In this contribution, we address a major puzzle in the evolution of human material culture: If
maturing individuals just learn their parental generation's material culture, then what is the …

Traditional attempts to understand the evolution of human cognition compare humans with
other primates. This research showed that relative brain size covaries with cognitive skills …

There is more to education than teaching and learning, and more to anthropology than
making studies of other people's lives. Here Tim Ingold argues that both anthropology and …

Cumulative technological culture (CTC) refers to the increase in the efficiency and
complexity of tools and techniques in human populations over generations. A fascinating …

Culture suffuses all aspects of human life. It shapes our minds and bodies and has provided
a cumulative inheritance of knowledge, skills, institutions, and artifacts that allows us to truly …

The biological approach to culture focuses almost exclusively on processes of social
learning, to the neglect of processes of cultural coordination including joint action and …

The capacity of Homo sapiens for the intergenerational accumulation of complex
technologies, practices, and beliefs is central to contemporary accounts of human …

Despite its theoretical importance, the process of stone tool-making skill acquisition remains
understudied and poorly understood. The challenges and costs of skill learning constitute an …

Human expression is open-ended, versatile, and diverse, ranging from ordinary language
use to painting, from exaggerated displays of affection to micro-movements that aid …

This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not
earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus. This controversial claim is based on a …