Abstract
Social “connectivity” through time is currently considered as one of the major drivers of cultural transmission and cultural evolution. Within this framework, the interactions within and between groups are impacted by individuals’ distinction of social relationships. In this paper, we focus on changes in a major aspect of social perceptions, “other” and “stranger.” As inferred from the archaeological record, this perception among human groups gained importance during the course of the Pleistocene. These changes would have occurred due to the plasticity of cognitive mechanisms, in response to the demands on behavior along the trajectory of human social evolution. The concepts of “other” and “stranger” have received little attention in the archaeological discourse, yet they are fundamental in the perception of social standing. The property of being an “other” is defined by one’s perception and is inherent to one’s view of the world around oneself; when shared by a group it becomes a social cognitive construct. Allocating an individual the status of a “stranger” is a socially-defined state that is potentially transient. We hypothesize that, while possibly entrenched in deep evolutionary origins, the latter is a relatively late addition to socio-cognitive categorization, associated with increased sedentism, larger groups and reduced territorial extent as part of the process of Neolithization. We posit that “others” and “strangers” can be approached from contextual archaeological data, with inferences as regards the evolution of cognitive social categories. Our analysis focused on raw material studies, observations on style, and evidence for craft specialization. We find that contrary to the null hypothesis the archaeological record implies earlier emergence of complex socio-cognitive categorization. The cognitive, cultural and social processes involved in the maintenance and distinction between “others” and “strangers” can be defined as “self-domestication” that is still an on-going process.
Highlights
Based on current evidence, in human society this social cognition” (SC) construct has changed from that of the chimps during the course of the Pleistocene
We identify the main changes in that the notion of “strangers” is enacted upon constantly in the context of large social networks, and in that it is fluid and transient
Most researchers agree that hominins, unlike perhaps other species, have found cognitive and social scaffoldings that enable them to operate within very large groups, crossculturally
Summary
While much research focused on the question of the emergence of “modern” cognition – a vague concept that is variably understood and variably recognized (see, e.g., Belfer-Cohen and Hovers, 2010) – there is a growing realization that rudimentary forms of human cognition can be traced into deep prehistoric times (e.g., Deacon, 1989; Laland, 2017 and references therein). We discuss the SC concepts of “other” and “stranger,” fundamental in defining social interfaces within and between groups of hunter-gatherers, as they have shaped, to considerable degree, economic, mobility and territorial behaviors that can be inferred from the archaeological record. Some non-human primates appear to present behaviors that suggest that they may differentiate between “others” and “strangers.” To wit, the viability of a chimpanzee genetic pool (which is ≤300 individuals) is maintained by the relocation of fertile females among groups When chimpanzees from those groups (“kin” or “others” in our terminology) encounter each other, the outcomes vary from skirmishes to friendship (see Tokuyama et al, 2019 for a recent discussion). On the other hand, when such encounters occurred, potential causes for inter-personal tensions would stem from economic interests, related to the availability, ownership and sharing of resources Such encounters occurred between “strangers,” i.e., individuals or groups that did not share common history, cultural traditions, or behavioral patterns. The challenge would be to evaluate the feasibility of archaeology to provide evidence based on the material culture record for the suggested scenario of the diachronic transformation of SC as regards “others” and “strangers.” On the evolutionary scale of prehistory, our questions should be formulated at the group rather than individual level
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