Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity: Volume 16

ISBN-13: 9780444538215 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 140 str.

S Elias

Opis

Innovation and creativity are two of the key characteristics that distinguish cultural transmission from biological transmission. This book explores a number of questions concerning the nature and timing of the origins of human creativity. What were the driving factors in the development of new technologies? What caused the stasis in stone tool technological innovation in the Early Pleistocene? Were there specific regions and episodes of enhanced technological development, or did it occur at a steady pace where ancestral humans lived? The authors are archaeologists who address these questions, armed with data from ancient artefacts such as shell beads used as jewelry, primitive musical instruments, and sophisticated techniques required to fashion certain kinds of stone into tools. Providing 'state of art' discussions that step back from the usual archaeological publications that focus mainly on individual site discoveries, this book presents the full picture on how and why creativity in Middle to Late Pleistocene archeology/anthropology evolved.

• Gives a full, original and multidisciplinary perspective on how and why creativity evolved in the Middle to Late Pleistocene
• Enhances our understanding of the big leaps forward in creativity at certain times
• Assesses the intellectual creativity of Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens via their artefacts

Spis treści

Origins of human innovation and creativity: breaking old paradigms, Scott EliasThe problem of stasis in stone tool technology during the Early Pleistocene, Clive GambleNorth African origins of symbolically mediated behaviour and the Aterian, Francesco D'Errico & Nick BartonPersonal ornaments and symbolism among the Neanderthals, Zoão ZilhãoInvention, re-invention and innovation: the makings of Oldowan lithic technology, Erella HoversEmergent patterns of creativity and innovation in early technologies, Steven L. KuhnEvolutionary ecology of creativity, John HoffeckerClimate, creativity and competition: evaluating the Neanderthal 'glass ceiling', William Davies