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Do early body ornaments prove cognitive modernity? A critical analysis from situated cognition

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Abstract

The documented appearance of body ornaments in the archaeological record of early anatomically modern human and late Neanderthal populations has been claimed to be proof of symbolism and cognitive modernity. Recently, Henshilwood and Dubreuil (Current Anthropology 52:361–400, 2011) have supported this stance by arguing that the use of beads and body painting implies the presence of properties typical of modern cognition: high-level theory of mind and awareness of abstract social standards. In this paper I shall disagree with this position. For the purposes of the argument, body ornaments are divided in three categories: aesthetic, indexical and fully-symbolic, on the basis of the necessary and sufficient conditions to construct meaning for each category. As previously acknowledged by a number of authors, I will argue that the abilities considered by Henshilwood & Dubreuil necessarily apply only to fully symbolic ornaments and they do not extend to the aesthetic and indexical categories. Indeed, a series of situated strategies can be sufficient to process non-symbolic categories of ornaments, through their phases of initiation, understanding and maintenance. Since these strategies could be implemented also by non-modern cognitive architectures, it is concluded that early body ornaments are currently unable to support cognitive equivalence between primitive and modern human populations.

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Notes

  1. Ochre has been associated with several uses in the archaeological literature. Henshilwood and Dubreuil (2011) report for example the use of this mineral for hafting procedures (e.g. Wadley 2005; Wadley et al. 2009), healing practices (Velo 1984) and the production of engraved objects (Henshilwood et al. 2002, 2009). For the purposes of the argument, in this paper I have focused on the explanation of ochre as a pigment for body painting (e.g. Watts 1999, 2002, 2009). This clearly does not rule out the other potential explanations, nor the fact that ochre could have been used for multiple purposes (Lombard 2007).

  2. In this paper I have used caps to name concepts.

  3. More precisely, they claim that there are no significant differences between the higher cognitive properties of early body ornament makers and those of contemporary human populations (Henshilwood and Dubreuil 2011, p. 378–9).

  4. See for example paragraphs 2.249, 2.292, 2.297, 2.299, 2.307

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Philip Barnard, Miriam Haidle, Daniel Hutto and Shaun Gallagher for their helpful comments and suggestions on the arguments discussed in this paper. Any mistake remains my own. Special thanks also to Philip Barnard for the help provided during the preparation of the English manuscript.

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  1. Zentrum für Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie, Abt. Paläoanthropologie, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Duilio Garofoli

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Garofoli, D. Do early body ornaments prove cognitive modernity? A critical analysis from situated cognition. Phenom Cogn Sci 14, 803–825 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-014-9356-0

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