Abstract
Cultural evolutionary theory conceptualises culture as an information-transmission system whose dynamics take on evolutionary properties. Within this framework, however, innovation has been likened to random mutations, reducing its occurrence to chance or fortuitous transmission error. In introducing the special collection on children and innovation, we here place object play and play objects - especially functional miniatures - from carefully chosen archaeological contexts in a niche construction perspective. Given that play, including object play, is ubiquitous in human societies, we suggest that plaything construction, provisioning and use have, over evolutionary timescales, paid substantial selective dividends via ontogenetic niche modification. Combining findings from cognitive science, ethology and ethnography with insights into hominin early developmental life-history, we show how play objects and object play probably had decisive roles in the emergence of innovative capabilities. Importantly, we argue that closer attention to play objects can go some way towards addressing changes in innovation rates that occurred throughout human biocultural evolution and why innovations are observable within certain technological domains but not others.
Highlights
Given that play, including object play, is ubiquitous in human societies, we suggest that plaything construction, provisioning and use have, over evolutionary timescales, paid substantial selective dividends via ontogenetic niche modification
We argue that closer attention to play objects can go some way towards addressing changes in innovation rates that occurred throughout human biocultural evolution and why innovations are observable within certain technological domains but not others
The importance of cognitive niche construction for human cultural evolution has long been recognised (Jessen, 2012; Kerr, 2007; Kerr & Feldman, 2003; Pinker, 2010; Sterelny, 2003), including aspects of embodiment and cognition extended through material culture (Malafouris, 2010; Wheeler & Clark, 2008)
Summary
In late 2019, 15 researchers in archaeology, anthropology, primatology and psychology from across the globe came together in Brisbane (Australia) to debate four questions:. The significant protraction of the pre-reproductive life stages of infancy, childhood, juvenility and adolescence is noteworthy as they are argued to facilitate the extensive and flexible learning strategies that underwrite human culture (Bogin, 1997, 2006; Högberg & Gärdenfors, 2015; Nowell, 2016) Articulated with this period of extended childhood/adolescence is the notion of ‘extended parenting’ that provides the appropriate niche environment for youngsters to develop cognitively (Uomini et al, 2020) and to be exploratory prior to the onset of reproductive demands (Gopnik, 2020), these studies do not address the specific role of objects in these ontogenetic niche spaces. The new journey of death represented in the funerary rituals and structures of these communities is an entirely unintended consequence of the development of wheeled vehicles, underscoring the complexity of downstream (material and cognitive) niche effects of technological innovation on subsequent behaviour and innovation
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