Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T05:22:51.652Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Childhood and advances in human tool use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Mark Nielsen
Mark Nielsen
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia. nielsen@psy.uq.edu.auhttp://www.psy.uq.edu.au/directory/index.html?id=636gh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Human life history incorporates childhood, a lengthy post-weaning period of dependency. This species-specific period provides an opportunity for extensive learning and for sophisticated cultural behaviors to develop, including crucial tool use skills. Although I agree that no individual cognitive trait singularly differentiates humans from other animals, I suggest here that without childhood, the traits that are key to human tool use would not emerge.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , August 2012 , pp. 232 - 233
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, S. R., Apperly, I. A., Chappell, J., Guthrie, C. & Cutting, N. (2011) Making tools isn't child's play. Cognition 119:301–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergson, H. (1911/1998) Creative Evolution (A. Mitchell, Trans.). Dover Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogin, B. (1990) The evolution of human childhood. Bioscience 40:16–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, M. C. (2000) Progress in understanding hominoid dental development. Journal of Anatomy 197:77–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dean, M. C., Leakey, M. G., Reid, D., Schrenk, F., Schwartz, G. T., Stringer, C. & Walker, A. (2001) Growth processes in teeth distinguish modern humans from Homo erectus and earlier hominins. Nature 414:628–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foley, R. & Lahr, M. M. (2003) On stony ground: Lithic technology, human evolution, and the emergence of culture. Evolutionary Anthropology 12:109–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodall, J. (1998) Learning from the chimpanzees: A message humans can understand. Science 282:2184–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewlett, B. S., Fouts, H. N., Boyette, A. H. & Hewlett, B. L. (2011) Social learning among Congo Basin hunter-gatherers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366:1168–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, K., Barton, M. & Hurtado, A. M. (2009) The emergence of human uniqueness: Characters underlying behavioral modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology 18:187–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochberg, Z. & Albertsson-Wikland, K. (2008) Evo-devo of infantile and childhood growth. Pediatric Research 64:2–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J. & Hurtado, A. M. (2000) A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology 4:156–85.3.0.CO;2-7>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locke, J. L. & Bogin, B. (2006) Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29:259–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macchiarelli, R., Bondioli, L., Debénath, A., Mazurier, A., Tournepiche, J.-F., Birch, W. & Dean, M. C. (2006) How Neanderthal molar teeth grew. Nature 444:748–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, M. (2012) Imitation, pretend play and childhood: Essential elements in the evolution of human culture? Journal of Comparative Psychology 126:170–81. doi:10.1037/a0025168 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, M. & Blank, C. (2011) Imitation in young children: When who gets copied is more important than what gets copied. Developmental Psychology 47:1050–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, M. & Tomaselli, K. (2010) Over-imitation in Kalahari Bushman children and the origins of human cultural cognition. Psychological Science 21:729–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellen, D. W. & Smay, D. B. (2001) Relationship between subsistence and age at weaning in “preindustrial” societies. Human Nature 12:47–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, T. M., Tafforeau, P., Reid, D. J., Pouech, J., Lazzari, V., Zermeno, J. P., Guatelli-Steinberg, D., Olejniczak, A. J., Hoffman, A., Radovcic, J., Makaremi, M., Toussaint, M., Stringer, C. & Hublin, J.-J. (2010) Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans and Neanderthals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107:20923–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suddendorf, T., Nielsen, M. & von Gehlen, R.. (2011) Children's capacity to remember a novel problem and to secure its future solution. Developmental Science 14:26–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wellman, H. M., Cross, D. & Watson, J. (2001) Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development 72:655–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed