Neurosignifier-Neurosignified, Symbols, and Anthropological Possibility: A Comment on Henshilwood and Dubreuil

Skoyles shares his thoughts on an article by Henshilwood and Dubreuil, who omitted a pertinent fourth theory, the neurosignifier-neurosignified account of anthropological symbols, which directly links cultural innovations to specific symbol-creating neurological processes. Anatomically modern humans had already existed for tens of thousands of years, and this raises the question of why humans delayed the development of complex symbolic cultures for so long. The neurosignifier-neurosignified theory observes that symbol remapping provides neural circuits with the capacity to support culture and cultural innovation. It is neutral as to whether the expansion of the human brain arose to enable symbolization. The late 3-ka innovation of cognitive symbols, such as an alphabet, suggests that whatever role symbolization had in human evolution, its development since the Middle Stone Age has been contingent on other factors.