Steven Mithen
Author of After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC
About the Author
Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory and Head of the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading.
Works by Steven Mithen
The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved (2024) 12 copies
Thoughtful Foragers: A Study of Prehistoric Decision Making (New Studies in Archaeology) (1990) 10 copies
To the Islands: An Archaeologist's Relentless Quest to Find the Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the Hebrides (2010) 9 copies
Water, Life and Civilisation: Climate, Environment and Society in the Jordan Valley (International Hydrology Series) (2011) 9 copies
Aklın Tarihöncesi 1 copy
Associated Works
Cognition and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Symbolic Storage (Monograph Series) (1999) — Contributor — 15 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1960-10-16
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Country (for map)
- England, UK
- Education
- University of Cambridge (PhD)
York University (MSc)
University of Sheffield (BA) - Occupations
- professor (Archaeology)
- Organizations
- University of Reading
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 15
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 1,668
- Popularity
- #15,395
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 27
- ISBNs
- 44
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 1
By the time The Prehistory of the Mind was written (1996) evolutionary psychology was already on its way to becoming a subject in its own right—psychologists drawing on archaeological evidence. Steven Mithen was an archaeologist doing all this the other way around: “Rather than having archaeology play the supporting role, I want it to set the agenda … Indeed, many archaeologists now feel confident that the time is ripe to move beyond asking questions about how these ancestors looked and behaved, to asking what was going on within their minds.”
The book spans the period from the time of our last common ancestor with other apes (about six million years ago or so); then the australopithecines (between six million and two); then the various Homo species: habilis, erectus, neanderthalensis, sapiens. And, broadly speaking, it divides this period into the three main phases Mithen claims the human mind has passed through: first, a generalised intelligence; then something more modular with specialised capabilities (one of those Swiss Army knives is a good way of picturing this); and finally, these modules partly coalescing into something more flexible, more cognitively fluid. On the one hand, some of the reasoning here (but it is only some of it) does have a decided house-of-cards feel to me—minds aren’t themselves fossilised, obviously, so you’re inferring. But on the other hand, what did impress me was just how much you can infer: from the fossilised skeletal remains themselves and footprints in fossilised mud; from ceremonial burials, the detritus of worksites and campfires; from artefacts of all kinds (weapons, implements, ornaments and tools for making other tools); from cave paintings, carvings and dwellings—from all these physical remains you can infer behaviour, and from behaviour to a surprising amount about the minds behind it.
Mithen’s book was an early attempt at this sort of reconstruction, so inevitably has by now become a bit out of date. A really interesting read though all the same.… (more)