Cover not available

In:How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map:
Edited by Michael A. Arbib
[Benjamins Current Topics 112] 2020
► pp. 256–271

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Archaeology and the evolutionary neuroscience of language

The technological pedagogy hypothesis

 | Emory University
Published online: 11 August 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.112.17sto
Abstract
Comparative approaches to language evolution are essential but cannot by themselves resolve the timing and context of evolutionary events since the last common ancestor with chimpanzees. Archaeology can help to fill this gap, but only if properly integrated with evolutionary theory and the ethnographic, ethological, and experimental analogies required to reconstruct the broader social, behavioral, and neurocognitive implications of ancient artifacts. The current contribution elaborates a technological pedagogy hypothesis of language origins by developing the concept of an evolving human technological niche and applying it to investigate two key transitions posited by Arbib’s Mirror System Hypothesis: (1) from complex action recognition and imitation to proto-language, and (2) from proto-language to language.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The human technological niche
  • 3.Stone tools and language evolution
    • 3.1Oldowan flake production
    • 3.2From complex action recognition and imitation to proto-language
    • 3.3Acheulean shaping
    • 3.4From proto-language to language
  • 4.Conclusion: Towards a new road map
  • References
References (65)
References
Abramova, Ekaterina. (2018). The role of pantomime in gestural language evolution, its cognitive bases and an alternative. Journal of Language Evolution. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antón, Susan C., Potts, Richard, & Aiello, Leslie C. (2014). Evolution of early Homo: An integrated biological perspective. Science, 345(6192), 1236828. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arbib, Michael A. (2018). In support of the role of pantomime in language evolution. Journal of Language Evolution. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). How the brain got language: The mirror system hypothesis (Vol. 16). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Towards a Computational Comparative Neuroprimatology: Framing the language-ready brain. Physics of Life Reviews, 16, 1–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bogin, Barry, Bragg, Jared, & Kuzawa, Christopher. (2014). Humans are not cooperative breeders but practice biocultural reproduction. Annals of human biology, 41(4), 368–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brauer, Jens, Anwander, Alfred, Perani, Daniela, & Friederici, Angela D. (2013). Dorsal and ventral pathways in language development. Brain and language, 127(2), 289–295. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christiansen, Morten H., & Chater, Nick. (2016). Creating language: integrating evolution, acquisition, and processing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
d’Errico, F., & Stringer, C. B. (2011). Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the emergence of modern cultures? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 1060. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dippel, Gabriel, & Beste, Christian. (2015). A causal role of the right inferior frontal cortex in implementing strategies for multi-component behaviour. Nature communications, 6. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Emmorey, Karen, McCullough, Stephen, Mehta, Sonya, Ponto, Laura L. B., & Grabowski, Thomas J. (2011). Sign language and pantomime production differentially engage frontal and parietal cortices. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26(7), 878–901. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fagg, Andrew H., & Arbib, Michael A. (1998). Modeling parietal-premotor interactions in primate control of grasping. Neural Networks, 11(7–8), 1277–1303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fitch, W., & Martins, Mauricio D. (2014). Hierarchical processing in music, language, and action: Lashley revisited. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1316(1), 87–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fragaszy, Dorothy M., Biro, D., Eshchar, Y., Humle, T., Izar, P., Resende, B., & Visalberghi, E. (2013). The fourth dimension of tool use: temporally enduring artefacts aid primates learning to use tools. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 368(1630). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frost, Ram, Armstrong, Blair C., Siegelman, Noam, & Christiansen, Morten H. (2015). Domain generality versus modality specificity: the paradox of statistical learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 117–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gärdenfors, Peter, & Högberg, Anders. (2017). The archaeology of teaching and the evolution of Homo docens. Current Anthropology, 58(2), 000–000. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gobet, Fernand, Lane, Peter C. R., Croker, Steve, Cheng, Peter C. H., Jones, Gary, Oliver, Iain, & Pine, Julian M. (2001). Chunking mechanisms in human learning. Trends in cognitive sciences, 5(6), 236–243. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. (2003). Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language. Trends in cognitive sciences, 7(5), 219–224. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gómez-Robles, Aida, Hopkins, William D., Schapiro, Steven J., & Sherwood, Chet C. (2015). Relaxed genetic control of cortical organization in human brains compared with chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(48), 14799–14804. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gowlett, John A. J. (1984). Mental abilities of early man: A look at some hard evidence. In R. Foley (Ed.), Hominid Evolution and Community Ecology (pp. 167–192). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenfield, Patricia M. (1991). Language, tools, and brain: The development and evolution of hierarchically organized sequential behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 14, 531–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hecht, Erin E., Gutman, D. A., Khreisheh, N., Taylor, S. V., Kilner, J., Faisal, A. A., … Stout, D. (2014). Acquisition of Paleolithic toolmaking abilities involves structural remodeling to inferior frontoparietal regions. Brain Structure and Function, 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hecht, Erin E., Gutman, David A., Preuss, Todd M., Sanchez, Mar M., Parr, Lisa A., & Rilling, James K. (2013). Process Versus Product in Social Learning: Comparative Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Neural Systems for Action Execution–Observation Matching in Macaques, Chimpanzees, and Humans. Cerebral Cortex, 23(5), 1014–1024. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hecht, Erin E., Gutman, David A., Bradley, Bruce A., Preuss, Todd M., & Stout, Dietrich. (2015). Virtual dissection and comparative connectivity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus in chimpanzees and humans. NeuroImage, 108, 124–137. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heyes, Cecilia M., & Frith, Chris D. (2014). The cultural evolution of mind reading. Science, 344(6190), 1243091. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Kim, Barton, M., & Hurtado, A. M. (2009). The emergence of human uniqueness: Characters underlying behavioral modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 18(5), 187–200. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingold, Tim. (1997). Eight themes in the anthropology of technology. Social Analysis, 41, 106–138.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Isler, Karin, & Van Schaik, Carel P. (2014). How humans evolved large brains: Comparative evidence. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 23(2), 65–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaplan, Hillard, Hill, Kim, Lancaster, Jane, & Hurtado, A. Magdalena. (2000). A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 9(4), 156–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koechlin, Etienne, & Jubault, Thomas. (2006). Broca’s Area and the hierarchical organization of human behavior. Neuron, 50(6), 963–974. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kolodny, Oren, Edelman, Shimon, & Lotem, Arnon. (2015). Evolution of protolinguistic abilities as a by-product of learning to forage in structured environments. Proc. R. Soc. B, 282(1811), 20150353. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laland, Kevin N., Uller, Tobias, Feldman, Marcus W., Sterelny, Kim, Müller, Gerd B., Moczek, Armin, … Odling-Smee, John. (2015). The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 282(1813). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambon Ralph, Matthew A., Jefferies, Elizabeth, Patterson, Karalyn, & Rogers, Timothy T. (2016). The neural and computational bases of semantic cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C., & Holler, Judith. (2014). The origin of human multi-modal communication. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 369(1651). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, Jason E., & Harmand, Sonia. (2016). An earlier origin for stone tool making: implications for cognitive evolution and the transition to Homo. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 371(1698), 20150233. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milner, A. David, & Goodale, Melvyn A. (1995). The visual brain in action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montgomery, Kimberly J., Isenberg, Nancy, & Haxby, James V. (2007). Communicative hand gestures and object-directed hand movements activated the mirror neuron system. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2(2), 114–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moore, Mark W. (2010). “Grammars of action” and stone flaking design space. In A. Nowell & I. Davidson (Eds.), Stone tools and the evolution of human cognition (pp. 13–43). Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, T. J. H., Uomini, N. T., Rendell, L. E., Chouinard-Thuly, L., Street, S. E., Lewis, H. M., … Laland, K. N. (2015). Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making teaching and language. 6, 6029. [URL]
Nonaka, Tetsushi, Bril, Blandine, & Rein, Robert. (2010). How do stone knappers predict and control the outcome of flaking? Implications for understanding early stone tool technology. Journal of Human Evolution, 59(2), 155–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orban, Guy A., & Caruana, Fausto. (2014). The neural basis of human tool use. Frontiers in psychology, 5(310), 12.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Putt, Shelby S., Wijeakumar, Sobanawartiny, Franciscus, Robert G., & Spencer, John P. (2017). The functional brain networks that underlie Early Stone Age tool manufacture. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(6), 0102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rilling, James K., Glasser, Matthew F., Jbabdi, Saad, Andersson, Jesper, & Preuss, Todd M. (2011). Continuity, Divergence, and the Evolution of Brain Language Pathways. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, 3, 11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roepstorff, Andreas, Niewöhner, Jörg, & Beck, Stefan. (2010). Enculturing brains through patterned practices. Neural Networks, 23(8), 1051–1059. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruff, Christopher B., Trinkaus, Erik, & Holliday, Trenton W. (1997). Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo. Nature, 387(6629), 173–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schell, Marianne, Zaccarella, Emiliano, & Friederici, Angela D. (2017). Differential cortical contribution of syntax and semantics: An fMRI study on two-word phrasal processing. Cortex, 96, 105–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, J. R., & Stringer, C. B. (2012). Human Evolution Out of Africa: The Role of Refugia and Climate Change. Science, 335(6074), 1317–1321. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich. (2002). Skill and cognition in stone tool production: An ethnographic case study from Irian Jaya. Current Anthropology, 45(3), 693–722. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 1050–1059. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2013). Neuroscience of technology. In P. J. Richerson & M. Christiansen (Eds.), Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language, and Religion (pp. 157–173). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, Apel, Jan, Commander, Julia, & Roberts, Mark. (2014). Late Acheulean technology and cognition at Boxgrove, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science, 41, 576–590. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, & Chaminade, Thierry. (2007). The evolutionary neuroscience of tool making. Neuropsychologia, 45, 1091–1100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012). Stone tools, language and the brain in human evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1585), 75–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, & Hecht, Erin E. (2017). Evolutionary neuroscience of cumulative culture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(30), 7861–7868. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, Hecht, Erin, Khreisheh, Nada, Bradley, Bruce, & Chaminade, Thierry. (2015). Cognitive Demands of Lower Paleolithic Toolmaking. PLoS ONE, 10(4), e0121804. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, & Khreisheh, Nada. (2015). Skill Learning and Human Brain Evolution: An Experimental Approach. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 25(04), 867–875. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, Passingham, Richard, Frith, Christopher, Apel, Jan, & Chaminade, Thierry. (2011). Technology, expertise and social cognition in human evolution. European Journal of Neuroscience, 33(7), 1328–1338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stout, Dietrich, Toth, N., Schick, K., & Chaminade, T. (2008). Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 363(1499), 1939–1949. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strike, Lachlan T., Hansell, Narelle K., Couvy-Duchesne, Baptiste, Thompson, Paul M., de Zubicaray, Greig I., McMahon, Katie L., & Wright, Margaret J. (2018). Genetic Complexity of Cortical Structure: Differences in Genetic and Environmental Factors Influencing Cortical Surface Area and Thickness. Cerebral Cortex. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toth, Nicholas, Schick, Kathy D., & Semaw, Sileshi. (2006). A comparative study of the stone tool-making skills of Pan, Australopithecus, and Homo sapiens. In N. Toth & K. D. Schick (Eds.), The Oldowan: case studies into the earliest stone age (pp. 155–222). Gosport, IN: Stone Age Institute Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, Stephen M., Saygin, Ayşe Pinar, Sereno, Martin I., & Iacoboni, Marco. (2004). Listening to speech activates motor areas involved in speech production. Nature neuroscience, 7(7), 701–702. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolpert, D., Doya, K., & Kawato, M. (2003). A unifying computational framework for motor control and social interaction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 358, 593–602. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiao, Yaqiong, Friederici, Angela D., Margulies, Daniel S., & Brauer, Jens. (2016). Development of a selective left-hemispheric fronto-temporal network for processing syntactic complexity in language comprehension. Neuropsychologia, 83, 274–282. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue