Representation and Recursion in the Archaeological Record |
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Authors: | John F Hoffecker |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA |
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Abstract: | Living humans are unique among the animal kingdom with respect to their ability to externalize mental representations outside
the brain through a variety of media and in a recursive or creative manner (i.e., generating a potentially infinite array
of combinations). Earlier humans evolved two specialized organs—the hand and the vocal tract—as primary instruments for externalizing
artificial or semantic representations. These organs and the externalized representations may have co-evolved with the Homo brain. The archaeological record yields examples of simple representations by 1.6 mya. More complex, hierarchical, and recursive
forms are evident by roughly 0.25 mya. Complex and highly recursive representations in a wide range of media (including representations
of representations in the form of visual art) emerge after 0.1 mya among anatomically modern humans. |
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Keywords: | Representation Recursion Cognitive psychology Linguistics Human evolution Prehistoric archaeology |
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