More than the sum of their parts? Networks as methods and as heuristics in cognitive archaeology
Authors: Coward, F.
Editors: Wynn, T., Overmann, K.A. and Coolidge, F.L.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Place of Publication: Oxford
ISBN: 9780191918506
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192895950.001.0001
Abstract:Network concepts and methods offer enormous potential for studying cognitive archaeology.
They provide practical analytical methods for handling the archaeological and anthropological datasets that comprise the only hard evidence for cognitive evolution. In addition, they also offer valuable tools for understanding key features of hominin cognition and the selective pressures driving its evolution.
Recent work has emphasised cognition less as a static set of abilities determined by genotype and passively reflected in the archaeological dataset, but as highly sensitive to social and demographic factors. Cognitive evolution is now recognised as driven by network variables, including adaptive changes in group size, population density and effective population size, and the connectivity among individuals and groups. Interactions beyond conspecifics, with other species and aspects of the world around them, are also increasingly recognised as important in this respect. Traditional approaches have often focused narrowly on specific individual elements of the archaeological and anthropological record considered to demonstrate cognitive prowess, such as stone tools or brain size. However, from a network perspective such phenomena are better considered emergent properties of the complex social networking skills and patterns of social connectivity and organization which played a vital adaptive role in human evolution. This chapter will review the theoretical and practical bases for the application of network concepts and methods to investigate hominin and human cognition.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/38239/
https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/41984
Source: Manual
