The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution

Nathalie Gontier has a background in philosophy of science and comparative anthropology. Her research investigates how evolutionary theories develop in biology, how they are applied to study symbolic (sociocultural and linguistic) evolution, and how they are depicted in diagrams. She is the founding director of the Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab and she currently holds a research position at the Faculty of Science of the University of Lisbon. Her work has been sponsored, amongst others, by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, the European Marie Curie actions, the American Museum of Natural History, and the John Templeton Foundation. Andy Lock was Professor Emeritus at the School of Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand. With a background in zoology and developmental psychology, his early research focused on the development of communication and language in infancy and early childhood. He was a pioneering researcher in language evolution and human symbolic evolution, and was widely recognised for his work in a broad range of fields including indigenous psychologies, social constructionism and therapeutic practice. He was also known for his innovative and early engagement with online learning and teaching, through his establishment in the 1990s of The Virtual Faculty. Chris Sinha gained his BA in developmental psychology at the University of Sussex, and his doctorate (cum laude) at the University of Utrecht. His research is in the relations between language, cognition and culture in human development and evolution. Methodologically, his research seeks to integrate cognitive linguistic with socio-cultural approaches to language and communication in the construction of a biocultural approach to human symbolic evolution. He is experienced in field experimental and observational methods in human communication and human development. He has published in disciplines including anthropology, linguistics, education, evolutionary biology, connection science, as well as developmental and cultural psychology.

1: Nathalie Gontier, Andy Lock, Chris Sinha: Introduction: Current Topics and Debates in Human Symbolic Evolution
PART 1: Studying symbolism: Epistemological considerations
2: Nathalie Gontier: The evolution of the biological sciences
3: Nathalie Gontier: The evolution of the symbolic sciences
4: Ian Tattersall: A timeline for the acquisition of symbolic cognition in the human lineage
5: Ana Majkic: Behavioral modernity, evolutionary synergies, and the symbolic species
6: Michael A. Arbib: On the aboutness of language and the evolution of the construction-ready brain
7: Antonio Benítez-Burraco and Dan Dediu: The evolution of language and speech: What we know from genetics
PART 2: Pathways to symbolization: Psychological considerations
8: Francesco Suman: The evolution of the human life course: The role of culturally driven plasticity
9: Chris Sinha: Artefacts, symbols, and the socio-cultural dynamics of niche construction
10: Peter Gärdenfors and Anders Högberg: Evolution of intentional teaching
11: Nick J. Enfield and Jack Sidnell: Intersubjectivity is activity plus accountability
12: Camilla Power, Ian Watts, and Chris Knight: The symbolic revolution: A sexual conflict model
13: Maria Botero: Primate parents: Theories, bias, and change in the study of the evolution of parenting
PART 3: Symbolic lifeways: Anthropological considerations
14: Elisabeth V. Culley and Iain Davidson: Art, sign, and representation
15: Antonis Iliopoulos and Lambros Malafouris: Symbols and material signs in the debate on human origins
16: April Nowell and Amanda Cooke: Culturing the Paleolithic body: Archaeological signatures of adornment and body modification
17: Rupert Till: The evolution of music: The development of sonic representation and meaning
18: Fabio Silva, Fernando Pimenta, and Luís Tirapicos: Symbolism and archeoastronomy in prehistory
19: Roslyn M. Frank: Exploring the evolutionary pathways from number sense to numeracy
PART 4: Grounding symbolism: Ethological considerations
20: Guenther Witzany: How viruses made us human
21: Ulrike Griebel and D. Kimbrough Oller: Animal signals and symbolism
22: Augusta Gaspar: Emotion expression, empathic reception, and prosocial behavior: Are they linked in evolution?
23: David A. Leavens and Kim A. Bard: Primate cognition in captivity
24: Heidi Lyn: Kanzi or can't he? Animal language projects
25: Lana M. Ruck and Natalie T. Uomini: Artifact, praxis, tool, and symbol
PART 5: From protolanguage to language: Linguistic considerations
26: Francesco Ferretti: The narrative origins of language
27: Slawomir Wacewicz and Przemyslaw Zywiczynski: Pantomimic conceptions of language origins
28: Tania Kuteva and Bernd Heine: On the structure of early language: Analytic vs holistic language processing and grammaticalization
29: Susan Goldin-Meadow: Gesture is an intrinsic part of modern-day human communication and may always have been so
30: Ulf Liszkowski and Johanna Rüther: Ontogenetic origins of infant pointing
31: Gerd Carling, Chundra Cathcart, and Erich Round: Reconstructing the origins of language families and variation
PART 6: Expanding symbolism: Socio-technological considerations
32: Todd Oakley: The origins of money and its role in modernity
33: Prem Poddar: Force fields of the modern: the symbolic contestation of power
34: Alex de Voogt: The evolution of writing systems: An introduction
35: Rukmini Bhaya Nair: Archewriting: The Symbolic Evolution of Script and Narrative
36: Sverker Johansson and Ylva Lindberg: Cybercultures
37: Francis Heylighen: Transcending the rational symbol system: How information and communication technology integrates science, art, philosophy, and spirituality into a global brain
38: Natasha Vita-More: 1. Technoscience, transhumanism, and telos
39: Chris Sinha: Metaphor, myth, and symbol in the grain of time