Title: Exploring the Psychological Basis for Transitions in the Archaeological Record,
Abstract: In lieu of an abstract here is the first paragraph: No other species remotely
approaches the human capacity for the cultural evolution of novelty that is
accumulative, adaptive, and open-ended (i.e., with no a priori limit on the
size or scope of possibilities). By culture we mean extrasomatic
adaptations--including behavior and technology--that are socially rather than
sexually transmitted. This chapter synthesizes research from anthropology,
psychology, archaeology, and agent-based modeling into a speculative yet
coherent account of two fundamental cognitive transitions underlying human
cultural evolution that is consistent with contemporary psychology. While the
chapter overlaps with a more technical paper on this topic (Gabora & Smith
2018), it incorporates new research and elaborates a genetic component to our
overall argument. The ideas in this chapter grew out of a non-Darwinian
framework for cultural evolution, referred to as the Self-other Reorganization
(SOR) theory of cultural evolution (Gabora, 2013, in press; Smith, 2013), which
was inspired by research on the origin and earliest stage in the evolution of
life (Cornish-Bowden & Cárdenas 2017; Goldenfeld, Biancalani, & Jafarpour,
2017, Vetsigian, Woese, & Goldenfeld 2006; Woese, 2002). SOR bridges
psychological research on fundamental aspects of our human nature such as
creativity and our proclivity to reflect on ideas from different perspectives,
with the literature on evolutionary approaches to cultural evolution that
aspire to synthesize the behavioral sciences much as has been done for the
biological scientists. The current chapter is complementary to this effort, but
less abstract; it attempts to ground the theory of cultural evolution in terms
of cognitive transitions as suggested by archaeological evidence.