Lithic morphological variability as a proxy for Palaeolithic linguistic ability: a knapping training

226 Pages·2017·5.05 MB·English

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Archaeology

Lithic Morphological Variability as a Proxy for Palaeolithic Linguistic Ability:
A Knapping Training Study Exploring Cultural Transmission,
Theory of Mind and Language

by
Cory Marie Stade

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
June 2017
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
ABSTRACT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Archaeology
Doctor of Philosophy
Lithic Morphological Variability as a Proxy for Palaeolithic Linguistic Ability:
A Knapping Training Study Exploring Cultural Transmission, Theory of Mind and
Language
by Cory Marie Stade

The identification of Palaeolithic symbolic material culture has often been taken as an
indication of cognitive complexity, which limits interpretations to rare, late and
localised events. This thesis develops an alternative method of interpretation through
an empirical and psychologically supported chain of inference which avoids these
limitations. It tests a hypothesis which predicts that material culture produced by
varying methods of social learning will differ in their range of relative morphological
variability due to varying levels of copy error. For Palaeolithic assemblages, high levels
of standardisation might only be possible with the high fidelity transmission involved
in complex social learning methods which utilise theory of mind (the ability to think
about thoughts). Theory of mind, in turn, is highly correlated to linguistic ability; as
both these abilities are gradient, using theory of mind as a proxy for language ability
means Palaeolithic communities can be attributed with not just a binary presence or
absence of language, but semantic and syntactic abilities which correlate with stages of
theory of mind acquisition in modern humans. This thesis presents a knapping
experiment where participants replicate model handaxes in different simulated social
learning environments. Results show that different levels of morphological variation in
the tools they produce support that high fidelity social learning methods produce a
lower range of morphological variability. Results suggest that the origins of language
lie somewhere before the origins of Acheulean technology, and that teaching and
grammatical language were in the behavioural repertoires of Middle Palaeolithic
hominins.
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List of Contents

List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... 9
List of Tables....................................................................................................................... 15
Author’s Declaration .......................................................................................................... 16
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 19
Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................................ 199
Chapter One: Cognitive Fossils. ....................................................................................... 23
1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 23
1.2 The Research Question ............................................................................................ 25
1.3 The Hypothesis ......................................................................................................... 26
1.4 Thesis Rationale........................................................................................................ 28
1.5 Justification of Method ............................................................................................. 32
1.6 The Experiment ........................................................................................................ 33
1.7 Chapter Outlines ...................................................................................................... 33
1.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 36
Chapter Two: Theory of Mind as a Proxy for Language .................................................. 39
2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 39
2.2 Definitions ................................................................................................................ 40
2.3 History of Study ....................................................................................................... 43
2.4 Child Development .................................................................................................. 45
2.5 Representation and Processing ............................................................................... 48
2.6 The Correlation with Language Ability .................................................................. 49
2.6.1 Directionality of Influence, and the Contributions of Syntax and
Semantics .................................................................................................................... 53
2.6.2 Autism Studies ................................................................................................... 55
2.6.3 Hearing Impairment Studies ............................................................................ 56
2.6.4 Adult Studies ..................................................................................................... 58
2.6.5 Higher-order Theory of Mind Studies .............................................................. 59
2.6.6 Language Training and its Impact on Theory of Mind ................................... 59
2.6.7 Non-human Studies .......................................................................................... 60
2.7 Co-evolution of Language and Theory of Mind ..................................................... 63
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2.8 Modelling the Co-evolution of Theory of Mind and Language ............................ 65
2.9 Summary .................................................................................................................. 67
Chapter Three: Theory of Mind in Social Learning. ....................................................... 69
3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 69
3.2 Social Learning ......................................................................................................... 70
3.2.1 Stimulus Enhancement ....................................................................................... 71
3.2.2 Emulation ........................................................................................................... 73
3.2.3 Imitation ............................................................................................................ 76
3.2.4 Teaching ............................................................................................................ 79
3.3 The Impact of Social Learning on Material Culture ............................................... 83
3.3.1 Experimental Cultural Transmission Studies ................................................... 83
3.3.2 Knapping Experiments Exploring Social Learning .......................................... 86
3.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 95
Chapter Four: Experimental Design and Methodological Framework .......................... 99
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 99
4.1.1 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................... 99
4.2 Experimental Framework ....................................................................................... 100
4.2.1 Participants ....................................................................................................... 100
4.2.2 Structuring the Experiment ............................................................................. 103
4.2.3 Experimental Materials: Further Information ................................................. 112
4.2.4 Justification of Handaxes as the Artefact Target ............................................. 113
4.2.5 Justification of Porcelain as a Knapping Medium ........................................... 114
4.3 Expectations and the Null Hypothesis (H ) ........................................................... 117
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4.4 Data Collection Procedure ...................................................................................... 118
4.4.1. Selecting Variables for Measurement .............................................................. 119
4.4.2. Recording Methodology ................................................................................. 120
4.4.3 Analytical Procedure ........................................................................................ 122
4.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 125
Chapter Five: Results of the Knapping Experiment. ...................................................... 127
5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 127
5.2 Data Included in the Analysis ................................................................................ 127
5.3 Traditional Morphometric Framework ................................................................. 129
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5.3.1 Knapping Intensity and Reduction................................................................... 129
5.3.2 Flake Attributes ................................................................................................ 140
5.3.3 Summary of Results .......................................................................................... 152
5.4 Geometric Morphometric Framework................................................................... 153
5.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 159
Chapter Six: Discussion. .................................................................................................. 161
6.1 Introduction............................................................................................................. 161
6.2 Thesis Purpose and Motivation: An Alternative Proxy for Language Evolution . 162
6.3 Summary of Results ................................................................................................ 163
6.4 Contextualising the Research: A Consideration of the Wider Literature ............ 165
6.5 Interpretive Potential of this Thesis ..................................................................... 166
6.6 Limitations of the Study ......................................................................................... 167
6.5 Integrating the Research Framework with the Archaeological Evidence ........... 169
6.5.1 Lomekwian ......................................................................................................... 171
6.5.2 Oldowan ............................................................................................................ 173
6.5.3 Acheulean ......................................................................................................... 176
6.5.4 Levallois ............................................................................................................ 179
6.5.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 181
6.6 Summary ................................................................................................................. 184
Chapter Seven: Conclusion. ............................................................................................. 185
7.1 An Assessment of Thesis Impact ............................................................................ 185
7.2 Future Directions for Research ..............................................................................186
7.3 A Final Note ............................................................................................................ 190
References ......................................................................................................................... 193
Appendix 1: Experiment Participant Information Sheet .............................................. 2195
Appendix 2: Experiment Consent Form .......................................................................... 219
Appendix 3: Select Photos of Handaxes ......................................................................... 225

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