Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 3
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
Prologue......Page 12
Mental Architecture as an Emergent Phenomenon......Page 16
Culture as Evidence for Cognitive Structure......Page 20
The Organization of This Book......Page 25
Continuity and Discontinuity......Page 31
Pre-Darwinian Theories......Page 35
Darwin on Animal Intelligence......Page 38
Darwin's Thesis on Language Origins......Page 42
Archaic Human Cognition......Page 46
Vocalization: Rudimentary Song......Page 48
Articulate Language......Page 52
Conclusion: A Multidisciplinary Puzzle......Page 53
Modular and Unitary Models of Language......Page 56
Fodor's Modules......Page 61
The Unbounded Central Processor......Page 65
Neuropsychological Aspects of Evolution......Page 69
Language Evolution and Cerebral Laterality......Page 71
Geschwind's Search for the Speech Module......Page 79
Corballis: Generativity and Left Dominance......Page 81
The Right Hemisphere and Semantic Reference......Page 87
The Case of Brother John......Page 93
The Brain without Language......Page 97
Conclusion: Wernicke's Machine in Evolution......Page 100
Markers in the Chronology of Change......Page 106
Bipedalism: The Australopithecines......Page 115
Encephalization: The Hominids......Page 117
Habilines......Page 121
Homo Erectus......Page 123
Homo Sapiens......Page 125
Speech: A Recent Innovation......Page 126
Conclusion: The Question of Cognitive Stages......Page 130
Ape Skill: An Overview......Page 135
Training Apes to Use Signs......Page 138
The Importance of Symbolic Invention......Page 145
Social Intelligence in Apes......Page 148
Self-Awareness and Consciousness......Page 152
Self-Representation in Apes......Page 155
Episodic Culture: A Definition......Page 159
Event Perception in Apes......Page 164
Culture and Evolution......Page 168
Conclusion: The Episodic Mind......Page 170
Mimetic Culture: The Missing Link......Page 173
Human Cognition without Language......Page 177
Mimetic Skill......Page 179
Generativity......Page 182
Unlimited Objects......Page 183
Modeling of Social Structure......Page 184
Conformity and Coordination......Page 185
Group Mimetic Acts......Page 186
Pedagogy......Page 187
Modalities of Mimetic Expression......Page 188
Facial and Vocal Mimesis: Special Cases......Page 191
Integration across Mimetic Modalities......Page 197
Properties of the Mimetic Controller......Page 200
Parsing and Modeling Event Sets......Page 202
Control of the Mimetic System......Page 203
Neuroanatomical Considerations......Page 204
Conclusion: Mimetic Culture as a Survival Strategy......Page 208
Language and the Rise of Human Culture......Page 212
Transition Period......Page 213
Selection Pressures......Page 219
Mimetic versus Upper Paleolithic Culture......Page 221
Integrative Modeling and Myth......Page 224
Symbolic Invention......Page 227
What the Language Adaptation Was Not......Page 228
Archaic Semiotic Invention: Gesture......Page 231
Symbols and Mental Models......Page 236
Linguistic Invention and Its Market......Page 244
The Speech Adaptation......Page 247
The High-Speed Phonological Device......Page 248
Synthesis of Auditory "Objects" and "Events"......Page 253
The Articulatory Loop......Page 258
The Lexicon......Page 260
Narrative Skill and Myth......Page 267
Linguistic Innovation and Diffusion......Page 269
An Overview of the Language Adaptation as a Unity......Page 270
What Is Localized?......Page 272
Conclusion: Mythic Culture and the Uses of Language......Page 278
From Mythic to Theoretic Governance......Page 280
Visuographic Invention......Page 286
Pictorial Representation......Page 290
Cuneiforms, Lists, and Numbers......Page 296
Hieroglyphs and Ideographs......Page 303
The Phonetic Alphabet......Page 308
Independent Visual and Phonetic Paths......Page 310
Other Kinds of Visuosymbolic Invention......Page 317
External Memory Devices: A Hardware Change......Page 319
The Locus of Memory......Page 323
Properties of Exogroms......Page 325
Changes in the Role of Biological Memory......Page 330
A Revised Concept of Working Memory......Page 336
The Emergence of Theoretic Culture......Page 344
Early Analog Models: Time and Space......Page 346
Externalizing the Oral Commentary......Page 351
Pedagogy and Metolinguistic Evolution......Page 355
The Trivium: Rhetoric, Logic, and Grammar......Page 360
Conclusion: The Hybrid Modern Mind......Page 366
Transcending the Episodic Model of Mind......Page 372
Where Is the Homunculus?......Page 375
Simulating Cognitive Evolution......Page 376
Consciousness in a Hybrid System......Page 379
Localization after the Third Transition......Page 384
Physicol lndeterminacy and Singularity......Page 390
Conclusion: Exuberant Materialism......Page 392
References......Page 396
Acknowledgments......Page 414
Index......Page 416
Back Cover......Page 425