Evolutionary paleoneurology. The mind reels.
This week's cover story in Newsweek, "The Evolution Revolution," is about evolutionary paleoneurology. It is the study of the brains and minds of ancient hominids, dating back to 7 million years ago. Newsweek reporter Sharon Begley gives a credulous tour of the standard Darwinist speculations: we can tell when humans first started wearing clothing by genetic analysis of modern body lice, or perhaps human society was the result of the emergence of the gene for oxytocin, a hormone that causes mothers to secrete milk and that may influence social behavior in humans. Evolutionary paleoneurologists claim to know some of what ancient hominids actually thought by studying fragments of their fossilized skulls. Ms. Begley tells us that "paleoneurology is documenting when structures that power the human mind arose, shedding light on how our ancestors lived and thought." What can we really know about what ancient hominids thought?
I do research on living brains.
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