Description du projet
Étude de l’émergence des compétences humaines en matière de comptage
De nombreux animaux – y compris les humains – sont capables de discriminer spontanément les quantités dans une certaine mesure. Mais seuls les humains ont développé des outils cognitifs permettant de suivre et d’exprimer la quantité exacte (par exemple, au moyen de mots, de parties du corps ou de l’écriture). Le projet synergique QUANTA, financé par le CER, cherche à savoir quand, pourquoi et comment les humains ont développé ces outils et pourquoi ils diffèrent d’une culture à l’autre. Le projet adopte une approche interdisciplinaire qui intègre des données sur les outils cognitifs de quantification provenant du monde entier; il utilise un cadre cognitif pour formuler des hypothèses sur l’émergence et l’évolution de ces outils; et il teste ces hypothèses avec de puissantes méthodes de calcul phylogénétique, ouvrant ainsi une fenêtre sur le passé lointain.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
- 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
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-SyG - Synergy grantInstitution d’accueil
5020 Bergen
Norvège