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Anthropogeny Tracks anthropogeny t acksa CARTA newsletter Volume 1, Issue 1 - February 2013 Join Us at the Next CARTA Symposium CARTA’s symposia series continues on February 15 with Is the Human Mind Unique? Scientists from many dif- ferent fields will discuss cognitive abilities often regarded as unique to humans including humor, morality, symbol- ism, creativity, and preoccupation with the minds of oth- ers. Emphasis will be placed on the functional uniqueness of these attributes, as opposed to anatomical uniqueness, and whether these attributes are indeed quantitatively or qualitatively unique to humans. WHEN Friday, February 15, 1:00-5:30 pm Pacific Time WHERE De Hoffmann Auditorium, Salk Institute ADMISSION Free, however, registration is required. REGISTRATION http://carta.anthropogeny.org INFORMATION [email protected] WEBCAST See live webcast details on the event page. LIST OF SPEAKERS AND TALKS Terry Deacon (UC Berkeley) Symbolic Communication: Why is Human Thought so Flexible? Daniel Povinelli (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) Desperately Seeking Explanation Steven Mithen (University of Reading) An Evolved and Creative Mind Daniel Dennett (Tufts University) Humor Colin Renfrew (McDonald Inst. for Archaeological Research) Archaeological Evidence for Mind Nicholas Humphrey (Darwin College, Cambridge) Entering the “Soul Niche” Merlin Donald (Queen’s University) Skilled Performance and Artistry Patricia Churchland (UC San Diego) Moral Sense V.S. Ramachandran (UC San Diego) Inter-Modular Interactions, Metaphor, and the “Great Leap” Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny “to explore and explain the origins of the human phenomenon” CARTA • University of California, San Diego • 9500 Gilman Drive, MC# 0060 • La Jolla, CA 92093 1 CARTA’s Autism Symposium Follow CARTA on Facebook! Now Online We invite you to visit our Facebook page, featuring news about future CARTA symposia, updates on CARTA’s If you missed the October 2012 CARTA symposium, Human activities, and links to interesting articles and talks featuring Origins: Lessons from Autism Spectrum Disorders, or speakers of upcoming CARTA symposia. Join us in our saw it live and would like to see it again, you can now view quest to explore and explain the origins of the human all the talks online at these websites: phenomenon and become a friend of CARTA. We cannot thank UCSD-TV enough for their continuing support of CARTA’s symposium program. All CARTA sym- posia are video recorded by UCSD-TV, then later broad- cast on the UCSD-TV channel, before being archived at the websites listed above. Along with our mission to explore and explain the origins www.facebook.com/ucsdcarta of the human phenomenon, we strive to facilitate the shar- ing of knowledge and recent discoveries in human origins together with the implications of this knowledge for many Future CARTA Symposia practical issues affecting us all. Behaviorally Modern Humans: The Origin of Us Current evidence indicates that multiple upright-walking, tool-dependent species in the genus Homo co-existed in the Old World (Africa, Asia and Europe) for most of the last 2 million years. Yet only one surviving species of Homo exists today. When, where, and how did we “Behaviorally Modern Humans” emerge and why and how did we eventu- ally replace all other human-like species? This symposium will take a fresh look at those questions and examine the available evidence from multiple sources, including climate proxies, geology, fossils, archaeology, linguistics, immunol- ogy, genetics and genomics, as well as evolutionary neuro- science/cognitive archaeology. WHEN May 10, 2013 WHERE UC San Diego, TBD REGISTRATION http://carta.anthropogeny.org Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen presents at the October 2012 CARTA sympo- sium, Human Origins: Lessons from Autism Spectrum Disorders. Mind Reading: Human Origins and Theory of Mind The phrase “Theory of Mind” (ToM) has historically referred to the ability to impute mental states to oneself and others, CARTA’s Nutrition but has been used in a variety of ways during the 35 years Symposium to Air in February since the original 1978 Premack and Woodruff paper. The Premiering on February 6, 13, 20, and 27 at 9 pm Pacific analysis of ToM has been the subject of many papers in Time, UCSD-TV will broadcast the series of talks delivered developmental psychology and in anthropogeny, the latter at the CARTA symposium The Evolution of Human Nutri- focusing on differences in mental performance between hu- tion (December 2012). UCSD-TV airs on the following San mans versus other mammals and birds. This symposium will Diego channels: discuss what ToM is, the ontogeny of human ToM, relevant information on other mammals and birds, and the neuronal Cox (Digital) Channel 135 correlates and mechanisms of human ToM performance. Time Warner (Digital) Channel 135 WHEN October 18, 2013 Time Warner Del Mar (Analog) Channel 19 WHERE Salk Institute, De Hoffmann Auditorium AT&T U-verse Channel 99 REGISTRATION http://carta.anthropogeny.org UHF (no cable) Channel 35 Not in the local San Diego broadcast market? The same talks will also become available online at the UCSD-TV site. Out of Africa: Reflections on the 2012 Anthropogeny Field Course in Tanzania For the past two summers, graduate Visits to key sites in Tanzania and Ethi- Not only is it a huge learning experi- student recipients of the CARTA fellow- opia are combined with lectures and ence from an anthropogenic perspec- ship participated in an anthropogeny impromptu “teachable moments” over tive, but it is also a life-changing expe- field course in Africa. The primary goal a 3-week period in August. rience for the students from a cultural of this program is to introduce three and humanistic perspective. CARTA is major approaches to studying the ori- currently able to fund a few students on gin and adaptations of our species: this unique field course. We are eager 1) fossil evidence, 2) behavioral ecol- to find a sponsor to help us increase ogy of non-human primates, and the student participation. 3) ethnography and behavioral ecol- The comments from students who have ogy of human foragers living in en- participated in this field course say it vironments similar to those in which all. The following are just a few remi- we evolved. Underlying all three ap- niscences from those who have taken proaches is an appreciation for the im- part. portance of the ecological and cultural The three 2012 CARTA fellows. context of human adaptation. Melanie Beasley Kari Hanson Rachel Zarndt Anthropology Anthropology Biomedical Sciences I was amazed how each part of the trip Our journey through Ethiopia and Before leaving, I was thoroughly pre- contributed to ideas and hypotheses Tanzania allowed us to contextualize pared: well-packed, vaccinated, well- on how the environment influenced the our own research with respect to a studied, and ridiculously eager to see trajectory of human evolution. Observ- few broad themes. We were encour- Africa. Throughout the entire safari, I ing the flexibility of primates, especially aged to consider the environment as a kept an optimistic adventurer-mindset hominids, to exploit different ecological prime mover in the evolution of com- and leapt at every opportunity. The niches highlighted the behavioral flexi- plex social systems, through expo- knowledge imparted by accompany- bility of our hominin ancestors, as exhib- sure to diverse landscapes somewhat ing professors and African hosts were ited by the coexistence of Paranthropus similar to those that shaped the physi- life-changing. However, at the baggage and Homo and the coping mechanisms ological and cognitive adaptations of claim back in San Diego, I realized I'd they used to extract resources from a our ancestors. I was most influenced brought something even more intan- single, shared habitat. Witnessing ne- by the observation that primates are gible, but fantastically profound, back gotiations between the Hadza (forag- the quintessential generalists, and from Africa. It's taken months to figure ers) and their nearest neighbors (pasto- the trend for flexibility in habitat, diet, out what it is, and I still can't complete- ralists) demonstrated how, even today, and behavior is particularly salient in ly place the feeling...a more universal members of the same species can humans. Finally, understanding that human empathy, deeper compassion, have different survival strategies aided cooperation, the division of labor, and vehement disgust at the injustices and by cultural adaptations. Culture was interdependence are defining human needless poverty in the world. I feel our ancestors’ answer to coping with a characteristics from the perspective of passionate about letting people know variety of environments and facilitated a foraging economy helped to illustrate our world is both larger and smaller movement out of Africa. The knowl- the overwhelmingly social nature of than we realize. Despite the enormous edge I gained about habitat variability, human societies, reinforcing the con- variability between people on this plan- hunting and gathering practices, and cept that sociality has been a driving et, we are more similar than we are dif- behavioral flexibility of anthropoids will force in the evolution of the primate ferent. We are all human. certainly aid me in my future research. brain, particularly in humans. to explore and explain the origins of the human phenom- enon” Melanie poses with a skull she found. Kari shows off an arrow she fletched. Rachel with Mbugoshi (a Hadza man). t acksanthropogeny
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