The intelligence of Oldowan hominids
Abstract
This article uses Piagetian genetic epistemology to evaluate the intelligence of Oldowan hominids. From the analysis of the geometry of two-million-year-old artifacts from Olduvai Gorge it is concluded that the hominids who made the tools possessed pre-operational intelligence. Pre-operational intelligence employs such organizational features as trial-and-error and control of single variables but lacks such important modern features as true classification and pre-correction of errors. Pre-operational intelligence is also typical of modern pongids. This implies that Oldowan hominids were not remarkably intelligent by hominoid standards and that evolution of intelligence was not significant in human evolution until after about 1·6 million years ago, at which time it became an important factor in the rapid increase in reliance on culture.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Human Evolution
- Pub Date:
- January 1981
- DOI:
- 10.1016/S0047-2484(81)80046-2
- Bibcode:
- 1981JHumE..10..529W
- Keywords:
-
- Oldowan;
- Piaget;
- pre-operational intelligence;
- pongids