Summary

Dr. James Cole from the University of Brighton joins the show to talk about how studying stone tools can reveal insights about the evolution of cognition in humans. Along the way, we touch on brain size, theory of mind, and social groups.

Recommendations

• Dr. Cole’s University of Brighton faculty page
• Dr. Cole’s ResearchGate profile
• Cole, J. Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic. Sci Rep 7, 44707 (2017).
• Galway-Witham, J., Cole, J. and Stringer, C. (2019), Aspects of human physical and behavioural evolution during the last 1 million years. J. Quaternary Sci., 34: 355-378.
• Kohn M, Mithen S. Handaxes: products of sexual selection? Antiquity. 1999;73(281):518-526.
• Harré M. (2012). Social Network Size Linked to Brain Size: How and why the volume of the orbital prefrontal cortex is related to the size of social networks. Sci Am.
• Borgen (TV series)
• For All Mankind (TV series)