Steven Mithen

Steven Mithen (born October 16, 1960 ) is a British archaeologist . He is Professor of Prehistory and Protohistory at the University of Reading , where he also heads the School of Human and Environmental Sciences . In addition to his involvement in excavations in the Middle East and Scotland, he was best known as the author of several popular science books. His main focus was on the field of cognitive archeology .

The prehistory of the mind

In his book The prehistory of the mind , published in 1996, Mithen traces the cognitive development of the last six million years since humans and apes parted ways. Mithen tries to reconcile the archaeological finds with more recent findings in brain research and developmental psychology about the structure of the human mind. According to his theory, the thinking of modern man differs ( Homo sapiens ) from that of his ancestors and relatives by a property, which he calls cognitive fluidity ( cognitive fluidity ).

In doing so, he refers to the modularity of the brain: According to the findings of developmental psychology, there are different modules in the brain that are specifically responsible for processing different stimuli, for example for language, for physical-technical processes, for living beings or for social relationships. Early ancestors such as Homo erectus or extinct relatives (such as the Neanderthals ) also thought modularly according to Mithen's theory. The new thing about modern humans is that they create connections between these modules. This can be seen, among other things, in phenomena such as the production of jewelry: Technical skills are used within social contexts. Modern humans also used animal materials (i.e. elements from the field of biology) for technical purposes for the first time.

The singing Neanderthals

In this book Mithen formulates his theory, according to which language and music are two forms of communication that emerged from a common predecessor system that was already widespread among Homo habilis . For the sake of clarity, he calls the presumed proto-language “Hmmmmm” - at the same time an abbreviation for what from his point of view central features of the early communication system: holistic, manipulative, multi-modal, musical and mimetic . In his book, he follows the holistic language theory of the linguist Alison Wray, according to which the proto-language is composed of various utterances of sounds, each with a complex meaning, and not of words or word-like units, as assumed by compositional language theory.

Fonts

• Thoughtful foragers: A study of prehistoric decision making . Cambridge 1990, ISBN 0-521-35570-2
• The prehistory of the mind: A search for the origins of art, religion, and science . London 1996, ISBN 0-500-05081-3
• Creativity in human evolution and prehistory . London 1998, ISBN 0-415-16096-0
• Problem-solving and the evolution of human culture . London 1999, ISBN 0-904-67425-8
• After the Ice: a global human history, 20,000-5000 BC. Cambridge, Mass. 2003
• The Singing Neanderthals: the Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body . London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson. 2005

Web links

• Personal page of Steven Mithen
• SWR2 broadcast with Steven Mithen How mankind learned to think - cognitive archeology
• SWR2 broadcast The Sister of Language - How Man Discovered Music , in which Mithen's theory about the origin of music and language is presented.