Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution - Hardcover

Lock, Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198521537 ISBN 13: 9780198521532

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1997

Synopsis

This work examines fundamental questions concerning the origins and nature of human symbolic abilities. The book is about the evolution of humanity - language, art, tools, and communication, covering a wide range of disciplines - anthropology, psychology, primatology, paleontology, and archaeology. The various topics are dealt with by experts from each field, in articles that provide summaries that are scholarly but will also be comprehensive to the many people (both lay and professional) who are interested in human evolution. This work should be of interest to postgraduates and 3rd year undergraduates.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Explanations and accounts of our own origins have become one of the most popular of all the areas in science that are now regularly brought into the public arena via television, lavishly illustrated books, and even cartoons. The discovery of fossils and artefacts has its own intrinsic interest, but it is the origin of our characteristically human abilities – speech, the creation of images, reading, writing–that holds the imagination.

This volume is a reference work that sets out and evaluates the basic knowledge and theory relevant to these origins of these abilities that have accumulated in the scientific literature over the last few decades. It is a compendium of and a guide to the general topics that assist in understanding human symbolic evolution.

Contributions to the volume include those from linguistics, anthropology and psychology. Primatologists and biologists have also contributed giving the reader a uniquely broad and accessible reference work.

About the Author

Andrew Lock is Professor of Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand.
Charles Peters is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198521537
• ISBN 13: 9780198521532
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 935