James Steele (1994) Hominid Sensory Modalities and Palaeolithic Data
. Psycoloquy: 5(27) Evolution Thinking (2)
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Psycoloquy 5(27): Hominid Sensory Modalities and Palaeolithic Data
HOMINID SENSORY MODALITIES AND PALAEOLITHIC DATA
Book Review of Sheets-Johnstone on Evolution-Thinking
James Steele
Department of Archaeology
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton SO9 5NH
United Kingdom
tjms@southampton.ac.uk
Abstract
In "The Roots of Thinking," Sheets-Johnstone (1990)
suggests that human conceptual thinking originates in universals of
sensory experience. She contrasts the tactile-kinaesthetic sense
with "static" visual cognition, favoring the former. In contrast,
archaeologists have often interpreted the data on early conceptual
thinking as reflecting the dominance of the visual modality. This
is illustrated in the origins of figurative art. Deciding between
these competing accounts of sensory "dominance" may require more
input from disciplines in which behaviour is directly manipulated
and observed.
Keywords
analogical thinking, animate form, concepts, evolution,
tactile-kinesthetic body.
References
- Carlson, M. (1985) Significance of single or multiple cortical areas for tactile discrimination in primates. In A.W. Goodwin and I. Darian-Smith (eds.) Hand Function and the Neocortex, pp. 1-16. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
- Kaye, L.J. (1993) Are most of our concepts innate? Synthese 95:187-217.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D. and Dowson, T.A. (1988) The signs of all times. Current Anthropology 29: 201-217.
- Sheets-Johnstone, M. (1990) The Roots of Thinking. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
- Sheets-Johnstone, M. (1994) Precis of The Roots of Thinking. PSYCOLOQUY 5(8) evolution-thinking.1.sheets-johnstone.