Jennie Robinson

Mind over Matter: Cognition, Ontogeny and Material Culture in the Middle Palaeolithic of Europe Jennie Robinson

Mind over matter addresses the interaction between cognitive development in humans and their material culture, and applies theories of this to the Neanderthals, proposing that shorter Neanderthal childhoods had an effect on the level of creativity and experiment seen in their material culture. The book summarises key thinking in studies of cognitive science and ontogeny, and also provides an overview of the Mousterian industry and its characteristics in comparison to Upper Palaeolithic industries. Fieldwork to test the theory of a developmental influence on material culture was carried out and the results are found to support the theory.