Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution PDF Author: Nathalie Gontier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192543512
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1185

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Book Description
The biological and neurological capacity to symbolize, and the products of behavioral, cognitive, sociocultural, linguistic, and technological uses of symbols (symbolism), are fundamental to every aspect of human life. The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution explores the origins of our characteristically human abilities - our ability to speak, create images, play music, and read and write. The book investigates how symbolization evolved in human evolution and how symbolism is expressed across the various areas of human life. The field is intrinsically interdisciplinary - considering findings from fossil studies, scientific research from primatology, developmental psychology, and of course linguistics. Written by world leading experts, thirty-eight topical chapters are grouped into six thematic parts that respectively focus on epistemological, psychological, anthropological, ethological, linguistic, and social-technological aspects of human symbolic evolution. The handbook presents an in-depth but comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the of the state of the art in the science of human symbolic evolution. This work will be of interest to academics and students active in all fields contributing to the study of human evolution.

Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution PDF Author: Nathalie Gontier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192543512
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1185

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Book Description
The biological and neurological capacity to symbolize, and the products of behavioral, cognitive, sociocultural, linguistic, and technological uses of symbols (symbolism), are fundamental to every aspect of human life. The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution explores the origins of our characteristically human abilities - our ability to speak, create images, play music, and read and write. The book investigates how symbolization evolved in human evolution and how symbolism is expressed across the various areas of human life. The field is intrinsically interdisciplinary - considering findings from fossil studies, scientific research from primatology, developmental psychology, and of course linguistics. Written by world leading experts, thirty-eight topical chapters are grouped into six thematic parts that respectively focus on epistemological, psychological, anthropological, ethological, linguistic, and social-technological aspects of human symbolic evolution. The handbook presents an in-depth but comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the of the state of the art in the science of human symbolic evolution. This work will be of interest to academics and students active in all fields contributing to the study of human evolution.

Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution PDF Author: Andrew Lock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Presents the full text of the "Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution," edited by Andrew Lock and Charles R. Peters. Highlights the sections of the book, including palaeoanthropology, social and socio-cultural systems, ontogeny and symbolism, and language systems. Discusses human phylogeny, evolutionary trees of apes and humans from DNA sequences, social relations, early interaction and cognitive skills, spoken language, and sign language.

Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution PDF Author: Chris Sinha
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198813783
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1185

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution explores the origins of our characteristically human abilities - our ability to speak, create images, play music, and read and write. The book investigates how symbolization evolved in human evolution and how symbolism is expressed across the various areas of human life.

Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution PDF Author: Andrew Lock
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 944

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Book Description
A reference work that should be a first port of call for students and researchers in any discipline studying fundamental questions concerning the origins and nature of human symbolic abilities. The book is about the evolution of humanity: our language, art, tools, and communication. As suchit covers a wide range of disciplines: anthropology, psychology, primatology, paleontology, and archaeology. The various topics are dealt with by experts from each field, in articles that provide summaries that are scholarly but will also be comprenhensive to the many people (both lay andprofessional) who are interested in human evolution.

The Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

The Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution PDF Author: Andrew Lock
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631216902
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 912

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Book Description
Explanations and accounts of our own origins have become one of the most popular of all the areas in science that are now regularly brought into the public arena via television, lavishly illustrated books, and even cartoons.

Becoming Human

Becoming Human PDF Author: Colin Renfrew
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521876540
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
In this volume, fifteen internationally renowned scholars contribute essays that explore the relationship between symbolism, spirituality, and humanity in the prehistoric societies of Europe and traditional societies elsewhere.

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology PDF Author: David M. Buss
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471727229
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1057

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Book Description
The foundations of practice and the most recent discoveries intheintriguing newfield of evolutionary psychology Why is the mind designed the way it is? How does input from theenvironment interact with the mind to produce behavior? By takingaim at such questions, the science of evolutionary psychology hasemerged as a vibrant new discipline producing groundbreakinginsights. In The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology,leading contributors discuss the foundations of the field as wellas recent discoveries currently shaping this burgeoning area ofpsychology. Guided by an editorial board made up of such luminaries as LedaCosmides, John Tooby, Don Symons, Steve Pinker, Martin Daly, MargoWilson, and Helena Cronin, the text's chapters delve into acomprehensive range of topics, covering the full range of thediscipline: Foundations of evolutionary psychology Survival Mating Parenting and kinship Group living Interfaces with traditional disciplines of evolutionarypsychology And interfaces across disciplines. In addition to an in-depth survey of the theory and practice ofevolutionary psychology, the text also features an enlighteningdiscussion of this discipline in the context of the law, medicine,and culture. An Afterword by Richard Dawkins provides some finalthoughts from the renowned writer and exponent of evolutionarytheory. Designed to set the standard for handbooks in the field,The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology is an indispensablereference tool for every evolutionary psychologist and student.

The Hand

The Hand PDF Author: Frank R. Wilson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0679740473
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
"A startling argument . . . provocative . . . absorbing." --The Boston Globe "Ambitious . . . arresting . . . celebrates the importance of hands to our lives today as well as to the history of our species." --The New York Times Book Review The human hand is a miracle of biomechanics, one of the most remarkable adaptations in the history of evolution. The hands of a concert pianist can elicit glorious sound and stir emotion; those of a surgeon can perform the most delicate operations; those of a rock climber allow him to scale a vertical mountain wall. Neurologist Frank R. Wilson makes the striking claim that it is because of the unique structure of the hand and its evolution in cooperation with the brain that Homo sapiens became the most intelligent, preeminent animal on the earth. In this fascinating book, Wilson moves from a discussion of the hand's evolution--and how its intimate communication with the brain affects such areas as neurology, psychology, and linguistics--to provocative new ideas about human creativity and how best to nurture it. Like Oliver Sacks and Stephen Jay Gould, Wilson handles a daunting range of scientific knowledge with a surprising deftness and a profound curiosity about human possibility. Provocative, illuminating, and delightful to read, The Hand encourages us to think in new ways about one of our most taken-for-granted assets. "A mark of the book's excellence [is that] it makes the reader aware of the wonder in trivial, everyday acts, and reveals the complexity behind the simplest manipulation." --The Washington Post

A Million Years of Music

A Million Years of Music PDF Author: Gary Tomlinson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1935408658
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
What is the origin of music? In the last few decades this centuries-old puzzle has been reinvigorated by new archaeological evidence and developments in the fields of cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary theory. Starting at a period of human prehistory long before Homo sapiens or music existed, Tomlinson describes the incremental attainments that, by changing the communication and society of prehuman species, laid the foundation for musical behaviors in more recent times. He traces in Neandertals and early sapiens the accumulation and development of these capacities, and he details their coalescence into modern musical behavior across the last hundred millennia

The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic

The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic PDF Author: Gregory J. Wightman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442242906
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
How did religion emerge—and why? What are the links between behavior, environment, and religiosity? Diving millions of years into the past, to a time when human ancestors began grappling with issues of safety, worth, identity, loss, power, and meaning in complex and difficult environments, GregoryJ. Wightman explores the significance of goal-directed action and the rise of material culture for the advent of religiosity and ritual. The book opens by tackling questions of cognitive evolution and group psychology, and how these ideas can integrate with archaeological evidence such as stone tools, shell beads, and graves. In turn, it focuses on how human ancestors engaged with their environments, how those engagements became routine, and how, eventually, certain routines took on a recognizably ritualistic flavor. Wightman also critically examines the very real constraints on drawing inferences about prehistoric belief systems solely from limited material residues. Nevertheless, Wightman argues that symbolic objects are not merely illustrative of religion, but also constitutive of it; in the continual dance between brain and behavior, between internal and external environments, lie the seeds of ritual and religion. Weaving together insights from archaeology; anthropology; cognitive and cultural neuroscience; history and philosophy of religions; and evolutionary, social, and developmental psychology, Wightman provides an intricate, evidence-based understanding of religion’s earliest origins.