The archaeology of teaching and the evolution of Homo docens
Date
2017-4
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Abstract
Teaching is present in all human societies, while within other species it is very limited. Something happened during the
evolution of Homo sapiens that also made us Homo docens—the teaching animal. Based on discussions of animal and
hominin learning, we analyze the evolution of intentional teaching by a series of levels that require increasing capacities of
mind reading and communication on the part of the teacher and the learner. The levels of teaching are (1) intentional
evaluative feedback, (2) drawing attention, (3) demonstrating, (4) communicating concepts, and (5) explaining relations
between concepts. We suggest that level after level has been added during the evolution of teaching.We demonstrate how
different technologies depend on increasing sophistication in the levels of cognition and communication required for
teaching them. As regards the archaeological evidence for the different levels, we argue that stable transmission of the
Oldowan technology requires at least teaching by demonstration and that learning the late Acheulean hand-axe technology
requires at least communicating concepts. We conclude that H. docens preceded H. sapiens.
Description
CITATION: Gärdenfors, P. & Högberg, A. 2017. The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution of Homo docens. Current Anthropology, 58(2):188-208. doi:10.1086/691178.
The original publication is available at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/open
The original publication is available at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/open
Keywords
Teaching, Homo docens, Oldowan technology
Citation
Gärdenfors, P. & Högberg, A. 2017. The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution of Homo docens. Current Anthropology, 58(2):188-208. doi:10.1086/691178.