Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026

3D Scanning Technology Bridging Microcircuits and Macroscale Brain Images in 3D Novel Embedding Overlapping Protocol
Published on: May 12, 2019
Big brains, small worlds: material culture and the evolution of the mind
1Department of Geography, University of London, Royal Holloway, Egham TW20 0EX, UK. fiona.coward@rhul.ac.uk
Abstract:
New developments in neuroimaging have demonstrated that the basic capacities underpinning human social skills are shared by our closest extant primate relatives. The challenge for archaeologists is to explain how complex human societies evolved from this shared pattern of face-to-face social interaction. We argue that a key process was the gradual incorporation of material culture into social networks over the course of hominin evolution. Here we use three long-term processes in hominin evolution-encephalization, the global human diaspora and sedentism/agriculture-to illustrate how the cultural transmission of material culture allowed the 'scaling up' of face-to-face social interactions to the global societies known today. We conclude that future research by neuroimagers and archaeologists will need to investigate the cognitive mechanisms behind human engagement with material culture as well as other persons.
Related Concept Videos
Biological Influences on Intelligence
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Genome Size and the Evolution of New Genes
Evolutionary Psychology
Cognitivism
Previously dominated by behaviorism, which prioritized observable behaviors and largely ignored mental processes, psychology transformed in the 1950s. Cognitive psychologists argue that understanding how we think and process information is...
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

