An Alternative Approach to Cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic: The Modular View

Recent literature has attempted to infer aspects of ‘mind’ from early tool production. It is suggested here that adoption of the modular view of cognition could provide an alternative and complementary approach to that which makes use of Piagetian developmental theory. The modular view, which is concerned with multiple intelligences, permits emphasis on the multiplicity of distinct features involved in spatial cognitive competence, and may provide greater descriptive resolution than is possible with Piagetian schemes. Using an integrated framework to analyze a later Lower Palaeolithic collection from Zhoukoudian, it is suggested that the hominid producers possessed a cognitive capacity for which no current analogue exists