Experts refer to such decorations — along with sculpture, cave paintings and other art forms —
as symbolic behaviors, which are a defining characteristic of the modern mind.
Says Hovers: Early humans engaged
in symbolic behavior «when it was advantageous» and when «populations were stable enough over time to keep these canons and traditions alive.»
That communication, or signaling, is what archaeologists and anthropologists
call symbolic behavior, and it's why ochre use is often cited as a proxy for the cognitive ability of the people who used it.
Berger says the search for stone tools and other evidence to test whether H. naledi was capable of
modern symbolic behavior is his top priority.
Personal ornaments, often in the form of beads worn as necklaces or bracelets, are considered by archaeologists as a key sign of
sophisticated symbolic behavior, communicating either membership in a group or individual identity.
They found that brow ridges shrank and faces shortened during the past 80,000 years, as our ancestors began to
exhibit symbolic behavior and spread around the world.
That cognitive reworking could have enabled a blossoming of artwork and other forms of
symbolic behavior among Stone Age humans, the team suspects.
«Thus, [Neanderthals] possessed a much
richer symbolic behavior than previously assumed,» write the authors in the study, published in the Feb. 23, 2018 issue of the journal Science.
(See culture, culture learning) Equivalence of meaning — Refers to qualitatively
different symbolic behaviors that share essentially the same underlying meaning.
From the news coverage of a new study concluding that Neandertals, like modern humans, engaged
in symbolic behavior, you might think the study settles a long - standing debate between researchers who think Neandertals were stupid and those who think they were smart.
But even the gritty recent political history of Wiltshire Church can be shown to participate in universal forms
of symbolic behavior.
In another first, they chiseled red and black rocks, probably to use as crayons to color their bodies or spears — an early sign of
symbolic behavior.
Symbolic behavior, such as art and body ornamentation, is thought to be closely linked to the sharing of complex ideas and spoken language.
A new study shows they might have been into art and
symbolic behavior as well.
Language and other traces of
symbolic behavior?