Current Anthropology Volume 51 Supplement 1 June 2010 Working Memory: Beyond Language and Symbolism Leslie C. Aiello The Wenner-Gren Symposium Series: An Introduction by the President S1 Leslie C. Aiello Working Memory and the Evolution of Modern Thinking: Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 1 S3 Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge Beyond Symbolism and Language: An Introduction to Supplement 1, Working Memory S5 Randall W. Engle Role of Working-Memory Capacity in Cognitive Control S17 C. Philip Beaman Working Memory and Working Attention: What Could Possibly Evolve? S27 Philip J. Barnard From Executive Mechanisms Underlying Perception and Action to the Parallel Processing of Meaning S39 Francisco Aboitiz, Sebastia´n Aboitiz, and Ricardo R. Garcı´a The Phonological Loop: A Key Innovation in Human Evolution S55 Manuel Martı´n-Loeches Uses and Abuses of the Enhanced-Working-Memory Hypothesis in Explaining Modern Thinking S67 Emiliano Bruner Morphological Differences in the Parietal Lobes within the Human Genus: A Neurofunctional Perspective S77 Matt J. Rossano Making Friends, Making Tools, and Making Symbols S89 Eric Reuland Imagination, Planning, and Working Memory: The Emergence of Language S99 Lyn Wadley Compound-Adhesive Manufacture as a Behavioral Proxy for Complex Cognition in the Middle Stone Age S111 http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CA April Nowell Working Memory and the Speed of Life S121 Stanley H. Ambrose Coevolution of Composite-Tool Technology, Constructive Memory, and Language: Implications for the Evolution of Modern Human Behavior S135 Miriam Noe¨l Haidle Working-Memory Capacity and the Evolution of Modern Cognitive Potential: Implications from Animal and Early Human Tool Use S149 Anna Belfer-Cohen and Erella Hovers Modernity, Enhanced Working Memory, and the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Record in the Levant S167 Iain Davidson The Colonization of Australia and Its Adjacent Islands and the Evolution of Modern Cognition S177 Rex Welshon Working Memory, Neuroanatomy, and Archaeology S191 Current Anthropology Volume 51, Supplement 1, June 2010 S1 The Wenner-Gren Symposium Series An Introduction by the President by Leslie C. Aiello This special issue of Current Anthropology marks the first in ars. The foundation continues to employ the unique sym- a new biannual series of supplements that will publish papers posium model developed at Burg Wartenstein. Precirculated resulting from Wenner-Gren-sponsored symposia. These papers are not read at the meetings but form the basis for symposia (originally called Wenner-Gren International Sym- extended discussions around a table traditionally covered with posia and now simply Wenner-Gren Symposia) are intensive green baize. Social events and liberal free time provide op- workshop meetings that bring together international scholars portunities for continued conversation in less formal settings. for discussion and debate of topical issues in the field. At modern symposia, laptop computers and other electronic devices are banned from the conference table, facilitating an unencumbered meeting atmosphere. Wenner-Gren Symposia and Many books in all areas of anthropology resulted from these Current Anthropology meetings; they were published through the foundation’s Vi- king Fund Publications in Anthropology as well as through The first International Symposium, “Anthropology Today,” special arrangement with select houses (such as Aldine Pub- was held in 1952 under the direction of A. L. Kroeber and a lishers) and various university presses. Most recently, Richard steering committee of eight other major figures in the field. Fox (Wenner-Gren president, 2000–2005) established the It convened 90 anthropologists for a 2-week program to sur- Wenner-Gren International Symposium Series, which com- vey and inventory anthropology during the postwar period prises 12 edited volumes, with Berg Publishers (Oxford, of rapid disciplinary expansion. The results of this meeting United Kingdom). were published in two influential volumes, Anthropology To- The distinct Wenner-Gren format, as well as a broad range day (Kroeber 1953) and An Appraisal of Anthropology Today of international and interdisciplinary participants, generates (Tax 1953). The symposium also led directly to the establish- the potential for landmark volumes such as Man’s Role in ment of Current Anthropology as a means for academic com- Changing the Face of the Earth (Thomas 1956), Courses toward munication among international scholars. Urban Life (Braidwood and Willey 1962), The Biology of Hu- Since 1952, the foundation has held more than 170 sym- man Adaptability (Baker and Weiner 1966), Man the Hunter posia on topics spanning the breadth of the field. For 2 de- (Lee and DeVore 1968), Primates: Studies in Adaptation and cades between 1959 and 1980, many Wenner-Gren Symposia Variability (Dolhinow 1968), Law in Culture and Society (Na- were held at the foundation’s European headquarters, Burg der 1969), After the Australopithecines (Butzer and Isaac 1975), Wartenstein Castle (Austria; fig. 1). Burg Wartenstein was a Molecular Anthropology (Goodman and Tashian 1976), Early gift to the foundation from Axel Wenner-Gren, who was in- Hominids of Africa (Jolly 1978), The Great Apes (Hamburg terested in providing a scenic and congenial venue for an- and McCown 1979), and Human Ecology in Savanna Envi- thropological discussions involving the widest possible inter- ronments (Harris 1980). More recent volumes include Cloth national participation. During this period the foundation and Human Experience (Weiner and Schneider 1989), The hosted more than 2,000 scholars at 86 symposia held during Time of AIDS (Herdt and Lindenbaum 1992), Tools, Language the summer months. and Cognition in Human Evolution (Gibson and Ingold 1993), Burg Wartenstein was sold in 1980, and today’s symposia World Anthropologies (Ribeiro and Escobar 2006), and Indig- are held at a variety of sites in the United States and abroad enous Experience Today (Cadena and Starn 2007). that provide a similar ambience. To date there have been 55 During her tenure as president of the foundation postcastle symposia and more than a dozen smaller sponsored (1986–1999), Sydel Silverman documented the Wenner-Gren conferences and workshops hosting an additional 1,300 schol- Symposia and published a detailed ethnographic study, The Beast on the Table: Conferencing with Anthropologists (Silver- Leslie C. Aiello is President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for man 2002), which offers a distinct perspective on this Anthropological Research (470 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor North, program. New York, New York 10016, U.S.A.). The foundation is aware that academic publishing is chang- ᭧ 2010 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved. 0011-3204/2010/510S1-0001$10.00. DOI: 10.1086/651449 S2 Current Anthropology Volume 51, Supplement 1, June 2010 (March) and in the fall (September). They are usually 1 week in length (including travel) and comprise up to 20 scholars. The foundation provides full administrative and financial sup- port for the meetings. Foundation staff also work closely with the organizers at all stages of symposium development to ensure a successful and intellectually stimulating meeting. Pa- pers from the symposium receive appropriate peer review before publication in CA. The foundation welcomes proposals for symposia, and there are two deadlines a year, May 1 and November 1. Full information and application materials can be found at http://www.wennergren.org/programs/. References Cited Baker, Paul T., and Joseph Sidney Weiner, eds. 1966. The biology of human adaptability. Oxford: Clarendon. Braidwood, Robert John, and Gordon Randolph Willey, eds. 1962. Courses toward urban life. Viking Fund Publications in Anthro- pology 32. Chicago: Aldine. Butzer, Karl W., and Glynn Llywelyn Isaac, eds. 1975. After the aus- tralopithecines. World Anthropology Series. The Hague: Mouton. de la Cadena, Marisol, and Orin Starn, eds. 2007. Indigenous expe- rience today. Wenner-Gren International Symposium Series. Ox- ford: Berg. Dolhinow, Phyllis, ed. 1968. Primates: studies in adaptation and var- iability. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Figure 1. Burg Wartenstein Castle near Gloggnitz in the Neun- Gibson, Kathleen R., and Tim Ingold, eds. 1993. Tools, language and kirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria. cognition in human evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Goodman, Morris, and Richard E. Tashian, eds. 1976. Molecular ing. We believe that in the future, Wenner-Gren Symposia anthropology. Advances in Primatology Series. New York: Plenum. outcomes will reach a wider audience and have a greater Hamburg, David A., and Elizabeth R. McCown, eds. 1979. The great impact in journal format. Publication in Current Anthropology apes. Perspectives on Human Evolution, vol. 5. Menlo Park, CA: (CA) has the added advantage of electronic access and con- Benjamin/Cummings. Harris, David R., ed. 1980. Human ecology in savanna environments. tinued availability, as well as distribution through various pro- London: Academic Press. grams such as CENI (the Chicago Emerging Nations Initia- Herdt, Gilbert, and Shirley Lindenbaum, eds. 1992. The time of AIDS. tive), HINARI, AGORA, and OARE, which provide free (or Newbury Park, CA: Sage. low-cost) access in many areas of the developing world. Jolly, Clifford J., ed. 1978. Early hominids of Africa. New York: St. We believe that in the modern age of electronic publishing, Martin’s. the decision to make Wenner-Gren Symposia available