Articles producció científica> Història i Història de l'Art

Teaching to make stone tools: new experimental evidence supporting a technological hypothesis for the origins of language.

  • Identification data

    Identifier: imarina:5131537
    Authors:
    Lombao DGuardiola MMosquera M
    Abstract:
    The relationship between lithic technology, learning and language is a topic of growing interest in human evolution studies, and has therefore been the subject of numerous scientific papers in recent years. To evaluate the role of language in the social transmission of lithic technology, we designed and developed an experimental protocol through which we compared the acquisition of knapping skills in thirty non-experts in the early stages of learning, by means of three mechanisms of social transmission: imitation-emulation, gestural communication, and verbal communication. All the apprentice knappers carried out the experimental task with blanks that were equal in shape and size, and were requested to replicate what the expert knapper was doing: the alternating method, a sufficiently simple, but systematic technique for detaching flakes from a core. We analysed each participant's actions, including those of the master knapper, the final products (flakes and cores), and the knapping sequences, by analysing the refits. Our results show that the apprentices improved their knapping skills in teaching conditions -both gestural and verbal communication-, and specially through the latter. In conclusion, our study supports the hypothesis of co-evolution between lithic technology and social learning, which could have favoured the emergence of verbal language.
  • Others:

    Author, as appears in the article.: Lombao D; Guardiola M; Mosquera M
    Department: Història i Història de l'Art
    URV's Author/s: Lombao Vázquez, Diego / Mosquera Martínez, Marina
    Abstract: The relationship between lithic technology, learning and language is a topic of growing interest in human evolution studies, and has therefore been the subject of numerous scientific papers in recent years. To evaluate the role of language in the social transmission of lithic technology, we designed and developed an experimental protocol through which we compared the acquisition of knapping skills in thirty non-experts in the early stages of learning, by means of three mechanisms of social transmission: imitation-emulation, gestural communication, and verbal communication. All the apprentice knappers carried out the experimental task with blanks that were equal in shape and size, and were requested to replicate what the expert knapper was doing: the alternating method, a sufficiently simple, but systematic technique for detaching flakes from a core. We analysed each participant's actions, including those of the master knapper, the final products (flakes and cores), and the knapping sequences, by analysing the refits. Our results show that the apprentices improved their knapping skills in teaching conditions -both gestural and verbal communication-, and specially through the latter. In conclusion, our study supports the hypothesis of co-evolution between lithic technology and social learning, which could have favoured the emergence of verbal language.
    Thematic Areas: Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros Saúde coletiva Química Psicología Odontología Nutrição Multidisciplinary sciences Multidisciplinary Medicina veterinaria Medicina iii Medicina ii Medicina i Materiais Matemática / probabilidade e estatística Letras / linguística Interdisciplinar Geografía Geociências Farmacia Engenharias iv Engenharias iii Engenharias ii Enfermagem Educação física Educação Economia Ciências biológicas iii Ciências biológicas ii Ciências biológicas i Ciências ambientais Ciências agrárias i Ciência de alimentos Ciência da computação Biotecnología Biodiversidade Astronomia / física
    licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
    Author's mail: diego.lombao@estudiants.urv.cat marina.mosquera@urv.cat
    Author identifier: 0000-0003-4823-6154
    Record's date: 2024-09-07
    Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
    Link to the original source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14322-y
    Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
    Papper original source: Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 14394-
    APA: Lombao D; Guardiola M; Mosquera M (2017). Teaching to make stone tools: new experimental evidence supporting a technological hypothesis for the origins of language.. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 14394-. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14322-y
    Article's DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14322-y
    Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
    Journal publication year: 2017
    Publication Type: Journal Publications
  • Keywords:

    Multidisciplinary,Multidisciplinary Sciences
    Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros
    Saúde coletiva
    Química
    Psicología
    Odontología
    Nutrição
    Multidisciplinary sciences
    Multidisciplinary
    Medicina veterinaria
    Medicina iii
    Medicina ii
    Medicina i
    Materiais
    Matemática / probabilidade e estatística
    Letras / linguística
    Interdisciplinar
    Geografía
    Geociências
    Farmacia
    Engenharias iv
    Engenharias iii
    Engenharias ii
    Enfermagem
    Educação física
    Educação
    Economia
    Ciências biológicas iii
    Ciências biológicas ii
    Ciências biológicas i
    Ciências ambientais
    Ciências agrárias i
    Ciência de alimentos
    Ciência da computação
    Biotecnología
    Biodiversidade
    Astronomia / física
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