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The co-evolution of tools and minds: cognition and material culture in the hominin lineage

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Abstract

The structuring of our environment to provide cues and reminders for ourselves is common: We leave notes on the fridge, we have a particular place for our keys where we deposit them, making them easy to find. We alter our world to streamline our cognitive tasks. But how did hominins gain this capacity? What pushed our ancestors to structure their physical environment in ways that buffered thinking and began the process of using the world cognitively? I argue that the capacity to engage in these behaviours is a by-product of increased tool investment and tool curation, which in turn was necessary because of increasingly heterogeneous environments. The minute tools are carried and cared for, they begin to undergo selection for added functions, becoming available as cognitive primers and as signals. I explore the trajectory of this co-evolutionary feedback loop of hominins and their tools, and demonstrate the role tools have in shaping our thinking.

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Notes

  1. Note: Pre 2009, the International Union of the Geological Sciences designated the Pleistocene as starting at 1.8 mya. This paper uses the IUGS’ new designation of the Pleistocene, with a start of 2.588 mya.

  2. Our image of ‘wild’ pre-human Africa is of course shaped by the fact that, like many countries, the game reserves and parks of east Africa, where the nature documentaries are all filmed, are in areas marginal for agriculture. This view of Africa as a dry environment is further aggravated by the needs of film crews tracking animals. Film crews prefer open environments that enable them to get shots with long lenses at safe, unobtrusive distances. Important elements of the East African biome such as closed acacia forest or thorny scrubland are not ideal documentary making environments and consequently rarely feature in the mass media portrayal of this part of the world.

  3. This is likely to have differed from place-to-place, as raw material availability would have differed. A group that habitually foraged along a watercourse might never need to carry tools, as raw material was in constant supply. Nevertheless, the ability to carry tools potentially broke early homo’s dependence on raw material sources, allowing range expansion.

  4. In our modern world of disposable incomes and the casual acquisition of goods, a high value piece of equipment does not necessarily indicate high levels of competence. No experienced diver or freediver mistakes an expensive diver’s watch for competence in the sport. Nevertheless, the mere fact of having genuinely relevant equipment demonstrates some level of knowledge and commitment, even if misplaced. The honesty of the signal is then very much dependent on its production costs, and in environments without disposable incomes, investment in equipment is an honest signal.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Kim Sterelny for comments on early version of this paper. Particular thanks to Richard Menary for organising the original workshop where this paper was first presented. This research was undertaken with the assistance of funding from the New Zealand Marsden Fund.

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    Ben Jeffares

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Jeffares, B. The co-evolution of tools and minds: cognition and material culture in the hominin lineage. Phenom Cogn Sci 9, 503–520 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-010-9176-9

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