Descripción del proyecto
Investigación del surgimiento de la habilidad de contar del ser humano
Muchos animales —el ser humano incluido— son capaces hasta cierto punto de distinguir cantidades de forma espontánea. No obstante, solo el ser humano ha desarrollado herramientas cognitivas para seguir y expresar cantidades exactas (por ejemplo, utilizando palabras, partes del cuerpo o la escritura). El equipo del proyecto QUANTA, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación en el marco del programa Synergy, tiene por objetivo investigar cuándo, por qué y cómo el ser humano desarrolló dichas herramientas y por qué difieren de una cultura a otra. El proyecto adopta un enfoque interdisciplinario que integra datos de todo el mundo sobre herramientas cognitivas para la cuantificación; utiliza un marco cognitivo para formular hipótesis sobre la aparición y la evolución de dichas herramientas, y prueba dichas hipótesis mediante potentes métodos computacionales filogenéticos, de manera que abre una ventana al pasado remoto.
Objetivo
Exact quantification, including the ability to count, depends on both conceptual breakthroughs and cognitive tools such as numeral systems. These tools appear in striking diversity across cultures and manifest in different modalities (verbal, body-based, written, or material). To address the tantalizing questions of when, why, and how they emerged and evolved, we test two previously untestable key hypotheses: that conceptual breakthroughs and tools co-evolved, with different modalities coactively scaffolding the breakthroughs; and that the tools diversified in response to changing cultural requirements. Reconstructing this evolution is the prime goal of QUANTA. Addressing its ambitious objectives requires an unprecedented synergetic combination of (i) archaeological, ethnographic, and linguistic insights into numeral systems worldwide, including prehistoric artefacts and symbols, and on contemporary contexts in which quantification occurs and changes; (ii) a cognitive framework for deriving evolutionary hypotheses from system properties; (iii) powerful computational (phylogenetic) methods for testing these hypotheses and thereby reconstructing cultural evolution; and (iv) innovative means to substantially extend the temporal scope of these methods into the past, to include the first attested instances of quantification. To achieve this goal, QUANTA brings together four leading PIs with unique and complementary expertise in exactly these means. By integrating an evolutionary approach with a cognitive perspective on quantification, QUANTA will transform this research field. Its novel strategy will, for the first time ever, yield substantiated insights into the emergence and evolution of numeral systems, thus advancing our understanding of human cognition and its dependence on cultural tools. While the highly interdisciplinary, multi-method approach renders this a high-risk project, QUANTA has the potential to bridge the gap between previously incommensurable fields.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
- numbers
- language
- and mind
- evolutionary anthropology
- cultural evolution
- phylogenetics
- numerical cognition & culture
- numeral systems
- diversification of languages
- distributed cognition
- cognitive evolution
- prehistory
- quantification
- counting devices
- experimental archaeology
- history of writing
- notational systems
Programa(s)
Tema(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-SyG - Synergy grantInstitución de acogida
5020 Bergen
Noruega