elligence, and seems to be one of two critical factors separating humans from other intelligent animals - the other being the ability to use tools. Steven Mithen IMit9(1 argues that the key factor in the emergence of the modern human mind from its predecessors was the coming-together of formerly largely disti

ample use of communicative sounds of various sorts. These sounds may be iconic, indexical or symbolic; and they may have a great deal of sub- tlety. Steven Mithen IMit961 has argued that non-verbal utterances constitute a kind of proto- language. and that both music and language evolved out of this. Their role

ipulate at will to imagine alternative hypothetical environments for planning and learning. Historians of Homo sapiens such as Yuval Noah Harari and Steven Mithen are in general agreement that the decisive ingredient that gave our ancestors the ability to achieve global dominion about forty thousand years ago w

ipulate at will to imagine alternative hypothetical environments for planning and learning. Historians of Homo sapiens such as Yuval Noah Harari and Steven Mithen are in general agreement that the decisive ingredient that gave our ancestors the ability to achieve global dominion about forty thousand years ago w