The human socio-cognitive niche and its evolutionary origins

Abstract

Hominin evolution took a remarkable pathway, as the foraging strategy extended to large mammalian prey already hunted by a guild of specialist carnivores. How was this possible for a moderately sized ape lacking the formidable anatomical adaptations of these competing 'professional hunters'? The long-standing answer that this was achieved through the elaboration of a new 'cognitive niche' reliant on intelligence and technology is compelling, yet insufficient. Here we present evidence from a diversity of sources supporting the hypothesis that a fuller answer lies in the evolution of a new socio-cognitive niche, the principal components of which include forms of cooperation, egalitarianism, mindreading (also known as 'theory of mind'), language and cultural transmission, that go far beyond the most comparable phenomena in other primates. This cognitive and behavioural complex allows a human hunter -gatherer band to function as a unique and highly competitive predatory organism. Each of these core components of the socio-cognitive niche is distinctive to humans, but primate research has increasingly identified related capacities that permit inferences about significant ancestral cognitive foundations to the five pillars of the human social cognitive niche listed earlier. The principal focus of the present study was to review and integrate this range of recent comparative discoveries.

Knowing, Learning and Teaching—How Homo Became Docens

“…Renfrew et al (2009, xiii) see the question of how Homo minds 'learned to learn' as essential for our understanding of human cognitive evolution. Here we have moved from learning to an investigation of how increasing levels of teaching have contributed to the unique human social-cognitive niche construction (Whiten & Erdal 2012).…”

“…Learning increases human knowledge and thereby stimulates what Haidle et al (2015) have termed an expansion of human cultural capacity, contributing to the unique human socio-cognitive niche construction (Odling-Smee et al 2003;Whiten & Erdal 2012). There are many kinds of learning, but social learning has been a significant behaviour adaptation of hominins throughout prehistory (Heyes 2012a).…”

Are there alternative adaptive strategies to human pro-sociality? The role of collaborative morality in the emergence of personality variation and autistic traits

“…Rather than social astuteness, signals of pro-social motivations and behaviours that positively affect the group thus become a major factor in reputation and selective success (Tomasello et al 2012;Silk and House 2016). Third, the food sharing, collaborative parenting and maintenance of egalitarian dynamics which form the basis of human evolutionary success (Whiten and Erdal 2012) buffer individual shortfalls not only in resources (the basis for economic success) but also in abilities. An expert hunter need not also be an attuned and sensitive parent to be reproductively successful, and the converse is equally the case.…”

The control of defecation in humans: an evolutionary advantage?

“…In fact, considering the remarkable pathway taken by hominids, especially concerning foraging strategies [10], one wonders whether the voluntary control of defecation may have been one of these strategies. Once again, we must rely on experimental animal models that, in this respect, appear very interesting.…”