Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition

245 Pages·2010·1.97 MB·English

by  April Nowell

Stone toolS
and the Evolution of Human Cognition

Stone toolS
and the Evolution of Human Cognition
edited by April Nowell and Iain Davidson
u n i v E r s i t y P r E s s o f C o l o r a d o
© 2010 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by the University Press of Colorado
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Boulder, Colorado 80303
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
the Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by
Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metro-
politan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and
Western State College of Colorado.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stone tools and the evolution of human cognition / Edited by April Nowell and Iain Davidson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60732-030-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Stone implements. 2. Tools, Prehistoric. 3.
Cognition and culture. 4. Human behavior. I. Nowell, April, 1969– II. Davidson, Iain, 1948–
GN434.S75 2010
930.1'0285—dc22
2010007637
Design by Daniel Pratt
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Jon (AN) and Helen (ID)

Contents
1 | Introduction and Overview 1
Iain Davidson and April Nowell
2 | “Grammars of Action” and Stone Flaking Design Space 13
Mark W. Moore
3 | Insights on the Technical Competence of the Early Oldowan 45
Ignacio de la Torre
4 | Growing Up in the Middle Pleistocene: Life History Strategies and Their
Relationship to Acheulian Industries 67
April Nowell and Mark White
5 | How Levallois Reduction Is Similar to, and Not Similar to, Playing
Chess 83
Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge
6 | On Standardization in the Paleolithic: Measures, Causes, and
Interpretations of Metric Similarity in Stone Tools 105
Steven L. Kuhn
vii
ContEnts
7 | Middle Stone Age Stone Tools from Klasies River Main Site and
Symbolic Cognition 135
Sarah Wurz
8 | Possible Relations between Language and Technology in Human
Evolution 159
Dietrich Stout
9 | Stone Tools and the Evolution of Hominin and Human Cognition 185
Iain Davidson
10 | Current Developments in Inferring Cognitive Capabilities from the
Archaeological Traces Left by Stone Tools: Caught between a Rock and
a Hard Inference 207
Philip J. Barnard
List of Contributors 227
Index 229
viii
Stone toolS
and the Evolution of Human Cognition