Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution

by Gibson, Kathleen R.; Ingold, Tim

• ISBN13: 9780521485418
• ISBN10: 052148541X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-01-01
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The question addressed by this volume is how human beings have evolved as creatures who can make and use more complex tools, communicate in more complex ways, and engage in more complex forms of social life, than any other species in the animal kingdom. The topics explored include the parallels among speech, manual gesture and other models of communication; a comparison of the tool-using skills and imitative abilities of humans and nonhuman primates; the neurological links among the cognitive processes involved in language, gesture and tool use; how linguistic and technical capacities merge together in processes of cognitive development; and a discussion of what the archaeological record and the ethnography of modern human cultures can tell us about the relationship among tools, language and social life.

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue: General introduction: Animal minds, human minds Kathleen Gibson

A history of speculation on the relation between tools and language Gordon Hewes

Part I. Word, Sign and Gesture: General introduction: Relations between visual-gestural and vocal-auditory modalities of communication Tim Ingold

1. Human gesture Adam Kendon

2. When does gesture become language? Susan Goldwin-Meadow

3. The emergence of language Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Duane Rumbaugh

4. A comparative approach to language parallels Charles Snowdon

Part II. Technological Skills and Associated Social Behaviors of the Non-Human Primates: Introduction: Generative interplay between technical capacities, social relations, imitation and cognition Kathleen Gibson

5. Capuchin monkeys Elisabetta Visalberghi

6. The intelligent use of tools William McGrew

7. Aspects of transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees Christophe Boesch

Part III. Connecting Up The Brain: Introduction: Overlapping neural control of language, gesture and tool use Kathleen Gibson

8. Disorders of language and tool use Daniel Kempler

9. Sex differences in visuospatial skills Dean Falk

10. The unitary hypothesis William H. Calvin

11. Tool use, language and social behaviour in relationship to information processing capacities Kathleen Gibson

Part IV. Perspectives on Development: Introduction: Beyond neotony and recapitulation Kathleen Gibson

12. Human language development and object manipulation Andrew Lock

13. Comparative cognitive development Jonas Langer

14. Higher intelligence, propositional language and culture as adaptations for planning Sue Parker and Constance Milbrath

Part V. Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives: Introduction: Tools, techniques and technology Tim Ingold

15. Early stone industries and inferences regarding language and cognition Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick

16. Tools and language in human evolution Iain Davidson and William Noble

17. Layers of thinking in tool behaviour Thomas Wynn

18. The complementation theory of language and tool use Peter Reynolds

19. Tool-use, sociality and intelligence Tim Ingold

Epilogue: Technology, language, intelligence Tim Ingold

Index.