User:Chinchliff/sandbox

Introduction

This article will outline some of the cognitive and behavioral changes that have occured throughout the course of human evolution which have influenced the advancement of artistic expression, such as an increased brain size and the beginings of tool making. After delineating some of the changes that have allowed for innovative and abstract thought, classified as behavioral modernity, the article will briefly mention the begining of symbolic thought and artisitic expression during the creative explosion. Finally, the article will explain some of the theoretical arguements of the evolutionary significance of artisitc expression to the human species.

The Brain

According to most evolutionary psychologists the human brain evolved to what it is today 100,000 years ago in what is referred to as the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA) . Other social scientists such as Steven Mithens, in the Prehistory of the Mind, claim that a cultural revolution occured approximately 40,000 years ago, referred to by some as the creative explosion. During the creative explosion there is evidence in the archeological record of multipart tools and higher culture, such as art, religion, and complex forms of social organization. This significant brain evolution is associated with creative cognitive activity, and what Mithens refers to as cognitive fludity: imaginative and inventive cultural achievements.

The human brain, over the course of human evolution, has increased in size remarkably. In comparison to our closet extant relatives, chimpanzees, it is 250% greater in size.The brain size of our ancestors living 2 to 2.5 million years ago weighed on average 400-450g. Between 200,000 to 400,000 years ago, the brain increased in size to 1350-1450g . The increase in brain size is related to higher order cognitive functions and executive functions, such as language, innovation and creativity, known as behavioral modernity. The frontal lobe experienced a disproportionate increase compared to other parts of the brain, which is indicative of a dramatic shift in the behavioral and cognitive abilities of our ancestors.

According to Gould, the arts are a byproduct of human adaptations, specifically an enlarged brain, which evolved during the time when human ancestors lived in Africa; "I am content to believe that the human brain became large by natural selection, and for adaptive reasons- that is for some set of activities that our savana ancestors could only perform with larger brains". Dutton, on the other hand, agrees that an increased brain size is undoubtedly a significant evolutionary change, but argues that it is a mistake to deligitamize other milestones of the human evolutionary past that are relavant to anotomically modern humans and the beginings of artistic expression, such as language. The cognitive capacities to acquire a language is a pan-cultural phenomenon, innate to all people, and illustatrive of the ability for symbolic thought.

Tool Making

In order to make tools, a brain evolution occurred allowing for new cognitive demands to be met. Such cognitive demands include increased social complexity and the capability for abstract thought and reasoning. With extant primates, tool use is positively correlated to absolute brain size and relative brain size, measured by using quotient encephalization.. Additionally, large brains is associated with social complexity and from an ecological standpoint, foraging strategies, parental investment and survival skills .

During the early Pleistocene, there is archeological evidence of the initial invention of simple tools. After the first appearance of simple tools there was a relatively long period of time in which little progress in tool technology was made. The role of emotions as driving innovations and creativity is not something that can be studied from the archeological record, but is an aspect of human behavior and cognition that likely spurred the advancement of tool making throughout human evolution. The ability to innovate and think creatively is related to natural selection and sexual selection, survival strategies, and inclusive fitness. The social complexity of all the large brained hominins and beginings of took making preceded the increase in complexity of artifacts and artisitic expression.

In order to meet survival demands, hominin ancestors learned to modify elements of their environment. This aptitude distinguishes us from other animals. The cognitive capacity of human toolmaking is related to the ability to gather and store information, transform it and make it useful. Additionally, the ability to communicate through symbolic thought and language is indicative of the human ability to store and retrieve information, and form a mental template.

The earliest human technological innovations, Oldowan tool industry, dates back 2.6 to 2.5 million years ago in East Africa, and is representative of both abstract thought and social learning . According to Hovers, “ the first Oldowan stone-tool making involved some breach of a cognitive ceiling.” Concurrent with a significant brain expansion 2.0 to 1.0 Ma, tool making is associated with the expansion out of Africa. A “creative explosion” took place in Eurasia during the Upper Paleolithic and later Middle Stone Age of Africa; both of which are related to a dramatic shift in biological and cognitive capacities of hominins, which influenced an increased level of social complexity and social learning..

Evidence of behavioral modernity predates the homo lineage and have been found amongst Neanderthals. Burials, which suggest symbolic behavior, date 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, which indicate that Neanderthals might have had symbolic beliefs associated with life after death. Additionally, examples of antler and ivory tools, beads, and other symbolic artifacts have been found at Neanderthal sites, which suggest symbolic material culture.

Artistic Expression

Language, tool making, and symbolism were the building blocks to artistic expression. However, the first evidence of full-blown art, as we conceptualize it today appeared in the archealogical record 30,000 years ago with the world’s oldest cave paintings found in southern France, known as the Chauvet Cave, in which depictions of lions, horses and rhinos are found. These images are located in the recesses of the cave, and were painted under torchlight. The Chauvet Cave was painted during the “creative explosion” during the same time that modern humans began to colonize Europe 40,000 years ago. Although this cave is the first large scale evidence of such complexity of artistic expression, imaginative and creative cognitive abilities had long before evolved in the human species.

Symbolic behavior most likely predates the “creative explosion”, and has its origins in Africa. Stone tools, beads, and ochre, from 100,000 years ago have been excavated in Africa, and suggests the origins of symbolic thought. Additionally, between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago a piece of quartzite resembling a human figure, known as Venus of Tan-Tan was found in Morocco. Due to its age Homo heidelbergensis, a common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals, likely made it. Another example of a symbolic object resembling a woman, that predates the “artistic explosion,” was found in Berekhat Ram in Israel, and is from 250,000 years ago. Both the Tan-Tan and the Berekhat Ram were one-off discoveries, and much controversy exists about whether they are indicative of symbolic behavior. Venus figurines, in contrast, have been found across Eurasia during the “creative explosion”. Hundreds of Venus figurines artifacts made of bone and stone have been found which is representative not just of symbolic behavior, but full-blown art. Language, toolmaking, symbolic artifacts, and artistic expression found during the "creative explosion" provide evidence that innovative and creative cognitive abilities were significant to the evolution of the homo species, and likely played a role in sexual and reproductive success.

Evolutionary Psychology and Aesthetics

Evolutionary psychologists study the universal characteristics of the human psyche by focusing on Darwinian theory, and examining how human cognition is rooted in adaptations that took place during the Pleistocene era. By the beginning of the Holocene about 10,000 years ago, a period marked by the introduction of agriculture and cities, human cognition resembling modern day humans was fully developed..

Evolutionary aesthetics is a subfield of evolutionary psychology, which focuses on how aesthetic preferences of Homo sapiens are adaptations that have evolved in response to the survival and reproductive pressures of our ancestors. According to evolutionary psychologists, innate interests, capacities, and tastes of Homo sapiens have evolved as a result of natural and sexual selection.

The universality of different artforms cross-culturally strongly suggests the psychological and evolutionary significance of the production of art to the human species. Evolutionary psychologists posit that the universal significance of art is related to the emotional and cognitive elements of art, which have an adaptive significance, such as providing Homo sapiens with a medium to express pleasure, attractiveness, disgust, fear, love, etc.

An important cognitive development that evolved in response to selective pressures of the inhospitable environments of our ancestors is the ability to problem-solve and think imaginatively. This skill, which relates to the repertoire of creative and imaginative abilities of art production, afforded our ancestors with the ability to think through potential obstacles and solutions. According to Joseph Carrroll, problem solving and imaginative story telling “contributes to personal and social developments and to the capacity for responding flexibly and creatively to complex and changing circumstances”

Adaptive Function of the Arts

According to several evolutionary anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists, such as Steven Pinker, Brian Boyd, Ellen Dissanayake, Geoffrey Miller, Joseph Carroll and Denis Dutton, there are several adaptive functions related to artistic expression.

Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, in How the Mind Works, delineated the adaptive functions of psychological processes, and explained how such adaptations are associated with the evolution of the brain in response to natural selection. Literature and other artform's adaptive function, Pinker argues, is both instruction and entertainment. Knowledge is transmitted generationally from one social group to the next, and such knowledge teaches individuals about social interaction and proper behavior within social groups. Although the adaptive function of art is knowledge transmission, the arts also play off of the pleasure circuits of the brain; "Knowledge might be adaptive, but the pleasure afforded by art, Pinker thinks, is merely a nonadaptive exploitation of adaptive sources of pleasure" Thus, Pinker maintains that art creates a response of pleasure in the same ways as do drugs, alcohol, and good foods. Although Pinker stresses the role of art as a pleasure technology, without exposure to art and literature Joseph Carroll claims people would be psychologically and emotionally impaired, and have difficulty relating to others in an emotionally appropriate way. Not only does art, music, and literature convey emotions and ideas, the also serve as a form of communication.

The question of how the arts are related to human evolution, and the Darwinian concept of survival and reproduction, is a difficult question to answer. Different theorists have arrived at differing conclusions. All adaptations have physiological, affective, and behavioral components. Some of the aspects of evolved human nature and physiology are explained by natural and sexual selection, and are the direct result of evolution. Others are by-products of adaptations. What can be considered evolved adaptations represent a small sub-class of what one might consitute as human nature.

The adaptive function of music is form of artistic expression that has been studied by researchers interested in the evolutionary significance of artistic expression. Various studies have indicated that the human brain may have evolved specializations for producing and processing music. Most studies seem to agree that music's adaptive function was “social cohesion” and determining mate quality. According to Hagen and Bryant, humans are different from other primate species because of their tendency to form social bonds with other social groups despite having a blood relationship. Hagen and Bryant attribute this tendency and ability to artistic expression, specifically music, song, and dance, and claim that music may have served as a coalition quality signaling system during the evolutionary history of the human species.

Ellen Dissanayake, in her book Art and Intimacy, argues that the capacity and need for mutuality, or love, between mother and infant is associated with other psychosocial human capacities and psychological processes, such as belonging to and being accepted by a social group, finding and making meaning in the world, acquiring skills that involve the handling and making of objects, and ellaborating these meanings and compentences through the arts. Both love and art, according to Dissanayake, are critical to the development of culture in the human species. Dissanayake's perspective differs dramatically from the traditionally excepted viewpoint of Evoluntionary Anthropologists that aspects of human evolution are related to competitive behavioral strategies over high-quality mates and resources rather than psychological and emotional needs. Love and artistic expression, is argued by Dissanayake, to be used competively similarily to altruism and cooperation.

According to Dissanayake, strong social bonds and the intimacy experienced between individuals within a social group are associated with evolved characteristics of human nature and five psychological needs of sociality: mutuality, belonging, meaning, competence, and elaboration. By examining the archeological record and ancestral past of humans, we can see that in both premodern and traditional societies common infant behaviors exist, as well as similarities in interactions between mother and child. These commalites, across variable cultural contexts, suggest underlying capacities for love, and according to Dissanayake, are associated with cultural ellaboration expressed through the arts. As a result of bipedalism, which allowed for the freeing of the hands to carry, gesture, and make tools, and larger brains and behavioral adaptions, such as prolonged and intense affective bonds between mother and infant, humans have developed emotional state-sharing, known as attunement. Attunement is associated with emotional expression and mother-infant engagement and, according to Dissanayake, is related to innate capacities and pychological processes expressed through the arts.