The Prehistory of the Mind : A Search for the Origins of Art, Religion and Science by Steven Mithen (PDF)

Description

An accessible, very well written, provocative and most valuable book’ Lewis Wolpert, Observer How do our minds work? When did language and religious beliefs first emerge? Why was there a cultural explosion of art and creativity with the arrival of modern humans? This ground-breaking book brings the insight of archaeology to our understanding of the development and history of the human mind, combining them with ideas from evolutionary psychology in a brilliant and provocative synthesis.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a wonderful book. It starts with the question of whether we are fundamentally different from chimpanzies in the way our mind works. Taking the perspective of an archaeologist, and blending that with the views of evolutionary biology and of human developmental psychology and cognitive science, Mithen spins an extroadinary tale. The earliest and most primative primates probably had most of their cognitive world “hard-wired.” They had all the specific knowledge they needed for survival. Primates really took off from the rest of the mammals when we developed “general intelligence,” which could learn from trial and error, and which could make generalizations based on experience. However, this general intelligence was slow in acquiring new knowledge. To accomplish that, specialized intelligences, or programs, needed to evolve.The first of these was social intelligence, which was the specialized ability to read and understand social heirarchies. Early empathy and the ability to infer from your own experience what other members of your species were thinking and feeling was the greatest power this new intelligence conferred, and became the origin of consciousness. The second specialized intelligence was that of natural biology. This was very helpful in expanding our observations of the world, and increased the food sources which were available to primitive ancestors of homo sapiens. The third specialized intelligence was technical intelligence. This enabled early man to fashion tools and to use them in ever more complex ways.To these three intelligences — psychology, biology, and physics, so to speak — was added linguistic intelligence. This gave the conscious mind a voice. It also enhanced the other three intelligences, especially social intelligence. Prior to the evolution of linguistic intelligence, peer communication was mostly visual and tactile. Speech was much more efficient than grooming in building and maintaining social bonds. It was also linguistic intelligence that made possible the next great leap to meta-intelligence.Linking the four specialized intelligences, there evolved during the period leading up to 40,000 years ago, a supraordinate intelligence which permitted what we might now call multitasking, or integration among the other specialized intelligences. We see the first evidence of this in the bursting forth of art and religion at that time. None of these appear to have been present prior to that time.Much like a simple computer, the earliest primates had a set of basic information. Then came a generalized processor. To this were added specialized programs for psychology, biology, physics, and language. Finally, true homo sapiens developed a metaprogram linking the others and permitting genuine creativity to take off.Unlike most popular books on science for the educated layperson, Mithen does not go in for much chit chat. This is a pet peave of mine in other books, such as “Sex on the Brain,” or “Why We Age.” Too much irrelevant material on the appearance and personal quirks of the scientists and not enough of the science. Not so here. The writing is only a tiny bit repetitious, and is generally excellent.A few other brief notes. Mithen explains some of the subtler aspects of upright posture, such as taking less direct sun, which permits foraging in the middle of the day. He addresses the role of a meat diet compared to a vegetarian one. He also demonstrates conclusively that while chimps and other primates have certain things in common with us, human intelligence is truly a unique phenomenon.

⭐This book really sparked a lot of ideas on the evolution of the human brain. I especially liked the beginning sections on “what came before” where he summarizes the recent and sometimes contradictory schools of thought on the topic, rather than chosing one point of view and ignoring the others. Although I’ve been casually interesed in this subject for over 20 years, Mithen acquainted me with a number of researchers that I had never heard of. Very useful!

⭐This book is beautifully written and brilliant in it’s ability to explain the development of human consciousness. It is lively and a pleasure to read.

⭐I have been on a binge to discover as much as I can about whether or not humans have free will or not. Although this book does not answer this question directly it has given me much to think about.

⭐Steven Mithen was featured in a PBS film, “The Music Instinct”. He spoke of evolutionary development of voice and song for early communication. I enjoyed his book, “The Singing Neanderthals”, and was eager for the arrival of this earlier title. This book was very entertaining, and presents models of working brain function as skull capacities grew larger over time. It is insightful thinking which he says was inspired by his young children as they developed. It is well organized, and not overly technical,a very pleasurable read.

⭐Starts out great, and then turns into an academic monotone, blah, blah, blah.The intro is like going to the theater and the author introduces the setting and the actors; all done in a very clever way.Nice illustrations.

⭐I first discovered Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the Mind in 2007 when doing work on the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. I found Mithen’s interdisciplinary approach as an archaeologist refreshing and new.Revisiting the book after 15 years (and 26 years after it was originally published) I noticed that some of what we know about prehistoric humans has seen significant advancement and change in recent years and the new discoveries we have made in archaeology, psychology, and linguistics needs to be taken into account when reading this book decades later.Additionally, Mithen himself has continued to evolve his thinking on this matter in such books as The Singing Neanderthals (where he emphasizes music as a fundamental component of human cognition).All that being said, I think the book is still useful in its organization, writing, and large number of diagrams and illustrations that liven up and inform the ideas presented. This book is clearly a product of mid-90s thinking, but its interdisciplinary nature and the useful ideas and illustrations are still useful for the reader to ponder and re-evaluate when consulting more recent and modern sources. Even as my research on this continues to grow beyond what is presented in this book, I plan to continue to look back on this book simply due to its scope, imagination, and clearly presented concepts.

⭐No time to write an appropriate review yet, but parts fit well with my current research and writing.

⭐Mithen’s central thesis is that the development of children’s minds mirrors development of the human brain and therefore the course of evolution. The text is 250 pages long, including numerous diagrams. These are followed by 50 pages of two column closely printed notes and further reading, a source to be plundered. The thesis is like all good science to be tested and reworked.The very young child has general intelligence relying on trial and error. From aged 2, separate intelligences develop, for social, language, nature and technical intelligence. Each is “content rich” and intuitive. This explains why children pick up language so easily and why they understand the natural world as organised into plants and animals. The concept of there being different species is intuitive. Dogs have the essence of being dog like. Children do not think that objects are living. Later the separate specialized intelligences connect with general intelligence. By age 12, creativity has developed, the result of cognitive fluidity between general and the specialised intelligences. As a result they overlap.Mithen describes evolution over the longue durée, taking into account research in archaeology, anthropology, biology, cognitive science, primatology and art history.He starts with the chimp, which lives in extended family groups of between 20 and 120 animals. Chimps have a fission-fusion social organization, which can break into smaller interchangeable groups and periodically come together. The chimp brain is described as comprising spheres of general and social intelligence and an incipient nature intelligence.There were two spurts in brain enlargement.The first occurred between 2 and 1.5 million years ago. It involved the emergence of technical and nature intelligence, and the first appearance of incipient language intelligence. Handaxes are evidence for technical intelligence. To produce them, by removing flakes from a core stone, required a mental image of the finished tool. Evidence for nature intelligence is that Homo habilis developed hypotheses about carcass and predator location, unlike the chimp, which merely recognises fixed locations as sources of food.The second spurt in brain size occurred between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago. Mithen attributes this to the emergence of language. Language evolved to manage social exchanges, so specialist language intelligence overlaps with general intelligence. Social exchange also contributed to the development of consciousness, the conscious awareness of thought. If I do this, what does he think about it? What will he do? These interactions are described as “orders of intentionality”. Chimps can cope with a maximum of 2, modern humans up to 5.After a delay, the second spurt in brain size was followed by a cultural explosion, which occurred between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago. It featured colonisation of Australia, in Europe cave art and in the Near East blade cores replacing Levallois technology. Mithen attributes this delayed flowering to the emergence of creativity, resulting from cognitive fluidity between general and specialised intelligences.As a result of overlap between society and nature intelligence and cognitive fluidity between them, the culture of H sapiens hunter gatherers is very different from that of their predecessors. For modern hunter gatherers, there are not two worlds of society and nature, but one environment, saturated with personal powers and embracing man and the animals and plants on which they depend and the landscape in which they move. The cognitive fluidity explains the universality of totemism, believe in transformations between man and animal, and of anthropomorphic thinking, assuming animals think like humans. Mithen explains how this was useful in improving effectiveness of the hunt. Such fluidity clearly also contributed to the emergence of religious thought.I loved this book and intend reading Mithen’s other books on the prehistoric.

⭐One of the most fascinating and interesting books I have read.The author explain his theory of the evolution of the human mind from our common ancestor with the chimps 6 millon years ago in a most clear, compelling possible way. It will ignite your curiosity to learn more about the subject and you will see the world in the different light.Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in anthropology, archaeology, paleoanthropology, neurology, psychology, philosophy or natural sciences.

⭐I did not expect to feel as strongly about this book as I do. As my previous reading had centred only around History and Archaeology I found its contents absolutely stunning. It has given me a profound insight into what it is to be human. I found Prof. Mithen’s hypothesis for “Cathedrals of the Mind’ compelling and the presented evidence fits well. The reason for four not five stars was that towards the end of the book I found the repetition necessary to drive home an academic point a little wearisome for the lay reader, although I understand it is difficult to be ‘all things to all people’. Prof. Mithen gives the impression of being someone who does not suffer fools gladly, and no doubt he would think me one, but the picture which kept popping into my mind when thinking of the Middle/Upper Palaeolitic transition was that of Stanley Kubrick’s monolith and our ancestors at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have fought against this and have been educated and entertained. It would be interesting to know Steven Mithen’s views on David Lewis-Williams hallucinogens and what effect they might have had cognitive fluidity. (Dare I say it – no I know I mustn’t – but Graham Hancock also has some interesting and novel ideas on the subject in ‘Supernatural’). For all the championing of Richard Dawkins, I was left wondering whether our own deification of Science is not also a superstitious arrogance, although I can see it is the best tool we have for pushing back the frontiers of knowledge; which is something this clearly thought provoking book may well have helped to do. Highly recommended.

⭐received in time and in mint condition.content of the study most interesting, will togheter with the findigs of frits staal prove that rituals lay on the base of poetry

⭐Well worth the time and effort. It was a bit repetitive but overall very good.

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