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Experimental archaeology and hominid evolution: establishing a methodology for determining handedness in lithic materials as a proxy for cognitive evolution
| Title: | Experimental archaeology and hominid evolution: establishing a methodology for determining handedness in lithic materials as a proxy for cognitive evolution. |
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| Name(s): |
Ruck, Lana, author Broadfield, Douglas C., Thesis advisor Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters Department of Anthropology |
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| Type of Resource: | text | |
| Genre: | Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation | |
| Date Created: | 2014 | |
| Date Issued: | 2014 | |
| Publisher: | Florida Atlantic University | |
| Place of Publication: | Boca Raton, Fla. | |
| Physical Form: | application/pdf | |
| Extent: | 146 p. | |
| Language(s): | English | |
| Summary: | Human handedness is likely related to brain lateralization and major cognitive innovations in human evolution. Identifying handedness in the archaeological record is, therefore, an important step in understanding our cognitive evolution. This thesis reports on experiments in identifying knapper handedness in lithic debitage. I conducted a blind study on flakes (n=631) from Acheulean handaxes replicated by right- and left-handed flintknappers. Several flake characteristics significantly indicated handedness, with a binary logistic regression correctly predicting handedness for 71.7% of the flakes. However, other characteristics were not associated with handedness. This is a result of personal knapping styles, as additional analyses show that individual knappers associate with some attributes better than handedness does. Continued work on these methodologies will enable analysis of Paleolithic assemblages in the future, with the ultimate goal of tracking population-level hominid handedness rates through time and using them as a proxy for cognitive evolution and language acquisition. | |
| Identifier: | FA00004325 (IID) | |
| Degree granted: | Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. | |
| Collection: | FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection | |
| Note(s): | Includes bibliography. | |
| Subject(s): |
Archaeology Brain -- Evolution Cerebral dominance Cognition and culture Flintknapping Fossil hominids Human evolution Laterality |
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| Held by: | Florida Atlantic University Libraries | |
| Sublocation: | Digital Library | |
| Links: | http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004325 | |
| Persistent Link to This Record: | http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004325 | |
| Use and Reproduction: | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder. | |
| Use and Reproduction: | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | |
| Host Institution: | FAU | |
| Is Part of Series: | Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections. |
