Why the Muddle in the Middle Matters
The Language of Comparative and Direct in Human Evolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5947367 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J A J Gowlett (0000-0002-9064-973X, University of Liverpool, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 49-65 |
| Publication date | 1997-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1551-823X • E-ISSN: 1551-8248 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/ap3a.1997.7.1.49 |
| OpenAlex | W2138649004 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 69 |
The two fundamental approaches to studying human evolution are those of using data relating to the past itself (i.e., archaeology, palaeontology), and those of establishing comparative frameworks, usually based on the study of extant related species. Work with primates has been important in establishing comparisons of social structure, frameworks of subsistence, and base levels of intelligence, and has recently been used to generate ideas about the origins of language. This chapter examines how archaeology can be used to address critically the application of comparative ideas, especially those which are based on the concept of 'Machiavellian intelligence', linking group size and neocortex ratio. Archaeology is able to map out the communication of cultural information in a number of ways. Its direct evidence establishes that early Homo had far greater ranges than those of living apes. Technology used across these ranges had to pay for itself in energetic terms. It is argued that such factors may be as important as group size in accounting for evolutionary change
Archaeology · Biology · Cognitive science · Epistemology · Evolutionary biology · Extant taxon · Human evolution · Human language · Linguistics · Neocortex · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Anthropology · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · History · Language and cultural evolution · Philosophy · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Psychology
Introduction to special issue The Lower to Middle Paleolithic boundaries
The Future of Lithic Analysis in Palaeolithic Archaeology
Modelling the end of the Acheulean at global and continental levels suggests widespread persistence into the Middle Palaeolithic
Evidence and Metaphor in Evolutionary Archaeology
Human origins
The Functional and Evolutionary Biology of Primates
Tools, language, and cognition in human evolution
Geology of the Olduvai Gorge
Evidence as to man's place in nature
Chimpanzee Material Culture
The Origin of Man
Plio—Pleistocene hominid discoveries in Hadar, Ethiopia
A New Fossil Skull From Olduvai
The Symbolic Species
The palaeolithic settlement of Europe
Background to Evolution in Africa
Analytical Archaeology
Sorting out the Muddle in the Middle
Isochrestism and style
Symbols and paleolithic artifacts
Middle paleolithic symbolism
The cultural capacities of Neandertals
The archaeology of language origins–a review
Alternative models of Pleistocene biocultural evolution
Paradigms and Paradoxes in Paleoanthropology
Excavation of the Lower Palaeolithic Site at Amey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, West Sussex
After the Australopithecines
British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Handaxe Groups
Kariandusi
The oldowan reassessed
Art as information
Continuity or Replacement; Controversies in Homo Sapiens Evolution
Variables versus models of early Pleistocene hominid land use
In Search of the Neanderthals
Symbolism in the Early Palaeolithic
The need for data reduction may have paved the way for the evolution of language ability in hominids
The intelligence of Oldowan hominids
Allometry and multidimensional form in Acheulean bifaces from Kilombe, Kenya
Neocortex size and group size in primates
The evolution of human bipedality
The evolution of bipedality and loss of functional body hair in hominids
Early Pleistocene hominid foraging strategies along the ancestral Omo River at Koobi Fora, Kenya
The anatomy, physiology, acoustics and perception of speech
Behavioral ecological implications of early hominid body size
The thermoregulatory advantages of heat storage and shade-seeking behaviour to hominids foraging in equatorial savannah environments
Behaviour and the Origin of Man
The human cranium from Bodo, Ethiopia
Petrography of the lower Palaeolithic tool assemblage of the Caune de l'Arago (France)
Flakes and ladders
Communication networks and dispersal patterns in human evolution
A case of Developed Oldowan in the Acheulean
Revolution or resolution? The archaeology of modern human origins
A chronological framework for human origins
Piaget, stone tools and the evolution of human intelligence
The Archaeology of Human Ancestry
The Intelligence of Later Acheulean Hominids
Evolution and Human Behaviour
Boundary Conditions for Paleolithic Social Systems
Regional Comparison of the Shapes of Later Acheulean Handaxes
Medieval Thinking and the Paradigms of Paleoanthropology
Some Thoughts on the Black Skull
Meat Eating, Hominid Sociality, and Home Bases Revisited
The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis
Neocortex Size, Group Size, and the Evolution of Language
Approaches to style in lithic archaeology
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2021 (20) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |