Signaling Theory and Technologies of Communication in the Paleolithic

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Steven L. Kuhn (1)
  
• 关键词：Costly signals ; Middle Stone Age ; Personal ornaments ; Signaling theory ; Upper Paleolithic
• 刊名：Biological Theory
• 出版年：2014
• 出版时间：March 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：9
• 期：1
• 页码：42-50
• 全文大小：183 KB
• 作者单位：Steven L. Kuhn (1)
  
  1. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
  
• ISSN：1555-5550

文摘

Between 300,000 and 250,000?years ago early humans in Africa and Eurasia began to use durable material substances and objects as media for signaling. Initially material signals were confined to ochre and other pigments, but over time objects such as beads were also added as technologies for sending messages. Changes in the types of materials used, their durability and costs, and the contexts of their disposal indicate a series of transitions in how early humans employed signaling media. Signaling theory from biology suggests that shifts in technologies over the course of the Pleistocene reflect problems in coordinating action and resolving conflicts within increasingly large and internally differentiated societies.