Tool Use by New Caledonian Crows Can Inform Cognitive Archaeology

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the fruitfulness of interchange between the discipline of cognitive archaeology and research on corvid birds. To illustrate the valuable two-way exchanges that can be made, the chapter presents published work on corvid cognition and the authors’ ongoing work on New Caledonian crows’ tool-use and social behaviors. The chapter highlights important gaps. In particular, parallels for early hominins have tended to focus heavily on primates but have ignored other taxa. Similarly, animal cognition research and especially corvid studies have underutilized the potential to put their findings in the context of current data from cognitive archaeology. The authors argue that greater attention should be given to birds in general, and corvids in particular, when reconstructing human cognitive evolution, as these species are in some ways more relevant to human evolution than the primate models that have always been the focus. Likewise, findings from other domains of cognitive archaeology should be better incorporated into corvid research. The authors advocate for stronger communication between researchers who work on human cognition, human evolution, and animal cognition. To achieve a truly complete understanding of human cognitive evolution, an interdisciplinary approach that brings together multiple lines of evidence is required, no matter how different the perspectives. Cognitive archaeology and corvids can greatly benefit from listening to each other. Each also offers their own unique contributions to wider fields.