Retracing the emergence, in evolutionary time, of the symbolic competence of Homo sapiens is one of the current tasks of physical and cultural anthropologists as well as cognitive scientists, linguists and semioticians. A full understanding of human mental capacities requires a multidisciplinary synergy in view of the complexity of the evolutionary constraints that can be assumed to have played a part in the evolution of the primate brain and the finetuning of human intelligence toward the efficient manipulation of representations, the construction of abstract models and the communication of virtual information. Prehistorians and archaeologists can contribute invaluable insights to this quest through their scrutinizing of the earliest material evidence of humans symbolic behavior. Rock art research is the locus of heated debates regarding how far in time such "advanced" behavior as computing and writing can be traced back. Against a tradition that refuses to credit the prehistoric authors of cave paintings and engravings for anything more than primitive esthetic and technical abilities, some researchers map palaeolithic data unto more daring hypotheses that, if not refuted, would considerably push back in time the apparition of advanced semiotic behavior in the Homo lineage. This section of the FRONTLINE will feature research papers that make a signal contribution to this debate.
Paul Bouissac: bouissa@attglobal.net
Research Papers:
- Beads and the origins of symbolism, Robert G Bednarik
©Semioticon, 2000