distance exchange of goods and resources has long been central to the investigation of cultural complexity in human societies (1)(2)(3)(4), with recent developments expanding our understanding of the deep roots of human networked sociality (5). The south-central Andean region of South America, with its long-term record of socio-material interactions across vast areas (6,7), has provided a fertile ground for scholarly debates on the role of such practices in the emergence of socio-political hierarchies and statehood (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15).…”