CGSC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Louise Leakey, Bipedalism, Mitochondrial Eve

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Cognitive Science
• Course: CGSC 1001
• Professor: Jim Davies

Document Summary

Cgsc (cid:1005)(cid:1004)(cid:1004)(cid:1005) lecture (cid:1006)(cid:1004): social cognition and the evolution of intelligence: evolution of cognition, what (cid:449)e k(cid:374)o(cid:449) of our a(cid:374)(cid:272)estors" (cid:271)odies (cid:272)o(cid:373)e fro(cid:373) fossils, (cid:271)ut there are t(cid:449)o pro(cid:271)le(cid:373)s with this, 1. Behaviour is not fossilized: thus, we rely on scant artifacts, but even those appear relatively recently, have to infer behaviour of ancient ancestors from what is around. If language is an instinct, like chomsky says it is, then it probably had to have been evolving for longer than humans have been around (cid:862)no o(cid:374)e thi(cid:374)ks (cid:1007)(cid:1004)(cid:1004)(cid:1004) ge(cid:374)eratio(cid:374)s (cid:449)ould ha(cid:448)e (cid:271)ee(cid:374) e(cid:374)ough ti(cid:373)e to e(cid:448)ol(cid:448)e language. Evolution especially takes a long time for complex things(cid:863: australopithecines (ancestor) had hands evolved for manipulation (big advantage we have over other animals). 75k years ago: this is like finding a car i(cid:374) da vi(cid:374)(cid:272)i"s atti(cid:272, most living things leave no record at all. In general, carnivores are more intelligent than herbivores.