The Role of Episodic Memory and Autonoetic Thought in Upper Paleolithic Life

Abstract

Kuhn and Stiner (2006) have argued that the division of economic labor by age and gender is a salient feature of the recent human condition, that it emerged relatively late in human evolutionary history, and that it is not typi-cal of Neandertals. Their provocative analysis of the archaeological signature of modern humans invites several alternative interpretations. In the present paper, we postulate that age and gender divisions of economic labor may have been a consequence of mental simulations enabled by an enhancement of working memory capacity that enabled true episodic memories and autonoetic thinking.