Thomas Wynn - An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology

An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeologyis the first concise introduction that lays out the epistemological foundations of evolutionary cognitive archaeology in a way that is accessible to students.

The volume is divided into three sections. The first section situates cognitive archaeology in the pantheon of archaeological approaches and distinguishes between ideational cognitive archaeology and evolutionary cognitive archaeology. This is followed by a close look at the nature of cognitive archaeological inferences and concludes with brief summaries of the major methods of evolutionary cognitive archaeology. The second section of the book introduces the reader to a variety of cognitive phenomena that are accessible using the methods of cognitive archaeology: memory, technical cognition, spatial cognition, social cognition, art and aesthetics, and symbolism and language. The third section presents a brief outline of hominin cognitive evolution from the perspective of evolutionary cognitive archaeology. The authors divide the archaeological record into three major phases: The Bipedal Apes3.3 million1.7 million years ago; The Axe Age1.7 million300,000 years ago; and The Emergence of Modern Thinking300,00012,000 years ago.

An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeologyis an essential text for undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars across the behavioral and social sciences interested in learning about cognitive archaeology, including psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, and archaeologists.

Thomas Wynnis a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Since the 1970s, his research has centered on the explicit use of psychological theory to interpret archaeological remains. He has published extensively on hominin cognitive evolution.

Frederick L. Coolidgeis a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS). He is the co-director of the UCCS Center of Cognitive Archaeology. He is the author or co-author of several books spanning the disciplines of cognitive archaeology, statistics, and psychology.

Thomas Wynn and
Frederick L. Coolidge

Cover image: Dagmar Hollmann / Wikimedia Common

First published 2022

by Routledge

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The right of Thomas Wynn & Frederick L. Coolidge to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-85695-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-85694-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-01448-5 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003014485

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section i
Method and Theory

section ii
Core Issues in Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology

section iii
Brief Outline of Hominin Cognitive Evolution

Evolutionary cognitive archaeology is a relatively new specialty in prehistoric archaeology, and there are few authoritative accounts of how it differs from other forms of archaeological enquiry. Our goal in the following short introduction is to present the methods of evolutionary cognitive archaeology as clearly as possible. We hope that readers will come away with an understanding of the distinct features of reasoning associated with the approach. We also provide a sample of some of the insights that evolutionary cognitive archaeology has provided to the understanding of human evolution.