(6) Origins of the Capacity for Culture

Question 1

Two Types of Vocal Learning

Answer 1

Vocal Production: humans, invention of calls, new sounds must be culturally accepted and transmitted

Vocal Usage: chimps, flexibly using already established calls in new contexts

Question 2

Pantomime

Answer 2

Iconic gesturing that spatially resembles the action/object; empty-handed.
(Origins of language as gesture.)

Question 3

Egocentric Pantomime

Answer 3

Body parts maintain their identity. Peripersonal.

Question 4

Allocentric Pantomime

Answer 4

Body parts replaced by some other object. Extrapersonal.

Question 5

Acoustic Pantomime

Answer 5

Sound Symbol (woof!)

Question 6

Models of the Origin of Language

Answer 6

• Vocal theories: language began as vocalization
• Gestural theories: language began as gesture and was replaced by vocalization

Question 7

Mimesis

Answer 7

A gestural model of language proposed by Donald. Imitation –> learning. Pantomime –> communication.

Question 8

Episodic Culture

Answer 8

Only reacting to the immediate environment. Precursor to the three stages outlined in Donald’s model.

Question 9

Autocuing

Answer 9

Voluntary memory recall independent of immediate environment.
- Retrospective (think about the past)
- Prospective (think about the future)
- Imaginary (out of this world)
- Meta-cognition (thinking about thinking)
- For praxis (voluntary practice and rehearsal)
- Offline thinking

Question 10

Donald’s Three Stages

Answer 10

• Mimetic Culture
• Mythic Culture
• Theoretic Culture

Question 11

Mimetic Culture

Answer 11

Everything but language. For Homo Erectus.
- Material culture: stone-tool making, low level innovation, praxic mimesis, teaching, practice/rehearsal related to autocuing.
- Social organization: prosociality, cooperation, altruism, communicative mimesis, coordinated rhythmic group displays and rituals, conformity, customs and traditions

Question 12

Mythic Culture

Answer 12

Last 200k years.
- Donald is a lexicalist. Symbols came first. Proto-language, no grammar.
- Material culture: language-based pedagogy, collaboration in creating tools and objects, faster innovation.
- Social organization: linguistic communication through speech, lexical invention, conversational interaction, oral transmission of cultural information, group-level narratives via myth, religious belief.

Question 13

Theoretic Culture

Answer 13

Spoken language becomes stored external media.
- Material culture: external media for transmitting information without direct interaction with people, writing systems for communication and recordkeeping, audiovisual and digital media, even faster rate of technological innovation.
- Social organization: mass dissemination of information, asynchronous transmission, institutionalization of social functions and roles, theoretical paradigms.