Browsing by Author "Lombard, Marlize"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Causal cognition, force dynamics and early hunting technologies
    (Frontiers Media, 2018) Gardenfors, Peter; Lombard, Marlize
    With this contribution we analyze ancient hunting technologies as one way to explore the development of causal cognition in the hominin lineage. Building on earlier work, we separate seven grades of causal thinking. By looking at variations in force dynamics as a central element in causal cognition, we analyze the thinking required for different hunting technologies such as stabbing spears, throwing spears, launching atlatl darts, shooting arrows with a bow, and the use of poisoned arrows. Our interpretation demonstrates that there is an interplay between the extension of human body through technology and expanding our cognitive abilities to reason about causes. It adds content and dimension to the trend of including embodied cognition in evolutionary studies and in the interpretation of the archeological record. Our method could explain variation in technology sets between archaic and modern human groups.
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    Still Bay Point-production strategies at Hollow Rock Shelter and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter and Knowledge-transfer systems in Southern Africa at about 80-70 thousand years ago
    (Public Library of Science, 2016) Hogberg, Anders; Lombard, Marlize
    It has been suggested that technological variations associated with Still Bay assemblages of southern Africa have not been addressed adequately. Here we present a study developed to explore regional and temporal variations in Still Bay point-production strategies. We applied our approach in a regional context to compare the Still Bay point assemblages from Hollow Rock Shelter (Western Cape) and Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter (KwaZulu-Natal). Our interpretation of the point-production strategies implies inter-regional point-production conventions, but also highlights variability and intra-regional knapping strategies used for the production of Still Bay points. These strategies probably reflect flexibility in the organisation of knowledge-transfer systems at work during the later stages of the Middle Stone Age between about 80 ka and 70 ka in South Africa.
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    Technology led to more abstract causal reasoning
    (Springer, 2020-07) Gardenfors, Peter; Lombard, Marlize
    Many animal species use tools, but human technical engagement is more complex. We argue that there is coevolution between technical engagement (the manufacturing and use of tools) and advanced forms of causal cognition in the human (Homo) lineage. As an analytic tool, we present a classification of different forms of causal thinking. Human causal thinking has become detached from space and time, so that instead of just reacting to perceptual input, our minds can simulate actions and forces and their causal consequences. Our main thesis is that, unlike the situation for other primate species, an increasing emphasis on technical engagement made some hominins capable of reasoning about the forces involved in causal processes. This thesis is supported in three ways: (1) We compare the casual thinking about forces of hominins with that of other primates. (2) We analyze the causal thinking required for Stone Age hunting technologies such as throwing spears, bow hunting and the use of poisoned arrows, arguing that they may serve as examples of the expansion of casual cognition about forces. (3) We present neurophysiological results that indicate the facilitation of advanced causal thinking.
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    Tracking the evolution of causal cognition in humans
    (Istituto Italiano di Antropologia, 2017) Lombard, Marlize; Gardenfors, Peter
    We suggest a seven-grade model for the evolution of causal cognition as a framework that can be used to gauge variation in the complexity of causal reasoning from the panin-hominin split until the appearance of cognitively modern hunter-gatherer communities. The intention is to put forward a cohesive model for the evolution of causal cognition in humans, which can be assessed against increasingly finegrained empirical data from the palaeoanthropological and archaeological records. We propose that the tracking behaviour (i.e., the ability to interpret and follow external, inanimate, visual clues of hominins) provides a rich case study for tracing the evolution of causal cognition in our lineage. The grades of causal cognition are tentatively linked to aspects of the Stone Age/Palaeolithic archaeological record. Our model can also be applied to current work in evolutionary psychology and research on causal cognition, so that an inter-disciplinary understanding and correlation of processes becomes increasingly possible.