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Evolution of intentional teaching
Lund University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7423-828X
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Cultural Sciences. (Arkeologi)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8747-4131
2021 (English)In: The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution / [ed] Nathalie Gontier, Andy Lock, Chris Sinha, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, p. 237-258Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Only among humans is teaching intentional, socially structured, and symbolically mediated. In this chapter, evidence regarding the evolution of the mindreading and communicative capacities underlying intentional teaching is reviewed. Play, rehearsal, and apprenticeship are discussed as central to the analyses of teaching. We present a series of levels of teaching. First of all, we separate non-intentional from intentional teaching. For non-intentional teaching, we discuss facilitation and approval/disapproval and analyze examples from non-human species. We then distinguish between six levels of intentional teaching: (1) intentional approval/disapproval, (2) drawing attention, (3) demonstrating, (4) communicating concepts, (5) explaining concept relations, and (6) narrating. We hypothesize that level after level has been added during the evolution of teaching. We analyze communicative requirements for the levels, concluding that displaced communication is required for level 4 and symbolic language only for levels 5 to 6. We focus on the role of demonstration and pantomime and argue that pantomime has been instrumental in the evolution of language. We present archaeological evidence for when the different levels of teaching emerge. We argue that learning Oldowan technology requires teaching by demonstration, and that learning Acheulean hand-axe technology requires communicating concepts. It follows that several levels of intentional teaching predate homo sapiens.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. p. 237-258
Keywords [en]
Acheulean technology, apprenticeship, demonstration, displaced communication, intentional teaching, mindreading, Oldowan technology, pantomime
National Category
Archaeology
Research subject
Humanities, Archaeology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-102159DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198813781.013.9Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85199129761ISBN: 9780191851759 (print)ISBN: 9780198813781 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-102159DiVA, id: diva2:1544371
Available from: 2021-04-15 Created: 2021-04-15 Last updated: 2024-11-13Bibliographically approved

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Högberg, Anders

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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Output format
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