The Evolution of Technical Competence: Strategic and Economic Thinking

Abstract

This paper will outline a series of changes in the archaeological record related to Hominins. 1 I argue that these changes underlie the emergence of the capacity for strategic thinking. The paper will start by examining the foundation of technical skills found in primates, and then work through various phases of the archaeological and paleontological record. I argue that the key driver for the development of strategic thinking was the need to expand range sizes and cope with increasingly heterogeneous environments.

Tool innovation may be a critical limiting step for the establishment of a rich tool-using culture: A perspective from child development

“…For a social organism, tool manufacturing quite likely resembles the first task, with abundant physical props and a community of users and makers. Tools may scaffold executive control (Jeffares 2010b).…”

Thinking tools: Acquired skills, cultural niche construction, and thinking with things

“…For a social organism, tool manufacturing quite likely resembles the first task, with abundant physical props and a community of users and makers. Tools may scaffold executive control (Jeffares 2010b).…”

The co-evolution of tools and minds: cognition and material culture in the hominin lineage

“…3) (Jeffares 2010). Tools must be made in anticipation of need, and this may represent the emergence of mental time travel, as suggested by Thomas Suddendorf, Michael Corballis and others (Suddendorf and Busby 2005;Suddendorf and Corballis 2007).…”