"Grammars of Action" and Stone Flaking Design Space

Title
"Grammars of Action" and Stone Flaking Design Space
Publication Date
2010
Author(s)
Moore, Mark
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4768-5329
Email: mmoore2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mmoore2
Editor
Editor(s): April Nowell and Iain Davidson
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
University Press of Colorado
Place of publication
Boulder, United States of America
Edition
1
UNE publication id
une:7619
Abstract
Human infants and primates use similar strategies to organize utterances and motor actions. These strategies, called "grammars of action," are initially similar followed by an ontogenetic divergence in children that leads to a separation of complex linguistic and action grammars. Thus, more complex grammars arose after the emergence of the hominin lineage. Stone tools are by-products of action grammars that track the evolutionary history of hominin cognition, and this study develops a model of the essential motor actions of stoneworking interpretable in action grammar terms. The model shows that controlled flaking is achieved through integral sets of geometrical identifications and motor actions collectively referred to as the "flake unit." The internal structure of the flake unit was elaborated early in technological evolution and later trends involved combining flake units in more complex ways. Application of the model to the archaeological record suggests that the most complex action grammars arose after 270 kya, although significant epistemological issues in stone artifact studies prevent a more nuanced interpretation.
Link
Citation
Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition, p. 13-43
ISBN
1607320304
9781607320319
9781607320302
Start page
13
End page
43

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