Four-Field Co-evolutionary Model for Human Cognition: Variation in the Middle Stone Age/Middle Palaeolithic

Marlize Lombard,Anders Högberg

doi:10.1007/s10816-020-09502-6

Abstract

Here we explore variation and similarities in the two best-represented population groups who lived during the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic—the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Building on approaches such as gene-culture co-evolution, we propose a four-field model to discuss relationships between human cognitive evolution, biology, technology, society, and ecology. We focus on the pre-50-ka phase, because we reason that later admixing between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Eurasia may make it difficult to separate them in terms of cognition, or any of the other fields discussed in this paper. Using our model enabled us to highlight similarities in cognition between the two populations in terms of symbolic behaviour and social learning and to identify differences in aspects of technical and social cognition. Dissimilarities in brain-selective gene variants and brain morphology strongly suggest differences in some evolutionary trajectories that would have affected cognition. We therefore suggest that rather than insisting that Neanderthals were cognitively ‘the same’ as Homo sapiens, it may be useful to focus future studies on Neanderthal-specific cognition that may have been well-developed within their specific context at the time.

Highlights

The time slice of roughly 300–30 ka, identified for this special volume, represents the coming of age of Homo sapiens
We focus our exploration of human cognitive evolution on the period before ~ 50 ka, looking at cognitive variation in Neanderthal and H. sapiens, the two groups mostly represented in MSA/MP archaeology (Note: We reject any form of scientific racism or social Darwinist interpretation of our work [for discussion see Dennis 1995; Høiris 2016].)
We suggest that a useful way to understand cognitive evolution holistically is by looking at relevant aspects of biology, technology, society, and ecology through a four-field coevolutionary feedback loop (Fig. 1)

Summary

Introduction

The time slice of roughly 300–30 ka (i.e. the Middle Stone Age [MSA] in Africa and Middle Palaeolithic [MP] in Eurasia), identified for this special volume, represents the coming of age of Homo sapiens. During this time, our ancestors shared the Old World with other human groups such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans (see Galway-Witham et al 2019 for suite of concurrent hominins), and perhaps Homo naledi (Dirks et al 2017)—all of whom disappeared as distinct populations or became absorbed into a single surviving H. sapiens population. Our sapient characteristics allow us to do some things differently from other living animals: 1. Cognitively: We think about and find solutions for old and new problems (real and imagined, tangibly and intangibly) (e.g. Fuentes 2014)

Socially

Ecologically

A Four-Field Co-evolutionary Model

Concluding Discussion