Theory of mind and the development of the body and material culture in visual display

James Cole supervised by

The main focus of this paper will be a discussion concerned with the use of the body in social interactions through hominin evolution. Of particular interest is how the body’s use in social signalling developed through time, ultimately resulting in the development of grammatical language and the use of the body in the byzantine social interactions of modern humans. The broad framework theory behind this paper concerns the Social Brain Hypothesis (Aiello and Dunbar 1993; Dunbar 1996; 1998; 2003; 2004), a biological predictive model relating to Homo sapiens brain encephalisation. The hypothesis deals with the possible cognitive capabilities (expressed as orders of intentionality) of hominins based on biological predictions relating to brain and social group size – the large the group, the larger the brain due to increasing complexity in social interactions. These projections have yet to be fully related to the material / behavioural archaeological record, so subsequently, one of the aims of this paper will be to describe a theoretical link of my own construction (termed the identity model) by which the social brain hypothesis may be correlated to the archaeological record. The social brain hypothesis (based on brain size) suggests that the ability to construct complex symbolic structures such as grammatical language is only attained by anatomically modern humans with a fifth order of intentionality. However, I believe that the origins of language are far more ancient and must be embodied within systems of visual display incorporating the body and material culture as the primary modes of social communication.

In light of the above, investigating such questions as when culture changes body language from a biological signaller to a full social broadcast conveying information beyond the context specific and egocentric body communications of primates and other lower order animals, become important components of the overall premise. By using definitions of identity (the identity model) as a vehicle to exploring the body as an agent in social communication and by correlating specific categories of identity to a cognitive scale, in this instance the orders of intentionality, embedded within the social brain hypothesis, I aim to establish a link from behaviour and material culture to the cognitive capacities required to undertake such constructions. I propose that by looking at the archaeological record through definitions of identity that certain types of material culture production or certain behavioural practices can be related to the use of the body as a vehicle in social communications essential to maintaining group cohesion and negotiating complex social interactions. This approach to examining the archaeological record is particularly essential in studies of the Palaeolithic and language development, where the majority of the archaeology is centred on material culture comprising lithic artefacts. With such an examination of the archaeological record, archaeologists shall be able to ascertain whether the creation of symbolic structures such as grammatical language is truly unique to the ‘human’ condition.