Archaeology Society of Staten IslandSeptember 2016: Tools, Language, and the Evolution of the Human Mind
Sunday, Sept 25, 2016 at 3pm Archaeological Institute of America Lecture
Dr. Kathleen Gibson
Tools, Language, and the Evolution of the Human Mind
Darwin and Wallace, co-discoverers of evolution by natural selection, held contrasting views about the origins of the human mind. Wallace considered the human mind to be qualitatively distinct from that of other animals, while Darwin postulated that animal and human minds differ in degree but not in kind, a position that represented a sharp break with traditional Cartesian views that human behavior is rational, but animal behavior is instinctive. Manufactured stone tools from Lomekwi, Kenya (3.3. mya), complex tools from Africa which long predate the Upper Paleolithic, Indonesian paintings dating to about 40,000 years ago, and increasing evidence of Neanderthal “symbolic” activities and of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, continue to challenge old views. This talk discusses this new evidence in light of continuity versus qualitative gap perspectives of human/animal and modern human/fossil hominin mental differences. It concludes that much of what we see in the archaeological record accords with an increased information processing model of tool-making, cooperative, and communicative abilities, and, hence, with Darwinian views that differences of degree, rather than of kind, distinguish human from animal minds (and by extension modern human minds from those of other hominins).
THIS LECTURE WILL BE IN FOUNDATION HALL IN THE MANZULLI BOARD ROOM. Sunday at 3pm. Wagner College, 631 Howard Avenue (1 Campus Road), Grymes Hill, Staten Island, NY 10301
AIA lectures (Oct 18 & April 24) are FREE and open to all
ASSI lectures are free for ASSI and AIA members, students 22 years or younger
And Wagner Faculty and Staff – Please show ID
Others may attend ASSI lectures for a $10.00 donation or may join the ASSI at the door.
Meet the speaker over coffee and cake following each lecture
For more information write: The Archaeology Society of Staten Island, P.O. Box 140504, Staten Island, NY 10314-0504, or visit our website www.siarchaeology.org
News from the Archaeological Institute of America
- Rare Turtle Statue Found in Angkor April 25, 2024SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA—A rare sandstone sculpture of a turtle has been found at Bayon Temple in the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, according to a report in The Phnom Penh Post. The Bayon temple was built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century A.D. during the reign of the Khmer ruler Jayavarman VII […]
- Teotihuacan's Pyramids Damaged By Ancient Earthquakes April 25, 2024MADRID, SPAIN—A new study of pyramids at the ancient city of Teotihuacan by a team of Spanish geologists has documented damage to the structures caused by five devastating megathrust earthquakes that hit the site between about A.D. 100 and 600, Live Science reports. At its height, the population of Teotihuacan, which is located northeast of […]
- Sacred Spring Unearthed Beneath Roman Ruins in France April 25, 2024PARIS, FRANCE—According to a Live Science report, near the village of Chamborêt north of the French city of Limoges, archaeologists have uncovered a freshwater spring likely dating to between 4,500 and 6,000 years ago below the remnants of a Roman-era pool. The Roman ruins, which date to the third century A.D., probably formed a landscaped basin surrounded […]