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.
1. Cover image 2. Title page 3. Table of Contents 4. Series Editor 5. Copyright 6. Contributors 7. Chapter 1 Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity 8. Chapter 2 Creativity and Complex Society Before the Upper Palaeolithic Transition 9. Chapter 3 North African Origins of Symbolically Mediated Behaviour and the Aterian 10. Chapter 4 Personal Ornaments and Symbolism Among the Neanderthals 11. Chapter 5 Invention, Reinvention and Innovation 12. Chapter 6 Emergent Patterns of Creativity and Innovation in Early Technologies 13. Chapter 7 The Evolutionary Ecology of Creativity 14. Chapter 8 Climate, Creativity and Competition 15. Index
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.
1. Cover image 2. Title page 3. Table of Contents 4. Series Editor 5. Copyright 6. Contributors 7. Chapter 1 Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity 8. Chapter 2 Creativity and Complex Society Before the Upper Palaeolithic Transition 9. Chapter 3 North African Origins of Symbolically Mediated Behaviour and the Aterian 10. Chapter 4 Personal Ornaments and Symbolism Among the Neanderthals 11. Chapter 5 Invention, Reinvention and Innovation 12. Chapter 6 Emergent Patterns of Creativity and Innovation in Early Technologies 13. Chapter 7 The Evolutionary Ecology of Creativity 14. Chapter 8 Climate, Creativity and Competition 15. Index
