Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology: Psychology in Prehistory Edited by Tracy B. Henley, Matt J. Rossano and Edward P. Kardas

Carmen Martín-Ramos, Apollo-University Of Cambridge Repository, James Clark
2021
Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology : Psychology in Prehistory is an ambitious interdisciplinary volume containing 28 chapters organized into four major categories: Developmental (I), Cognitive (II), Social (III) and Clinical (IV) Psychology. In addition, two preceding forewords provide a historical overview to the discipline of Cognitive Archaeology and stress the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration in order to properly establish cognitive evolutionary theories. Here, I present a summary
more » ... the different chapters, followed by a critical review. Chapter one introduces us to the background of Evolutionary Psychology by looking at psychologist Wilhelm Wundt. Editors Kardas and Henley also present their final aim: to produce reliable approaches to the study of Cognitive Archaeology, that, in their own words, "can still be called objective and found acceptable to entire communities of scholars from disparate disciplines" (p. 8). The following chapters (two to four) draw attention to both causes and consequences of certain hominin physiological processes and brain development. They explore changes in dietary patterns and social behaviour that could have either influenced or benefitted from brain and cognitive enhancement, especially in relation to hominin life histories and childhood interaction. Daniel L. Krebs (chapter five) and Darcia Narvaez (chapter six) explore the question of morality. Krebs addresses it as an adaptive trait, proposing that moral traits might have helped humans to gain the evolutionary benefits of sociality
doi:10.17863/cam.71842 fatcat:zx52dvexvvbdfmiypqneevzh5u