الصفحة 1
الصفحة 1
Neanderthals Revisited : New Approaches and Perspectives
This volume presents cutting-edge research by leading scientists re-examining the major debates in Neanderthal research with the use of innovative state-of-the art methods and exciting new theoretical approaches.Topics addressed include the re-evaluation of Neanderthal anatomy, inferred adaptations and habitual activities, developmental patterns, phylogenetic relationships, and the Neanderthal extinction; new methods include computer tomography, 3D geometric morphometrics, ancient DNA and bioenergetics. The diverse contributions offer fresh insights and advances in Neanderthal and modern human origins research.
Modern Morphometrics in Physical Anthropology
Morphometrics has undergone a revolutionary transformation in the past two decades as new methods have been developed to address shortcomings in the traditional multivirate analysis of linear distances, angles, and indices. While there is much active research in the field, the new approaches to shape analysis are already making significant and ever-increasing contributions to biological research, including physical anthropology. Modern Morphometrics in Physical Anthropology highlights the basic machinery of the most important methods, while introducing novel extensions to these methods and illustrating how they provide enhanced results compared to more traditional approaches. Modern Morphometrics in Physical Anthropology provides a comprehensive sampling of the applications of modern, sophisticated methods of shape analysis in anthropology, and serves as a starting point for the exploration of these practices by students and researchers who might otherwise lack the local expertise or training to get started. This text is an important resource for the general morphometric community that includes ecologists, evolutionary biologists, systematists, and medical researchers.
Cognitive Development in Chimpanzees
From an evolutionary perspective, understanding chimpanzees offers a way of understanding the basis of human nature. This book on cognitive development in chimpanzees is the first of its kind to focus on infants reared by their own mothers within a natural setting, illustrating various aspects of chimpanzee cognition and the developmental changes that accompany them. The subjects of this book are chimpanzees of three generations inhabiting an enriched environment as well as a wild community in West Africa; and phenomena such as face recognition, concept formation, object manipulation, tool manufacture and use, decision making, learning, communication, self-awareness, intentionality, understanding others’ minds, cooperation, deception, altruism, and reciprocity observed within these groups are reported herein. Unique approaches both in the field and in the laboratory go hand in hand to illustrate the cognitive world of our closest living evolutionary relatives.
Language in our brain : The origins of a uniquely human capacity
Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution.
