Foreword

Overview & Synopsis

Abstract The capacity to symbolize (symbolization) and the use of symbols (symbolism) are fundamental to every aspect of human life. The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution investigates how symbolization evolved in human evolution and how symbolism is expressed across the various areas of human life. Written by world-leading experts, thirty-nine topical chapters are grouped into six thematic parts that respectively focus on epistemological, psychological, anthropological, ethological, linguistic, and social-technological aspects of human symbolic evolution. Problems addressed include how human symbolic evolution is studied; how symbolization develops during the human life course; how being in a world constructed through symbols underlies different lifeways; how human symbol use compares to symbol use of other primates; how language evolved from postulated protolanguage; and how socio-technological transformations redefine the very nature of human symbolism and of human evolution. The handbook presents an in-depth, interdisciplinary, and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the science of human symbolic evolution. This work will be of interest to academics and students active in all fields contributing to the study of human evolution.