Cargando…
Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching
Donald proposes that early Homo evolved mimesis as a new form of cognition. This article investigates the mimesis hypothesis in relation to the evolution of teaching. The fundamental capacities that distinguish hominin teaching from that of other animals are demonstration and pantomime. A conceptual...
Autor principal: | |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5361109/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28382011 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00415 |
_version_ | 1782516703337381888 |
---|---|
author | Gärdenfors, Peter |
author_facet | Gärdenfors, Peter |
author_sort | Gärdenfors, Peter |
collection | PubMed |
description | Donald proposes that early Homo evolved mimesis as a new form of cognition. This article investigates the mimesis hypothesis in relation to the evolution of teaching. The fundamental capacities that distinguish hominin teaching from that of other animals are demonstration and pantomime. A conceptual analysis of the instructional and communicative functions of demonstration and pantomime is presented. Archaeological evidence that demonstration was used for transmitting the Oldowan technology is summarized. It is argued that pantomime develops out of demonstration so that the primary objective of pantomime is that the onlooker learns the motoric patterns shown in the pantomime. The communicative use of pantomime is judged to be secondary. This use of pantomime is also contrasted with other forms of gestures. A key feature of the analysis is that the meaning of a pantomime is characterized by the force patterns of the movements. These force patterns form the core of a model of the cognitive mechanism behind pantomime. Finally, the role of pantomime in the evolution of language is also discussed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5361109 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-53611092017-04-05 Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching Gärdenfors, Peter Front Psychol Psychology Donald proposes that early Homo evolved mimesis as a new form of cognition. This article investigates the mimesis hypothesis in relation to the evolution of teaching. The fundamental capacities that distinguish hominin teaching from that of other animals are demonstration and pantomime. A conceptual analysis of the instructional and communicative functions of demonstration and pantomime is presented. Archaeological evidence that demonstration was used for transmitting the Oldowan technology is summarized. It is argued that pantomime develops out of demonstration so that the primary objective of pantomime is that the onlooker learns the motoric patterns shown in the pantomime. The communicative use of pantomime is judged to be secondary. This use of pantomime is also contrasted with other forms of gestures. A key feature of the analysis is that the meaning of a pantomime is characterized by the force patterns of the movements. These force patterns form the core of a model of the cognitive mechanism behind pantomime. Finally, the role of pantomime in the evolution of language is also discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-03-22 /pmc/articles/PMC5361109/ /pubmed/28382011 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00415 Text en Copyright © 2017 Gärdenfors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Gärdenfors, Peter Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching |
title | Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching |
title_full | Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching |
title_fullStr | Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching |
title_full_unstemmed | Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching |
title_short | Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching |
title_sort | demonstration and pantomime in the evolution of teaching |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5361109/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28382011 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00415 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT gardenforspeter demonstrationandpantomimeintheevolutionofteaching |